BLEACHING OF CANVAS

A freshly woven ash-gray canvas has a subtle silver hue, and this shade will stay until the day when it is finally whitewashed and put away into the girl box.
 In March - April, the days are getting brighter and longer. An eager weaver, as already mentioned, weaves a day's work a "wall" of canvas with a length of six or seven meters. Two "walls" make the "end," out of the "end" come out seven to ten towels.
   There are incessant sounds of the reed and the creaking of pedals in the entire Lent. A very thin yarn is woven initially; this canvas will be used to make underwear, shirts and towels. Then, thread from the rough flax goes for woven coarse fabric (for mittens, socks, bags, rugs).
    In the spring, canvases are bleached with ash and then on the snow. Then, the canvas is beaten with ash and bleached in the summer on the lovely meadow, somewhere near a lake or river.  
   In early June, teenagers usually drove carts with manure. While adults were loading the cart, the girls ran to the stream. They folded the 15 meters of canvas into the accordion, dipped it in water, and then evenly spread out on the green grass. Some, not being able to restrain themselves, and seeing that no one will notice, has embarked on a run this delicate, smooth linen carpet ... Linens were drying quickly, girls must now and then dip it into the river, and now the cart with manure is ready.     The contrast between the purity of the canvas spread on the green grass and the heavy stench of brownish-yellow dung layers, the difference between the river cool and hot, droning of flies field transformed the bleaching of canvases from the duty to something pleasant and eagerly awaited. Transfer of manure, too, became more enjoyable. That is why adults always allow adolescents and children to bleach the canvases. Ash for bleaching must be cleanly sieved, preferably from an alder tree. Smart that is entrepreneurial, old people in spring purposely walked into the woods to burn alder ash for bleaching linens. A bleached canvas is barely visible if spread out on the snow.