The entire female half of the Russian people, young and old alike, knew how to spin a yarn.
But learning how to weave was not an easy task; some woman tries but still cannot comprehend at first glance a pretty simple craft. Any skill seems easy when you master it. Experienced women are genuinely surprised, looking at those who cannot make the canvas wall: "How so? It is that simple: do this first, then what comes out the wall…."
Alas, it turned the majority could grasp it, but not all! Yarn from the spindles was wound to the reel while counting and bandaging the raps. For counting of threads, was used number 3, the number of fingers involved in the count. This number is called the chismenka. One rap of yarn is equal to sixty strands (twenty chimeneas). Nine raps were wound in a yarn ball for the basis of one side of the canvas. For the duck, it is also required the same number. The quantity and quality of yarn balls prepared by early springtime indicated a woman's and family's reputation.
The limit of the finesse of the thread, which was accomplished rarely, was considered when through the silver ring, one must push through the ball of 540 threads folded in two strands, i.e. 1080.
The yarn is wound from the spindle, not only for counting but also for further processing. The balls of yarn must be washed and sometimes soaked in the oat straw and chaff, brewed in hot water. As they said, that takes out of the yarn "hardness." Wet balls were frozen out during vigorous March's morning, the yarn was hung on the fence, from which blackness, stiffness and dampness, typical of just processed flax yarn, disappear. During the processing of dark-gray yarn becomes lighter. The finished canvases are almost snow white.
Showing posts with label flax. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flax. Show all posts
Tuesday, 9 January 2018
Monday, 8 January 2018
COMBING OF FLAX AND SPINNING YARN
Scutched flax was kept dry as gunpowder and then combed.
A woman usually combed three "nickels" or half of "Kirby" for the evening. The first combings were done with a large iron brush. This fibre was the lowest grade. The second combings were done with a smaller brush made of bristles. After that, to the floor fell fibres of average quality. The pack of flax becomes even thinner.
The remaining fibre in it is the best. It looks like a thick maiden braid, stacked in neat "eights" when you carry them bundle them in groups.
"In the hut, a maiden sings and spins, and at winter night, the lighting splinter is cracking in front of her."
A.S. Pushkin
A peasant Russia for many centuries was dressed in sheepskin and canvas. Plush, folded velvet, Chinese silk, and English wool peasants rarely needed.
Nevertheless, in the most recent era, the peasant was taught how unseemly he looks in a sheepskin coat or a shirling - in these hot, light, durable, cheap and comfortable clothing. And then, hardly a "public" opinion weaned the people from the sheepskin coat, peasants almost completely abdicated their own traditions, and all the young people rushed to buy cold, stuffy, but bright synthetic Japanese jackets, just at this time price tanned Russian fur coat grew in price dramatically. For a tanned sheepskin that sometimes a man put in bad weather on a chilled gelding, now people would give everything up to a costly Japanese portable radio.
But leave the sheepskin in the piece; it deserves its own conversation… So instead, let's go back to the canvas. How many yarns had done a Pushkin's singing girl if a multi-million Russia used to wear linen clothes? However, it's not only about quantity. Beautiful, careful processing of flax allowed wearing underwear almost all your life, even passing on an inheritance.
Clothes were used for many years, household products made of linen - towels, headscarves, tablecloths - also served several generations. But unfortunately, only working mittens didn't last long enough for hard workers.
Combed flax was divided based on the quality of three grades and was tugged, pulled and fluffed. This big fluffy ball was evenly spread on the table, sprinkled with water and gently rolled in rope. For one tow, it takes half of the good fibre from the lowest grade - twice as much. Next, a soaked at the sides tow was rolled, brushed, the ends tucked in, and it was finally dried. Ready tows stood side by side. The height of the tow also depended on the owner's taste and the age of a spinner. For a teenage girl, tows were made more petite - relatively small, like a toy for a child.
Spinning was done only in spare time. It is no accident girls and women were judged by the quality of the yarn. To not become one of the lazy ones, it was necessary to make not less than forty raps by the end of the Filippov Lent. For one evening, you can spin a yarn of one rap. This will create a one-bed sheet. But a good spinner could spin two.
In the terse and harsh families was a habit: going to spin a yarn to the neighbours, to another house, because other people do not doze off at the yarn spinning, and you will strive to make no less than others. So, in fact, a blessing in disguise!
The severity of the custom suddenly turned around by the other end: long spin-ns themselves turned into conversations, funny and transient. Together, the girls spun and sang, on the go inventing couplets, told tales and gossiped. These parties used to come over also guys with balalaikas, started singing competitions, their young people could dance and play games.
Sitting at the spinning wheel, a girl with her left hand stretched out the fibre from the tow, and with the thumb and forefinger of the right-hand span the spindle. A thread was fastened with a unique loop on the sharp spindle, twisted till reach of the arm, diverted farther and farther to the right and slightly back. The spinner needed a lot of places on the bench. After stretching a thread, the spinner stows it first on the fingers and then wounds it on the spindle.
Some spinners interrupting the singing constantly spit for the strength of the twisted thread. Bad quality flax (with the chaff) cracked during spinning. The thread would become too thick, and yarn wound in quickly, causing the spinner to become self-ironic. Sound flax was spinning with a characteristic rustle. It was spanned out uniformly, and the thread could be easily moved to the other side of the spindle. Songs, jokes, stories, games during such parties reduced exhaustion during spinning yarn and its apparent monotony.
On holidays or between the Lents, such conversations turned into games, but girls dressed up and left the spindles at home. At the revels, fun, songs and dances prevailed, while work and fun were closely intertwined at the work parties.
A woman usually combed three "nickels" or half of "Kirby" for the evening. The first combings were done with a large iron brush. This fibre was the lowest grade. The second combings were done with a smaller brush made of bristles. After that, to the floor fell fibres of average quality. The pack of flax becomes even thinner.
The remaining fibre in it is the best. It looks like a thick maiden braid, stacked in neat "eights" when you carry them bundle them in groups.
"In the hut, a maiden sings and spins, and at winter night, the lighting splinter is cracking in front of her."
A.S. Pushkin
A peasant Russia for many centuries was dressed in sheepskin and canvas. Plush, folded velvet, Chinese silk, and English wool peasants rarely needed.
Nevertheless, in the most recent era, the peasant was taught how unseemly he looks in a sheepskin coat or a shirling - in these hot, light, durable, cheap and comfortable clothing. And then, hardly a "public" opinion weaned the people from the sheepskin coat, peasants almost completely abdicated their own traditions, and all the young people rushed to buy cold, stuffy, but bright synthetic Japanese jackets, just at this time price tanned Russian fur coat grew in price dramatically. For a tanned sheepskin that sometimes a man put in bad weather on a chilled gelding, now people would give everything up to a costly Japanese portable radio.
But leave the sheepskin in the piece; it deserves its own conversation… So instead, let's go back to the canvas. How many yarns had done a Pushkin's singing girl if a multi-million Russia used to wear linen clothes? However, it's not only about quantity. Beautiful, careful processing of flax allowed wearing underwear almost all your life, even passing on an inheritance.
Clothes were used for many years, household products made of linen - towels, headscarves, tablecloths - also served several generations. But unfortunately, only working mittens didn't last long enough for hard workers.
Combed flax was divided based on the quality of three grades and was tugged, pulled and fluffed. This big fluffy ball was evenly spread on the table, sprinkled with water and gently rolled in rope. For one tow, it takes half of the good fibre from the lowest grade - twice as much. Next, a soaked at the sides tow was rolled, brushed, the ends tucked in, and it was finally dried. Ready tows stood side by side. The height of the tow also depended on the owner's taste and the age of a spinner. For a teenage girl, tows were made more petite - relatively small, like a toy for a child.
Spinning was done only in spare time. It is no accident girls and women were judged by the quality of the yarn. To not become one of the lazy ones, it was necessary to make not less than forty raps by the end of the Filippov Lent. For one evening, you can spin a yarn of one rap. This will create a one-bed sheet. But a good spinner could spin two.
In the terse and harsh families was a habit: going to spin a yarn to the neighbours, to another house, because other people do not doze off at the yarn spinning, and you will strive to make no less than others. So, in fact, a blessing in disguise!
The severity of the custom suddenly turned around by the other end: long spin-ns themselves turned into conversations, funny and transient. Together, the girls spun and sang, on the go inventing couplets, told tales and gossiped. These parties used to come over also guys with balalaikas, started singing competitions, their young people could dance and play games.
Sitting at the spinning wheel, a girl with her left hand stretched out the fibre from the tow, and with the thumb and forefinger of the right-hand span the spindle. A thread was fastened with a unique loop on the sharp spindle, twisted till reach of the arm, diverted farther and farther to the right and slightly back. The spinner needed a lot of places on the bench. After stretching a thread, the spinner stows it first on the fingers and then wounds it on the spindle.
Some spinners interrupting the singing constantly spit for the strength of the twisted thread. Bad quality flax (with the chaff) cracked during spinning. The thread would become too thick, and yarn wound in quickly, causing the spinner to become self-ironic. Sound flax was spinning with a characteristic rustle. It was spanned out uniformly, and the thread could be easily moved to the other side of the spindle. Songs, jokes, stories, games during such parties reduced exhaustion during spinning yarn and its apparent monotony.
On holidays or between the Lents, such conversations turned into games, but girls dressed up and left the spindles at home. At the revels, fun, songs and dances prevailed, while work and fun were closely intertwined at the work parties.
THRESHING OF FLAX
The thresher as a tool for a woman can be compared with the axe for a man. Yet, it is not the central women's instrument. If a carpenter with an axe one can do a lot, then in flax processing, each case requires a unique "tool." The family had several threshers; some were personal, belonging to one woman, favourites made to order, passed by inheritance, etc. In other words, every good beater, as, indeed, the axe, has its own features (art, design, psychological).
With a favourite instrument and handful of flax in hand, the girl goes to someone else's empty barn, the bath, or the non-residential but warm hut. This bash combined employment of economic and aesthetic needs of youth.
Young married women gathered separately. During work, girls sang in unison, improvising, ridiculed "competitors" from other villages, laughed, fooling around. But labour at the gathering was dominated, although it didn't exclude entertainment.
It was mandatory to scutch one "Kirby" of threshed flax during the workday. So, holding flax on the extended left hand, the girl beat it with a fine picker edge, knocking out the flax boon.
Sometimes walls and windows were covered with gray linen dust. Girls tightly tied their faces with scarves. The work was hard and dusty. But they are young and took their own great inconvenience and hardships with a kind smile, in public, teasing each other. They laughed at times and just as they say, with no apparent reason. Such gratuitous laughter, often at a young age, forever disappears with the arrival of a significant stage of life.
With married women: here, the person does not just burst out laughing, for no apparent reason, and wait for a suitable, informative and hilarious word or deed.
With a favourite instrument and handful of flax in hand, the girl goes to someone else's empty barn, the bath, or the non-residential but warm hut. This bash combined employment of economic and aesthetic needs of youth.
Young married women gathered separately. During work, girls sang in unison, improvising, ridiculed "competitors" from other villages, laughed, fooling around. But labour at the gathering was dominated, although it didn't exclude entertainment.
It was mandatory to scutch one "Kirby" of threshed flax during the workday. So, holding flax on the extended left hand, the girl beat it with a fine picker edge, knocking out the flax boon.
Sometimes walls and windows were covered with gray linen dust. Girls tightly tied their faces with scarves. The work was hard and dusty. But they are young and took their own great inconvenience and hardships with a kind smile, in public, teasing each other. They laughed at times and just as they say, with no apparent reason. Such gratuitous laughter, often at a young age, forever disappears with the arrival of a significant stage of life.
With married women: here, the person does not just burst out laughing, for no apparent reason, and wait for a suitable, informative and hilarious word or deed.
CRUSHING OF FLAX
Dry, easily broken plants are asking to go into a crushing machine. Break two or three times a handful, and it falls down with rigid bang chaff exposing the gray, gentle, but firm fibers. By the way, softness and strength are combined in the strands of flax fibre.
There is no less work in autumn in the fields and at home than at the height of summer. Women and girls reluctantly forget for a while about the flax. But with the first snow, with the first frost, when men begin to decimate the cattle and go into the woods, when all that has grown in beds, in the field and in the woods has been cleaned, collected, preserved, at such a time starts an ache in the heart: flax folded in the threshing floor, or somewhere in the changing room, haunts the woman's heart. Merry panic can arise at any moment.
Mary looks out of the window, and it appears to her that a neighbour Masha about to go to crush flax. Although Masha has not thought about the flax and only dragged a bucket of feed into the pen… But Mary, not to be left out, grabs dry flax from the shelf and runs to the crushing machine somewhere in the barn or the bathhouse.
After seeing such a thing, Masha drops everything and runs to start crumple flax. There will be overnight, and the entire village begins to crumple flax. Now and the laziest, most awkward cannot resist: I am worse than the others?
Every competition is always quite personal, that is clear. (A contest between the collectives that include many thousands, located God knows where, as enshrined in the printed commitments, willy-nilly becomes somewhat abstract.)
Under the threshing machine quickly grow heaps of the flax bark, which, while not rotted in the rain, is used as the litter for cattle. The left hand uses the wooden jaw of threshing; the right-hand shoves down a handful of flax, representing one-eighth of a sheaf of flax. A handful is precisely what can grab the palm of a woman. A handful of flax when pulling it out of the ground is smaller and depends on the stiffness of the soil, planting density, and the size of a hand.
Since the threshing process, flax no longer counts in shafts but the handfuls. Fifty handfuls are called "nickel." Threshed and combed flax was measured in "nickels"…
Two "nickels» or a hundred handfuls constitute one "Kirby." During the day, a strong woman would do an average of three "Kirby's." The flax fibers are piled to dry on the stove, sometimes on the benches. All previous course of treatment of flax was individual, sometimes done by the family: either mother-in-law with daughter-in-law, mother and daughter, or daughter-in-law with sister-in-law. This, incidentally, was an excellent opportunity for women's reconciliation. Women and girls joined from different houses during the threshing, or the villages ended. They sometimes gather from the whole town to do retting if the town was relatively small.
There is no less work in autumn in the fields and at home than at the height of summer. Women and girls reluctantly forget for a while about the flax. But with the first snow, with the first frost, when men begin to decimate the cattle and go into the woods, when all that has grown in beds, in the field and in the woods has been cleaned, collected, preserved, at such a time starts an ache in the heart: flax folded in the threshing floor, or somewhere in the changing room, haunts the woman's heart. Merry panic can arise at any moment.
Mary looks out of the window, and it appears to her that a neighbour Masha about to go to crush flax. Although Masha has not thought about the flax and only dragged a bucket of feed into the pen… But Mary, not to be left out, grabs dry flax from the shelf and runs to the crushing machine somewhere in the barn or the bathhouse.
After seeing such a thing, Masha drops everything and runs to start crumple flax. There will be overnight, and the entire village begins to crumple flax. Now and the laziest, most awkward cannot resist: I am worse than the others?
Every competition is always quite personal, that is clear. (A contest between the collectives that include many thousands, located God knows where, as enshrined in the printed commitments, willy-nilly becomes somewhat abstract.)
Under the threshing machine quickly grow heaps of the flax bark, which, while not rotted in the rain, is used as the litter for cattle. The left hand uses the wooden jaw of threshing; the right-hand shoves down a handful of flax, representing one-eighth of a sheaf of flax. A handful is precisely what can grab the palm of a woman. A handful of flax when pulling it out of the ground is smaller and depends on the stiffness of the soil, planting density, and the size of a hand.
Since the threshing process, flax no longer counts in shafts but the handfuls. Fifty handfuls are called "nickel." Threshed and combed flax was measured in "nickels"…
Two "nickels» or a hundred handfuls constitute one "Kirby." During the day, a strong woman would do an average of three "Kirby's." The flax fibers are piled to dry on the stove, sometimes on the benches. All previous course of treatment of flax was individual, sometimes done by the family: either mother-in-law with daughter-in-law, mother and daughter, or daughter-in-law with sister-in-law. This, incidentally, was an excellent opportunity for women's reconciliation. Women and girls joined from different houses during the threshing, or the villages ended. They sometimes gather from the whole town to do retting if the town was relatively small.
FLAX OIL PRESSING
Processed flax heads were moistened with boiled water and were fed with a mixture of potatoes to cattle and chickens.
The flax seeds have also been a vital food aid in peasant families. We must not forget that the Russian people in the majority had been more or less rigorously fasting, which, undoubtedly, had not only religious but purely traditional, including medicinal, value.
An adjusted change of food proven by centuries, periodic "cleansings," and psychological rhythms made a person more calm and stable toward life's odds. Meals of meatless days and periods were accompanied with flax or hemp oil.
Oil pressing was a kind of ritual, something festive, entertaining. Before this, it is necessary to dry flax seeds, mill flax at the mill or manually pound in a mortar. Then seeds were sifted with sieves, and the remnants were pounded again. The pounded mass was placed in pots and warmed up in a clean-swept hot oven. It was wrapped hot in thick linen cloth and put in a wooden block between two dies. These dies were pressed with wedges. You had to beat wedges with a sledgehammer.
Under the block was put a container. Each blow approached an amusing moment when the first drop of the thick amber oil hits a skillet. This moment is watched with interest by both children and adults. After knocking, or rather, pressing oil, the flattened bag is removed and inserted into the block a new, hot new bag.
On the oilcake, compressed into a solid flat plate, was a sharply imprinted graphic structure of linen fabric. The oilcakes are also used to feed cattle.
Flax and hemp oil were produced in Russia, apparently in huge quantities, as it was consumed not only in food but also to produce varnish. And an enormous amount of varnish can be estimated by counting the number of Russian Orthodox churches. This is not counting the small chapels, which also had icons. In the smallest iconostasis, there were a few icons. Let us add here millions of peasant huts, commons, merchants and other houses because, in every family, there are the least one or two icons. The artistic and religious needs of the people affected the economy: the linseed oil was supplied to thousands of big and small artists.
The flax seeds have also been a vital food aid in peasant families. We must not forget that the Russian people in the majority had been more or less rigorously fasting, which, undoubtedly, had not only religious but purely traditional, including medicinal, value.
An adjusted change of food proven by centuries, periodic "cleansings," and psychological rhythms made a person more calm and stable toward life's odds. Meals of meatless days and periods were accompanied with flax or hemp oil.
Oil pressing was a kind of ritual, something festive, entertaining. Before this, it is necessary to dry flax seeds, mill flax at the mill or manually pound in a mortar. Then seeds were sifted with sieves, and the remnants were pounded again. The pounded mass was placed in pots and warmed up in a clean-swept hot oven. It was wrapped hot in thick linen cloth and put in a wooden block between two dies. These dies were pressed with wedges. You had to beat wedges with a sledgehammer.
Under the block was put a container. Each blow approached an amusing moment when the first drop of the thick amber oil hits a skillet. This moment is watched with interest by both children and adults. After knocking, or rather, pressing oil, the flattened bag is removed and inserted into the block a new, hot new bag.
On the oilcake, compressed into a solid flat plate, was a sharply imprinted graphic structure of linen fabric. The oilcakes are also used to feed cattle.
Flax and hemp oil were produced in Russia, apparently in huge quantities, as it was consumed not only in food but also to produce varnish. And an enormous amount of varnish can be estimated by counting the number of Russian Orthodox churches. This is not counting the small chapels, which also had icons. In the smallest iconostasis, there were a few icons. Let us add here millions of peasant huts, commons, merchants and other houses because, in every family, there are the least one or two icons. The artistic and religious needs of the people affected the economy: the linseed oil was supplied to thousands of big and small artists.
SPREADING FLAX FIBERS
By Elias's day, nights become so long that "the horse ate his fill, and a Cossack gets enough sleep." On such nights falls on the meadows vast, clean and not yet icy dew. It just needed flax to turn into a "tresta," in agro-speak into the flax-hay.
Lying on a reaped meadow, grey flax takes a steel gray colour. From the daily change of warmth and freshness and dryness and humidity, fibre separates from the stable, not valuable stem, which changes from flexible to fragile. Threshed bundles haphazardly are thrown on the cart, fastened with the rope and carried on a flat, green grass (the livestock do not graze in this field).
Boys or young girls are happy to make this work; it is so good to ride in a dry, calm autumn field to the green grass passing haystacks, on which are sitting, looking for mice, motionless gray hawks. You do not particularly follow the order; throw the sheaves into the meadow in heaps, as you like. You can horse around and play on such a pasture; no one would say anything.
Mothers or sisters have carved out a free hour, come to the meadow, and spread a thin layer of flax rows. It will come out in long tracks, like doormats. The places covered with such runners were bordered with the same flax runners, round at the corners. It looked like a sizeable patterned tablecloth; sometimes, it was called the mirror.
There was a saying: "Lie down, flax, and then get up and look in the mirror; if not soft yet, lie down and lie down more, only to come out white and soft." Children always somehow wanted to run on it barefoot. But this was forbidden. Finished flax was tested for the fragility of the stems and ease of separation of the boon by taking a sample from one of a handful.
Then it was chosen a warm, windless day, and the flax fibers were raised and put in the sheaves. A green meadow was covered with disorderly groups of these cones, similar from the distance to the playing kids. Flax would dry in such a position; after that, it was bundled with straw bands into large bales and transported to the barn to completely dry.
Some impatient women would bring flax inside and dry it on the stove or bunk; they wanted to begin the subsequent processing. Work on flax from beginning to end is not allocated for special days or weeks: time to do everything between the chores or on holidays. Ripened and dried flax - this is only the beginning. But let's go back to the roots to the heads, that is, the threshed heads of flax.
Lying on a reaped meadow, grey flax takes a steel gray colour. From the daily change of warmth and freshness and dryness and humidity, fibre separates from the stable, not valuable stem, which changes from flexible to fragile. Threshed bundles haphazardly are thrown on the cart, fastened with the rope and carried on a flat, green grass (the livestock do not graze in this field).
Boys or young girls are happy to make this work; it is so good to ride in a dry, calm autumn field to the green grass passing haystacks, on which are sitting, looking for mice, motionless gray hawks. You do not particularly follow the order; throw the sheaves into the meadow in heaps, as you like. You can horse around and play on such a pasture; no one would say anything.
Mothers or sisters have carved out a free hour, come to the meadow, and spread a thin layer of flax rows. It will come out in long tracks, like doormats. The places covered with such runners were bordered with the same flax runners, round at the corners. It looked like a sizeable patterned tablecloth; sometimes, it was called the mirror.
There was a saying: "Lie down, flax, and then get up and look in the mirror; if not soft yet, lie down and lie down more, only to come out white and soft." Children always somehow wanted to run on it barefoot. But this was forbidden. Finished flax was tested for the fragility of the stems and ease of separation of the boon by taking a sample from one of a handful.
Then it was chosen a warm, windless day, and the flax fibers were raised and put in the sheaves. A green meadow was covered with disorderly groups of these cones, similar from the distance to the playing kids. Flax would dry in such a position; after that, it was bundled with straw bands into large bales and transported to the barn to completely dry.
Some impatient women would bring flax inside and dry it on the stove or bunk; they wanted to begin the subsequent processing. Work on flax from beginning to end is not allocated for special days or weeks: time to do everything between the chores or on holidays. Ripened and dried flax - this is only the beginning. But let's go back to the roots to the heads, that is, the threshed heads of flax.
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