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Before we continue,
Let us pause or stop briefly to reflect back and review all that we have done to this point, toward the weaving of
a simple covering on a primitive loom. Because it is a simple covering that we have set about weaving. If we
are not the people of the Dineh, then it is easily seen that we cannot set about weaving a creation of that race,
anymore than we could claim to be creating a buffalo wallow while rolling in the dust of the prairie.
Though it may actually be a wallow of some sort as well as eventually being taken up and enjoyed by a great buffer
happening across it in his travels, to then become a great buffer's wallow, until that time it simply is not. Just as
hopefully, our weave will become a well constructed simple covering, to equal any other achieved with that primitive
loom.
So setting out to learn that endeavor well enough to be able to create the very best example to be
had from that loom, as well as learning all the lessons that must be mastered, before a mastery of that device will
allow us to achieve that weaving, is what we set out to accomplish. As well as our very best hope of achievement.
So, with that understanding, on to review:
First, we have selected a fine churro ram and a navajo angora goat to construct our warp cord with the very best
spinning technique at our disposal. We have chosen an elder ram with a fine long coat of little crimp and one which has
not been close to shear for about a year or more. Next, we have slammed these ram fleece against rock and tree trunk,
in order to loosen and
even dispel any dirt, Debra or foreign matter willing to leave them in this way. The long locks from our elder ewe has
similarly been picked open and combed enough to loosen and remove most VM that is present.
We have then washed our wool with salt, soda or soap weed, in a way that retains a large amount of the lanolin
that was present in this long stapled wool with the strong guard hair, or tog. Because we know it is this tog in
combination with the long angora goat hair that will give most of the strength to our warps, while the teal or under
coat of our sheep is what will bind all together and disallow any slippage or drafting of fibers within our cord, when
spun
in the proper manor.
It is the saddle area of both fiber animals that holds our interest for this particular undertaking.
We also know while a fine cord is desired from a need of a warp count between 26 and 40 per inch, in order to achieve
that cardboard like thin, tight blanket, we also know there is no single ply existing to withstand what it must, in order
to undergo the abuse, as a tight woven product of the primitive loom. We also know the very finest and best were
constructed with a four ply warp, with a count upward of sixty or more warps to the inch, and a weft count
from eighty-five to up wards of one hundred twenty, or more per inch. This was a well spun fine cord indeed. A cord
patterned from a keen knowledge addapted from many centuries of working with the finer cotton fiber. So from a desire
to work this new wool to a result already well known, came this adaptation of both spindle and cord.
Normally, a two ply cord, or a two ply cord cabled to another two ply cord was used as a four ply warp. Or two such
cords plied to make an eight ply warp cord, in a few.
But in the main, it was the slow and steady use of the spindle tip to twist and draft out the fibers to a thin, evenly
aligned rope of un-spun fiber, then re-working or drafting this down to an even smaller and more aligned roving, until a
final pass would yeald a perfictly aligned and even fingerling or lopi of a weight almost the same as that which would
result in the finished cords, with only a slight amount of twist introduced so far, before the final spinning would take
place, with the finished result becoming a tightly spun single ply cord of such a weight that a four ply would still be a
light, strong cord suitable to the rigors of this loom.
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