On Laoyun Cliff, Xiaoman came back carrying a basket of freshly cut coir grass.
This grass needs to be harvested and dried in the shade in summer. It is the raw material for making ropes and straw sandals.
There is little land in Xujia Village, so the villagers sell coir grass in summer, pick tung trees in autumn, and sell green charcoal in winter to subsidize the land harvest.
What is as long as hair is the coir, and how many children bring back memories
Now Xiaoman lives in the mountains. Apart from everything he has to do every day, he also has to cut a handful of coir grass to take home when he comes and goes.
Mr. Xiaoman was weaving a rope with coir grass. When he saw him coming back, he said, "We are going to start building a house tomorrow morning. You can help your sister-in-law split the pig's head."
In the past two days, Xiaoman's family just divided the big room into smaller ones, without asking Xu Errui to help.
But to build another house outside, this big project requires both families to work together, and a big pig's head needs to be stewed.
Xiaoman said cheerfully: "I know, Master, my sister-in-law has already soaked the smoked pig's head, and I will chop it into pieces soon."
I have been eating meat all this time, but Xiaoman still feels like I haven’t eaten enough.
He threw down the coir grass and the basket on his back, took out a large bunch of dogtail grass, and shouted loudly: "Nini, look, what uncle has brought back for you!"
Nini was pestering her mother by the stove. When she heard her uncle calling her, she quickly came out to take a look.
My uncle would bring her different gadgets every day, sometimes it was beautiful wild flowers, sometimes it was a big insect with its claws and teeth.
I was scared at first, but after getting scared I stopped being scared. I really want to know what it will be like this time.
Seeing Nini coming out, Xiaoman shook the dog's tail grass and said, "Look, there are so many, enough for you to play for a day!"
Nini likes the fluffy dogtail grass. When she saw there were so many, she immediately narrowed her eyes with a smile: "Uncle is the best!"
But just as she came over, Xiaoman put the dog's tail flower on the little knot tied above her head, and smiled and clapped his hands: "Hahaha, Nini has a tail on her head!"
Nini scratched the grass on her head and chased him angrily: "My uncle is a bad person! I will sue you to my father!"
The courtyard was full of laughter and commotion, Xiaoman teased his niece and then went to work, while Nini lay on Xu Dazhu's body and complained coquettishly.
Xu Dazhu is playing with straw sandals.
Seeing his daughter coming to complain to him, he had to untie the rope tied around his waist to fix her position, took off the dog tail on Nini's head, smiled and comforted: "Nini, don't cry, daddy will make you a puppy to play with. "
He was so skillful that he made a fluffy puppy out of dog tail grass in no time. Nini stopped crying and happily took it to Chunfeng as a treasure: "Mom, look at the puppy daddy made!"
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On the cliff, Jiang Zhi was also busy. Next to her were Xiao Mannai, who looked attentive, and Qiaoyun, who was holding her child.
Qiao Yun has been learning spinning and weaving from Xiao Man Nai in the past few months.
I took off the clothes on Xiao Caixia's body and woven it into a piece of Gebu, saying that I would make new clothes for her mother-in-law.
Xiao Caixia's clothes were not dyed before, and the original cloth was in its original color. Now Jiang Zhi's piece of cloth needs to be dyed.
In farm households, those who can weave fabrics usually also have to dye their own fabrics.
Those who are more particular will use indigo grass from the mountains to dye it into indigo, dark blue, or various shades of blue.
What is not particular is to add plant ash and mud, and casually dye the fabric into light gray.
Now, Jiangzhi and Xiaomannai are discussing the color of dyeing the cloth blue.
Xiao Mannai has been making red dye all her life, and she usually dyes her own fabrics. The bluegrass she uses is also a very common local plant.
The so-called bluegrass is not a kind of plant, but a collective name for a variety of plants that can be dyed.
Li Shizhen said in "Compendium of Materia Medica": "There are five kinds of indigo, each with its own main treatment...and indigo is the same." He pointed out in turn that there are five kinds of indigo, polygonum, horse, wood, and amaranth.
The famous Isatis root is the rhizome of bluegrass. It is needless to say its functions in detail. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is an all-powerful miracle medicine.
The foaming indigo flowers taken out before indigo dyeing is the medicine indigo, the main medicine for treating laryngitis and the cyan pigment used in Chinese paintings.
Indigo dyeing technology has been mature since ancient times and is introduced in detail in "Essential Art of Qi Min". Jiang Zhi is now just experiencing hand-dyed cloth again.
Xiao Mannai turned over the blue grass cut from Jiang Zhi and said with some regret: "It's a pity that my dyeing paste has been lost without dyeing cloth in the past two years."
Jiang Zhi knew that Xiao Mannai said he lost it as a euphemism, but he actually sold it. After Dazhu was injured, everyone in the family who could change money used it to buy medicine and medical treatment.
In the past, Xiao Mannai needed to dye cloth, so she naturally made her own dye paste from blue grass.
It is very troublesome to use indigo grass to make dye paste. You need to use a large vat to soak the indigo grass for a long time. It takes a long time and a large amount of lime needs to be added repeatedly.
There is not so much lime on the mountain, and there are no big tanks for soaking bluegrass.
Moreover, Jiang Zhi only dyed a piece of cloth and did not have the patience to make dyeing water.
She wanted to use the "ancient plant dyeing" of modern bloggers in front of old experts like Xiao Mannai. Although it was a trick, it was just convenient and quick.
The bloggers' dyeing method is very simple, just boil the plants of the desired color in water to create the base color.
Then put the fabric into 40-degree soup and soak it for a while. After taking it out, soak it again in alum-based color fixing agent.
The required color of the fabric is determined by the number and duration of soaking.
Xiaomannai sold homemade dye cream, but Alum kept a small packet, which is just in use now.
If there was no alum, Jiang Zhi could only use salt water or clarified plant ash as a fixing agent.
A basket of bluegrass leaves is washed and put into the pot. It is boiled for another half an hour. After filtering out the residue leaves, continue to put the soaked cloth into the soup.
After repeated soaking, the fabric quickly turned light blue. Although it was not as moist and thick as the dye, it was surprising that the effect could be achieved so quickly.
Xiaoman Nai looked very surprised: "Although this color is not resistant to sunlight and washability, it is indeed much more convenient. Erruiniang, do you think you can use this method to dye other colors in the future?"
Jiang Zhi said with a smile: "Yes! Use Lala seedlings to dye red, sweet potato leaves to dye shiniron, gardenia to dye yellow, and pomegranate peels and walnut green peels to dye black."
Lala seedling, also called saw saw vine, is the most common weed growing in wheat fields. Based on the principle that everything can be used as medicine, it is also a medicinal material that can cure diseases and save lives.
Take its effect of cooling blood and stopping bleeding, mix it with Imperata Imperata root to treat nosebleeds, mix it with loach string to treat bloody dysentery, and add motherwort to treat dysmenorrhea.
Because Sawtooth belongs to the Rubiaceae family, it can also be dyed a beautiful red color.
Xiao Mannai was greatly surprised when she heard this: "Let's try it in the future too!"
Plant dyeing has a disadvantage, that is, it fades badly and is not as good as chemical dyes, and the clothes will stay bright even if they are torn.
Work requires resistance to dirt, and clothes need to be washed frequently. Workers in coarse linen clothes often use two colors of blue and gray. When washed, they fade and turn white.
Some fine clothes have to be worn inside out for fear of fading in the sun.
Only fine silk can be dyed with bright colors. People who wear these fabrics do not care about money. They will wash the fabrics once they fade and then replace them with new ones.
What Xiao Mannai thinks is that if we can dye cloth easily in this way, we can dye various colored cotton threads, and the fabrics woven with colored threads will be more beautiful.
Jiang Zhi hadn't thought about this level yet. Seeing that Xiao Mannai had such a clear mind, he naturally wanted to encourage and support him and said with a smile: "Chunfeng and Qiaoyun can think about it more in the future, and it's not in vain for you to teach them spinning and weaving."
Xiao Mannai thought of her eldest grandson who said he wanted to learn weaving. If Dazhu and his wife really mastered this craft, they would no longer have to worry about food and clothing.
She looked at Jiang Zhi and said with gratitude: "Er Ruiniang, I don't know how to thank you for this. Dazhu and his wife will owe you a lifetime of love from now on."
Jiang Zhi waved his hands repeatedly: "Mother, please don't thank me. I just casually said how to do it and whether it can be done. It's up to Dazhu and his wife to do the hard work themselves."
