BACK TO BLEACHING

Back in June I posted a blog called 'Bleaching with Cow Dung' about some upcoming experiments I plan to do regarding bleaching linen the old-fashioned way, before the advent of modern chemicals in approximately 1765.

The linen fabric was immersed or boiled in a number of different solutions of which cow dung really was one of many.  Also used was stale urine, water filtered through hard wood ashes (lye), fermented bran, buttermilk.  There are various recipes or instructions using one or two or more of these acids or alkalis then followed by laying the linen out on the grass in the sun for a few days, keeping it wet, then boiling or immersing again, then 'grassing' or 'crofting' again for weeks or months, up to six months or even more.  This would have been done over the summer months when the days were longer and the sun higher in the sky and stronger and I will be attempting these starting in April.

In the meantime, there are a couple of winter bleaching traditions I am working on, always involving first wetting the fabric:
- sunlight on fresh snow
- frost in moonlight (apparently the moisture turns to ice crystals and refracts and intensifies the moonlight).

Inasmuch as the sun is higher in the sky in the summer, and the moon is opposite the sun, the moon is higher in the sky and out longer in winter than in summer.  My friend and bleaching partner in crime, Cyndy, told me about this from a book by Robert Mudie.

So far I have limited results with the sun on snow (left) marginally winning out over the two-month moonlight one (centre).  The weather conditions of course do not always cooperate - the November moon had no sub-zero temperatures, the January moon was covered by clouds most of the time.  For some reason I cannot now remember, I decided to also try frost with no moon or sun, outside under the deck roof; amazingly, this one is competing very closely with the moonlight one (right).  The lower sample is the control sample - all pieces were first scoured for 8 hours in washing soda.

I did say the results were limited.

              Sample laying on the snow, basking in the sun.

 This shows the change from the first month of  moonlight

Stay tuned for further results if you're interested.

Bleaching with Cow Dung

Yes, cow dung, amongst other things - that's what was used to bleach linen in medieval times, and I plan to do some experiments.  On Saturday June 2, 2012, I submitted a challenge to the White Wolf Fian group - an Ealdormerian group within the SCA that seeks members who challenge themselves to undertake projects of their choosing at least at the intermediate level that stretches their abilities either by taking something they are already familiar with to a higher level or starting with something completely new, and completing it within one year.

During my early days researching about growing and processing flax I came across a reference to bleaching/whitening linen having been done in the middle ages, and earlier, by using cow dung - gross as it sounded, it piqued my interest.  I tried whitening one small linen towel with just water and sunlight, with some degree of success,

but now I plan do to some experiments with cow dung, sheep dung, urine, wood ash, potash, bran, sour milk or buttermilk etc. along with sunlight, moonlight, frost and freshly fallen snow, that was used before the advent of modern chemicals.

I have some cow dung from a dairy farm, a shepherd I know will be happy to provide me with sheep dung, urine has to be stale - at least two weeks old - I have one yard of linen that I will cut up into 16 pieces 5" x 10".  I will be doing at least 9 experiments for my White Wolf Fian Challenge but I may do some extras as well.

2012 Flax Harvest

After a false start where germination was not happening and re-seeding 3 weeks after the original seeding, I have a bumper crop! 
Last year I harvested approximately 12 lbs of green flax straw (weighed immediately after pulling).  This year my first harvest was about 29 lbs.  Instead of growing all approximately the same height, it was of very varying heights, anywhere from about 12" to 36". 

Since it should be collected and processed in bundles of similar height for processing, I first pulled the tallest plants 30-36", then the medium height - 22-28" (above).
I left the short stuff which was mostly 15" or less and had not flowered.  I thought I would pull it in the fall or till it into the soil. The picture to the left shows what was left after the main harvest.


A couple of weeks ago I went to my allotment to check it and it had grown and flowered and was from 22" to 33" in height.  So I pulled it again in two different heights and yielded a further 18 lbs for a second harvest - for the first time in 10 years of growing it.  With shorter and cooler days now, I am having some difficulty drying the 'green' out of it.






I did bundle it at first, then spread it out on the deck or the lawn so that it would have a better chance to dry out, then had to keep collecting it up on rainy days.

Germination problems with flax

I seeded my new flax seeds (as opposed to saved ones) on May 7.  Normally they germinate over 7 to 10 days, but 3 weeks later I had exactly 8 seedlings growing.  So I re-seeded the plot last week, May 28, and now 7 to 10 days later I have good germination.  However, since I sowed the seeds late, I do not know if the crop will ripen properly.  Only time will tell.

Class Handouts

I added photos to illustrate the original class handout (Growing and Processing Flax) and then discovered it prints to 27 pages.  Therefore I have added a second page (Processing Flax - class handout), basically the same text but without photos.  These are available at the top of the page under the picture and I hope they are of use to someone.

Seeds Ordered

Last week I ordered some flax seeds for this year from Saskflax Biolin Research in Saskatchewan.  Here is their order page - I ordered Evelyn and Elektra seeds, Evelyn I have tried before and done well, Elektra is to try something new to compare with Evelyn.

Made Some Progress

Well, all by myself I have finally figured out how to reduce the size of the picture at the top of the page (which for six months has filled about two screens worth).  Yayyy me.  Then I discovered how to move a few things around a bit.

Lastly, for today, I wish to add that I will be teaching my class on growing and processing flax to get spinnable fibre for linen at FITP (Forward Into The Past) event at Wilfred Laurier University, Waterloo - Bricker Building on Saturday, March 31, 2012.