Found a flax gem on a forum:
“Classic European way to spin line is on a low-whorl or all-in-one spindle with either a body-braced or a free-standing distaff and grasped or very short suspended. Using the traditional tools makes a big difference here. The ancient Egyptian way to spin flax was to select fibers from retted stems, overlap/splice and wind into a roving ball, and then add twist with a top-whorl spindle. It helps to have a fiber-wetting bowl — the ball sits in a little puddle of water in a ceramic bowl that has a loop in the base. The roving goes under the loop so as to get nicely wet. Note that there is no drafting with this method, just splicing and twisting. I’ve approximated it by selecting fibers from a strick, and you can get a really, really fine thread. But I’ve yet to do it from retted stems. “
now this is from some rando on the internet but interesting and worth a try!