Hi Rainie,
Good for you on expanding your horizons to work with linen. I started using linen more in my projects over the last year.
In regards to the ‘unevenness’ ( I’m assuming you mean the ‘varying thickness and narrowness of the linen’s threads) and the ‘slubs” of the fabric. This gives linens some extra character and some stitchers like to use this linen, especially to give the project an ‘antiqued’ look.
The picture is one of my projects on 100% 32-count ‘Winter’s Brew’ linen and if you look closely The fabric does
Have ‘slubbing’ and variable thickness/ thinness of the linen’s fiber. Don’t let these intimidate you- just treat it as though your stitching on evenweave. If there is a ‘slub’ in the middle of a cross stitch ‘X’, just stitch your floss over it. One suggestion is to pay close attention to when you put your fabric on your hoop, Q-Snap, wooden dowel frame
And make sure the fabric threads of the linen are straight ie. Fabric rows are evenly straight vertically and horizontally . You might have to ‘play’ with the fabric to do this but I think it’s important so it doesn’t make you seem like your stitching uphill or downhill. I purposely made the upper half part of my linen fabric picture to show you compared to the lower half of the picture. Also, since linen can have a more open weave to it, do NOT travel your thread between open areas of the chart or the threads will show-through on the front; it’s like wearing a white swimsuit, looks great on you ‘dry’ but after a swim (without the swimsuit having a liner inside it) you start getting see-thru. 😊
Hope this helps.

I’ve used linen for several projects. I like the look, but it can be challenging because of the variations in the fabric. I’ve found that when hitting a slub, pulling the floss a little tighter works to get it a bit more even looking. Here’s a picture of two I just finished.

Hi, Rainie! I use linen a lot, also, and I agree with everything said by Bermuda and Jaj. Treat the slugs as if they weren't there. Don't try to remove them, just stitch over them. It may result in a larger stitch than the others, but that's part of stitching on linen. You can try pulling them tighter than usual, but be careful not to pull too tightly and distort the fabric. I think you will find stitching on linen gives a whole new appearance to your stitching. It's much more attractive than the larger count fabrics. Good luck!

Thanks you ladies for all of your helpful suggestions! Most appreciated!! I am most concerned about the slubs, but I am willing to give linen a try. I also am careful to never travel my threads in any open areas on any fabric. Always afraid it will show through so this won’t be a problem, but thanks for the reminder. So many beautiful fabrics available to choose from and I would like to expand that to linen.

I use linen sometimes. Right now I am working a fractal on 28 count Irish linen, 1 over 1. The confetti is about to kill me. I want to put it away, but my grandson wants a pillow out of it, so I keep plugging along Someday it will be done.

Djhmom55,
“Death by ‘confetti’ “ has got to be a miserable way to go...what we will do for our loved ones....