RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 



seemed to be something in this creative work, this mak- 

 ing of a new thing out of the raw material, which 

 inspired the song— at least I never knew a spinner 

 working in her home by herself who didn't sing as she 

 wrought. 



After the yarn was spun and skeined it was ready 

 to be wound, and for this purpose the skein was put 

 upon the swifts, whence it could be wound into balls 

 or on shuttles for weaving. Usually the cloth for men's 

 use was the plain homespun of whose durability an old 

 man, who was one of a large family, said: "Mother'd 

 weave a web for the oldest boy's suit; when he outgrew 

 it, it was handed down to the next, and so all the six had 

 a chance at it. When the youngest boy had outgrown 

 it and the suit was still as good as ever, the Lord 

 created the moth to eat it up." 



In the very earliest times the cloth was worn as it 

 came from the loom, there being no means of dressing 

 it. In later days fulling mills were erected in various 

 parts of the country and the fabric was given a crude 

 dressing. 



The old process of fulling is thus described: "The 

 fulling of cloth is commenced by scouring the fabric in 

 water holding in suspension an aluminous clay called 

 fuller's earth, or other detergent, to absorb the grease. 

 It is then washed and beaten by heavy wooden mallets 

 in a trough, soap and hot water being copiously used in 



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