Chapter 6
If you want to improve your living conditions, the first thing you need to solve is food, clothing, housing and transportation.
Wen Yi used branches to lay out the things that needed to be done most on the ground, and then arranged them according to the tools needed.
Qi was taken there by the village head a few days ago and agreed to come back when the weather gets warmer. There are very few people walking around now, so she can move around much more freely and doesn't have to worry about being seen by others and getting into trouble.
What was most needed right now was warm clothing. Wen Yi had searched everywhere but hadn't found cotton or similar crops, making it impossible to obtain this relatively cheap insulation material. Perhaps such crops hadn't been introduced yet.
I had been very busy harvesting crops and driving away birds, but now I had some free time and used the rabbit fur I had used to make a few pairs of shoes with soft fur linings.
People living nearby also often use materials from animals to make warm clothing. The fur becomes relatively flexible after being smoked or rubbed with earth. Then, it is coated with plant ash, left to stand, and then washed. After repeated use, it can bend.
The clothing left for winter is also made of similar materials, but even through layers of linen, it is still uncomfortable to wear and has a strong odor. Moreover, if it is not used and cared for regularly, the fur will quickly become brittle and unusable.
Instead of using the fur directly, Wen Yi decided to use the rabbit hair that had been combed off earlier, spin it into yarn, and then weave it into a sweater or a wool vest to wear under the linen clothes to keep warm.
There is still a lot of raw materials, so the most important ones are textile tools and cleaning supplies.
As far as I can remember, before the advent of soap, the commonly used substance was "ash water" formed by soaking wood ash, which was very convenient to obtain. Some people also used dried fruits, which should be something from the soapberry plant, but its decontamination ability was not as strong as wood ash, and it was more commonly used for daily cleaning.
There is no oil at the moment, and the saponification time required to make soap is very long. It is enough to use these two things plus the cypress leaves collected from the wild to clean rabbit hair.
Use a wooden comb to comb out the knots in the washed and dried rabbit hair, and then find the spindle used to twist the yarn. The collected rabbit hair is mostly short hair, mixed with a little hemp, and spun into a ball of yarn. Then put it in water to set it and dry it.
Spinning yarn requires a high level of coordination; if you're not careful, it will break or become unevenly thick. After Wen Yi finished spinning a small ball, Shu took over, working much faster than Wen Yi. Amu, combing rabbit hair, curiously handled this similar yet different thing, a hemp rope.
The spun and dried rabbit hair is very soft. After twisting it into a ball using an I-shaped twister with the lower half twisted to 90 degrees, you can proceed to the next step.
He cut out two pointed wooden branches, rubbed off the thorns on them with a stone, and then began to wrestle with the ball of yarn.
Crochet is much faster than knitting, but requires more thread; fabrics knitted with knitting needles are softer than the former, and most importantly, the stitches are simple. The strength of rabbit hair yarn is not too high, so it is easier to try with knitting needles.
The wooden needle was a bit thick, so Wen Yi thought about it and decided to combine the two strands of yarn into one, and use the simplest flat needle method to weave the wool into a piece.
Nowadays, textile production requires meticulous work, interweaving warp and weft. Even the simplest linen garments require the extraction and processing of plant fibers, starching, and finally weaving using a loom, which consumes a lot of manpower and resources. Therefore, despite their relatively abundant resources, each person only has one or two pieces of clothing per year, and only replaces them when they are too worn to wear.
Excess cloth could be used to offset taxes, so people with this skill would spend their free time in the winter making linen.
Although the yarn Wen Yi knitted had large gaps in the middle, not seeming windproof or warm, it was knitted very quickly. Shu reached out and touched it; it felt similar to pure wool, though not as good, but without any odor.
The texture was different from any other fabric I'd ever seen, but I couldn't help but knead it. Ah Mu also leaned forward, exclaimed, and his eyes lit up.
The spindle was quite heavy and Amu couldn't lift it. Wen Yi saw that she was eager to try, so she ran out and sharpened two wooden needles. After the little girl got used to sharpening them, she picked up the ball of thread on the other side that she had not spun very well at the beginning and tried again.
Wen Yi drew the outline of the sweater structure on the ground, but when he had some free time, he thought it best to erase the floral outline and change it into a vest style. It wouldn't be too late to sew the sleeves and collar on later.
Although Wen Yi had knitted gloves and scarves before, this was her first time knitting a proper sweater, and she couldn't remember the stitch count at all. Fortunately, Ah Mu was right beside her, so she could show her how to knit, which didn't seem out of place.
Fortunately, the child was short, so the amount of yarn used wasn't too much. After three days of knitting the front and back pieces, I still had a lot of yarn left over, so I simply sewed the sleeves and lapels together. Finally, I used a thick iron needle and wool to connect the pieces.
The upper part of the sleeve was difficult to align and there was no clip, so in the end, it was Amu who pinched it with his hands, and Wen Yi completed the final splicing work.
My fingertips were painfully poked by the wooden needle, but the sense of accomplishment of completing the sweater overwhelmed the discomfort.
After cooling and drying the clothes again, Wen Yi took off the rabbit fur sweater, called A Mu who was sitting next to the stove into the house, and asked him to put it on to try it out.
"Why?"
Amu was holding some strange clothes, which were different in style from the linen clothes tied up in a cloth bag, but Wen Yi made a pull-over gesture, and the little guy put the sweater on without any instruction. Wen Yi stood by to help pull his hands out.
Shedding was inevitable, so Wen Yi could only wash it several times, leaving a few layers of linen underneath as a barrier. Worried about Mu catching a cold, she quickly helped him put on the fur coat and poured a ceramic bowl of hot water.
After drinking, Amu sat back in his original place.
Shu and Wen Yi were both staring at her. Amu felt their gazes on her and felt a little uneasy.
Can't sit still?
Amu subconsciously turned out the clothes that had many holes in the middle, and felt warm.
The linen clothes under the sweater are also warm.
Seeing that Amu's cheeks had turned more rosy from pale, Shu also reached out and touched them, and was also surprised.
While Wen Yi was sewing the sleeves and collar, Shu coiled up the remaining thread and began sewing according to Wen Yi's previous pattern. It's no secret that anyone who can weave baskets and mats is likely to be able to do these handicrafts by analogy. When Wen Yi said she didn't need any, Shu began knitting the vest piece to her own measurements.
Her sweater is not finished yet, but Mu's is really amazing.
Wen Yi didn't know how to explain the thermal conductivity of the fiber, and he didn't have cotton or anything else to compare it with, so he was really troubled and didn't know how to explain it.
Fortunately, the defeat seemed to have convinced himself. Wen Yi was very grateful for the pragmatic attitude of "being content with what you have" in ancient times. As long as it can be used, there is no need to force understanding.
"It would be nice if we had wool. Rabbit hair is not very good." Wen Yi was a little dissatisfied, but sheep were very valuable livestock at the moment. There were no sheep in the entire village. However, he heard from the previous merchants that there were some in Xinyi, but the price was high.
"Is sheep wool also expensive?" Wen Yi asked the two vendors.
"This..." That thing is dirty and unclean. Some people use sheepskin as mattresses or leather clothing, but it has the same problems as other furs. Sheepskin is more useful, so the fur is not expensive.
"I wonder if you two could help bring some over. The price is negotiable." Wen Yi said sincerely.
The two men thought about it and, at Wen Yi's request, agreed to bring some back the next time they came. They accepted two copper coins as a deposit and left their household registration information. With the village head as witness, the two parties signed the deed, which was engraved in duplicate on a wooden board, finalizing the deal.
At first, she agreed to it with the attitude of indulging a child's playfulness. One bushel of millet could be exchanged for three copper coins. Her family had little expenses, and with the supplies distributed by A-mei every year, she had accumulated a lot of copper coins over the years.
Now that Wen Yi is here, although he is no longer being raised in the public granary, the autumn harvest and hunting together make the family have enough food to eat even in winter.
When he heard Amu say that Wen Yi didn’t buy anything, the little guy was a little upset that he was in a bad mood and that’s why Wen Yi came back with him.
Wen Yi stroked Amu's furry head and said seriously, "Of course not. Look, I want something too. Children shouldn't have so many worries. As long as Amu is happy every day, that's all."
Looking at the unfinished sweater in her hand, and thinking of the wool Wen Yi had wanted before, she suddenly felt that the thing in her hand was a little hot.
Shu keenly sensed the immense benefits and significance inherent in this simple object. Perhaps Wen Yi didn't understand the significance of a long-lasting winter coat, much like the clothes she wore, made of unknown materials but fitting and warm. Shu initially believed they were beyond human reach. But even though the item in his hand was much cruder than Wen Yi's original clothing,...
She took a deep breath, suppressed her expression, but her hands moved faster.
Wen Yi didn't notice the change in Shu's expression, her mind was all on Amu.
The temperature was above zero, and the corner of the stove was blocked by something to block the wind. Soon, the outer fur coat became a little tighter. After confirming that it was not cold, Amu took off his outer clothes and stretched his arms.
Fur coats are extremely heavy to wear, but this new thing is not. Moreover, after standing in the yard for a while, I still feel warm, unlike fur which will feel a little cold when it moves in the wind.
But Wen Yi and Shu quickly called her back. Apart from anything else, her legs were still cold.
However, Shu and Amu both rejected her idea of continuing to knit the sweater. Amu took the knitting needles from Wen Yi's hand and drove Wen Yi aside to play like a little adult:
"Leave this to me."
Wen Yi originally wanted to struggle a bit, but when she saw the fine and even stitches of the two people, one big and one small, and thought about the sweater she had knitted, which was of different thicknesses in many places, she finally decided not to waste the wool.
His eyes fell on the farm tools that already had obvious signs of bumps and bruises.
Iron products were now widely used, with some farm tools having iron heads. However, they were brittle and less sophisticated than copper, so copper was often used for better weapons. Copper-tin alloys, with their lighter color and exceptional hardness, were also quite expensive, and were primarily used by those of higher status.
But this thing, although it looks like a healthy and harmless golden color, is actually different from the brass that was smelted later. It is mixed with a lot of lead or arsenic. If it is used as a food or drinking container for a long time, it will cause poisoning, similar to taking a chronic elixir.
Copper coins are also shiny, mainly round in style. Many people sharpen the coins and use them as tools for daily use. Some also steal copper from the coins and melt them together. Many copper coins are missing a circle on the edge.
The loser had a sharp copper coin, which he probably used as a knife, but after Wen Yi reminded him, he only used it to cut things that were not eaten, such as hemp rope, and no longer used it to cut food. He replaced it with an iron knife.
Wen Yi dug out a chisel from the corner. He had used it once before, making the shuttle. The chisel head was small, but it could cut wood, so it should be no problem for making small models. While he didn't have the necessary equipment to make paper, he could experiment with making small models. Once spring came, he could find a craftsman and qualified wood, and he would be able to create the objects he needed.
He rubbed his hands together and rummaged through the firewood pile for a long time, finding a lot of wood that was easy to carve. He put them away separately and prepared to use them later.
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