LAYING OF THE ROPES

The men in the North sometimes spun yarn, but it was pretty different. If women's yarn had a thickness of the hair, men's thread was like a child's little finger. It was made for the laying of ropes.
  Sitting at the large spinning wheel, on which a big beard of the tow was attached, an older man with a cracking sound dragged out of a thick strand from the tow. Then, with a special whorl, he braided flax, having something to tell or listening to another person. Finally, the yarn was stowed in large balls with holes in the middle of the whorl. And now comes - always for some reason, suddenly - the day of laying ropes.
  The job was so unusual that it amused children and adults. Feelings and how children play, people quite often bring into their adulthood.
   Somewhere in the middle of the street was put on a wooden sled. To the head of the sled at the waist height was tied a bar with three holes, in which the three wooden handles roll. Next, a wooden board with holes was put on the handles, through which you can turn all three handles at once. While holding the yarn ball in the basket, the weaver stretched the yarn thread far along the street, then pulled it back, and so it went a few times. Finally, the saw-horse was set up for the yarn not to fall to the ground, and it hung like telegraph wires.
 An experienced weaver went to the other end of the street, taking a wooden dice with three notches. People started to rotate the handles clockwise. All three tows twist; at the same time, they are shortened. Finally comes the point when they rolled up to the limit, which inevitably had to curl between them. At that moment, people started laying off the ropes.
 At one end of the team, people started twisting the yarn, and at the other, another group gently led the dice with three plaits, always counterclockwise, making it into a sturdy rope. The sled was slightly dragging on the grass.
  The transformation of the yarn into a solid long rope, the reduction of yarn length and the connection of the three parts into one, stable and indivisible - all this was happening before everyone's eyes, and every time was surprising and exciting.
  The finished rope up to two hundred meters was cut to the desired length, and to keep the ends from being untied, the waxed thread sealed the ends.
 Usual thin ropes guys were laying from the house flax, for which it was split, and every strand was twisted by hand on the knees.
 When the fingers of the left hand were unclenching, the strands of flax curled into one. These small ropes were appropriate for many needs: to tie to bags, for weaving devices, for fishing gear, etc.
  For the cobblers and fishers, a more twisted thread was made. A regular thin thread was doubled, taking lines from the two coils in a water saucer. The maker put this double thread through the wooden perch near the ceiling, tied it to the end of the particular wheel and twisted it. A twister turned a horizontal spindle with the handwheel, slowly raising it, then lowering it. The thread was solid; however, the strength depended more on the quality of the flax.
  There is no plowing, stumping, or building if there are no ropes. In old times peasants paid with canvas and ropes. The zenith of the rope craft coincided with the beginnings of Tsar Peter's work when the indomitable, wise and flighty king decided to put part of the Russian infantry on board. In old seamen's chant sung about how "suddenly came a change," as "a storm lifts the sea " and how "boils seafoam everywhere."
 The battle of Gangut marked the beginning of the glorious history of the Russian Navy. But the fleet stood firmly not only on marine communique and charters. Without the millions of anonymous spinners and tar makers, the blue, resembling the sea linen strips flag of St. Andrew, would not be covered by the winds of all the oceans and all latitudes of the vast land. But, unfortunately, this history is little known to the romantics of "The Scarlet Sails" and countless "brigantines."