Chapter 248 Making Silk Quilt
It was early morning on September 1st, at half past seven.
Today is the beginning of school. On the road in the village, there are a group here and a group there.
These are students who have been on summer vacation for several months.
Now, whether in elementary school or junior high school, morning reading starts at 7:50.
Most students will arrive at school around 7:40, so the roads are full of students now.
This year, because two new classes have been opened for the first grade of junior high school, there are many more students on the road than before.
Su Ying also got up early in the morning, because today, Monday, she has a morning reading class.
Although it is not the main class and the class has not started yet, the teacher they are assigned to still has to come to the classroom.
Wang Fang also prepared breakfast early. Su Ying finished it quickly and went out to school.
"Anzi, is your mother at home?"
As soon as Su Ying left the house, her second aunt came over.
"My mother's second aunt at home is ordering food in the garden."
While talking to her second aunt, Zhang An helped call her mother in the backyard.
It’s not the autumn harvest time yet, so everyone is not very busy yet.
On weekdays, I harvest crops such as beans and peanuts from the fields.
So Wang Fang took advantage of this period of time to plant the vegetable garden first.
After one or two months, this batch of cabbage will be ready for cooking.
"Sister-in-law, do you want to go to the fields today? If you are not busy, please help me open the silk cotton together."
Seeing Wang Fang coming out of the backyard, Aunt Zhang said directly.
"If you want it, I'll just order these cabbage seeds."
With Zhang An's help, Wang Fang didn't spend much time planting the opened cabbage seeds and then went to Zhang An. Second Uncle An helps at home.
It is not the cotton that blooms, but a process in the process of making silk quilts.
Before making silk quilts, you need to screen the prepared cocoons.
You need to put alkali in clean water to boil the silkworm cocoons for a period of time, and then peel the cocoons.
The term "peeling off the cocoon" that people often say comes from this process.
After the cocoons are processed, the opened cocoons need to be opened.
This is what Zhang An's second aunt came to ask Wang Fang to help with today.
It would be much easier if the silk quilt making process was carried out in a factory.
But making it by hand is much more troublesome than making it in a factory.
The process of opening cotton is not difficult to say, but it is not easy.
Because it is really slow to do this job if you are not technically proficient.
In order for the silk to maintain good toughness, these open cocoons need to be opened in water.
In Zhang Bin’s yard, each of them was carrying a large wooden basin.
On the edge of the wooden basin, a bamboo bow bent into a semicircle has been fixed.
When everything was ready, Wang Fang picked up a silkworm cocoon from the basin.
Hold it with your hands until it is about the size of your palm, then put it on the bamboo bow and stretch it out hard.
In this way, a silkworm cocoon is stretched and stretched into a silk pocket, which is as big as the shape of a bamboo bow.
And during the opening process, there may be some hard nodules on some cocoons.
If these nodules are not dealt with, the silk quilt will have obvious hard lumps.
Over time, knots will form, and the quilt will be uneven in thickness.
So when you encounter such nodules, you need to deal with them. If you make them by hand, you can only rub them hard with your hands.
Repeat this step, unwrap the cocoons one by one, and then put them on the bamboo bow one by one, until enough cocoons are put on the bamboo bow.
At this time, when the silk pocket on the bamboo bow is thick enough, it can be removed.
When all the cocoons have been put into silk bags, the opening process is almost over.
Zhang An didn't know how to do this job before, but it's not difficult. Now he has watched his mother and his second aunt do it for a long time, and he has roughly mastered it.
So I asked my second aunt for a big basin and a bamboo bow, and joined the Kaimian Brigade.
When Zhang An was just watching what they were doing, he thought it was not difficult at all.
But after he got started, he discovered that this was not the case, because it required a lot of strength to open the bow.
Although Zhang An was very strong, due to his lack of skill, he burst the cocoon in one go.
After breaking many of them, Zhang An finally got in and pulled out a complete silk bag.
This time Aunt Zhang and Third Aunt Zhang have agreed that one person will make a thick quilt and the other will make a thin quilt.
Aunt Zhang makes thick quilts here, using six kilograms of silkworm cocoons.
Including Zhang An, the three of them worked all morning and only finished a third of it.
Seeing that it was almost noon, Wang Fang stopped what she was doing and went home to pack and cook.
At this moment, Zhang An already felt a little sore in his wrist.
At this time, Zhang An realized that silk was sold very expensively for a reason.
From sericulture to subsequent production, no step is easy.
But this is purely handmade. It would be much easier if it were made in a factory.
It took until the afternoon to finish opening the cocoons prepared by Aunt Zhang.
The subsequent process is much simpler. These opened silk bags need to be wrung out as much as possible.
In the past, this step could only be done by wringing it out with both hands.
But there is no need to do anything now, because Zhang An’s house has a washing machine.
You can put these wet silk cotton pockets directly into it and shake them for a few minutes. They will be much dryer than twisting them by hand.
The last silk pockets taken out need to be spread out and then dried in the sun.
Don’t be lazy in this step. Make sure it is dried to the maximum extent, otherwise the silk quilt may not be soft.
As for this step, Aunt Zhang dried it in the sun for two full days. In this way, the material for the silk quilt was ready.
After all the silk pockets were dried, Aunt Zhang and Wang Fang used scissors to cut them into a cloth pocket.
The next step is drawing, which is also a very labor-intensive process.
Hand-made silk quilts. If you want to make these small pieces of silk cotton into a wide quilt, you need to manually draw the silk.
Several people pulled the cut silk cotton pockets around. As for the size, it depends on how big a quilt they want to make.
This time Aunt Zhang is going to make a 180x200 double quilt for Zhang An, which is very spacious.
So a small piece of silk cotton was pulled by several people into a large thin cotton net.
At this time, Zhang An discovered that this thing is really strong.
Looking at how light and delicate a piece of cloth bag can be stretched into such a large layer. Until all the silk pockets are pulled apart and stacked together, the prototype of the quilt is already in place.
The rest of the work is just some needlework, which is very easy for Wang Fang and his sisters-in-law.
They had already bought good fabrics, and after fixing the quilt core, they sewed the cut fabrics and the silk inside together.
After spending an afternoon, the three sisters-in-law were busy working together, and two silk quilts, one thin and one thick, were completed.
Su Ying also came back from school with the sound of the half iron rod banging in the school.
"Xiaoying is back from school, come and see if you like this quilt."
At this time, Aunt Zhang happened to take out a quilt, and it was not the kind of quilt with separate front and lining. .
It is the kind that is sewn with a zipper and can be put directly into the quilt.
Nowadays, the quilts made by everyone are directly bound with quilt tops and cotton quilts. At least the quilts made by Zhang An's family are still like this.
It’s just that it’s very troublesome to remove and change such a quilt every time.
Bedding has been sold in recent years, but because the price is not cheap, people don’t want to waste this money.
But this time Zhang An and his two aunts not only spent money, but also bought the kind with excellent materials.
They felt that these two quilts had been made for several months.
If you cut out any material and sew it randomly, it will be somewhat inconsistent.
And it’s not convenient to change and wash the next two small ones, so I just spent money to buy this ready-made one.
Then in a matter of seconds, a bright red wedding quilt was installed, with bright red festive fabrics and patterns of mandarin ducks playing in the water.
“I like it, but it’s a bit hard for the two aunts to spend so much time.”
Zhang An’s two aunts had already started preparing quilts for them, Su Ying I knew it before.
Not to mention the previous matter of raising silkworms, she could see that the two aunts had been focusing on it these past few days.
"Isn't this hard work? You two will cover this quilt for a lifetime, so it doesn't matter if we spend some time."
Aunt Zhang smiled and said, she is really I didn’t feel it was hard.
On the contrary, she was quite happy to do these things. From childhood to adulthood, they treated Zhang An like their own son.
Now that Zhang An is getting married, they are willing to spend time on it.
Unlike some families, there are not many sisters-in-law, but each of them has seven or eight hundred tricks.
In the following days, Su Ying went to school every day.
Zhang An was at home, discussing with his parents to see which relatives needed to be invited.
As the days passed and October got closer, Zhang An’s family also began to notify relatives at home.
Except for the strangers in Zhang An’s grandmother’s family, Zhang An’s family actually doesn’t have many relatives.
As for Zhang An’s friends, they are just some of the friends he has met after leaving school in the past two years.
Most of my former classmates in school have not been in contact with each other now.
Even though I met a few occasionally before, now they are all away from home.
But Teacher Wu Zhonghai must not forget it. He had already told Zhang An that he would be notified if Zhang An got married.
So Zhang An spent two days notifying some relatives and friends at home.
"Second uncle is here, come and have a bite."
When the family was having dinner, Zhang Jianjun came with a basket.
Zhang An stood up, brought a pair of bowls and chopsticks over, and poured wine for his second uncle.
"Xiao An, Xiao Ying, these are the peaches from our field. They are ready to eat in the past two days."
Zhang Jianjun put the bamboo basket filled with kiwi fruits next to him and said.
“So I picked some and gave them to you all to try. Our kiwi fruit is very sweet and much more delicious than the ones in the mountains.”
Speaking of this kiwi fruit, Zhang Jianjun is very happy now. .
Their family has spent more than half a year on these acres of land.
Now the kiwi fruit is ripe. Not only is it much larger than the ones in the mountains, but it is also very sweet.
Although there are not many fruits this year, they are fruits after all, and they are so delicious.
If it were any other kind, it would bear fruit in the first year after planting it.
So this is a very good sign, Zhang Jianjun feels that there will be more hope in the future.
"Hey, it's already ripe. I thought I had to wait until next month."
Zhang An went to see it not long ago. At that time, the fruits hanging on the vines were still very small, so Zhang An felt that it would not be so fast. Mature.
I didn’t expect that it had only been ten days and it was already ready to eat.
The kiwi fruit on Wumeng Mountain may be affected by geographical environment such as altitude or sunshine temperature.
So the ripening period is relatively late. In previous years, it would mature almost after the end of September.
Zhang An didn’t expect that what he grew at home this year would be ready to eat so many days in advance.
"I thought the same way before. The ones growing in Guanyin Mountain are still strong now. Maybe our family has taken good care of them."
Zhang Jianjun was also surprised, that is, he went there today When I looked at the ground, I realized it was ready to eat.
"That's enough, Xiao An, half a bowl is enough. If you drink too much, Auntie will talk about me again when you go home."
Zhang Jianjun looked at Zhang An, who was about to fill the bowl. He said quickly.
It's not that he can't drink. The three brothers in his family are all drunkards, but all of them also have rake ears.
It used to be better, and it would be okay if I drank more. But now it’s no longer possible. If I take more than two sips, I will be talked about for a long time when I go home.
Since the eldest Zhang Jianguo listened to Zhang An's advice and drank only a few dollars each time, Zhang An's two aunts would use them as teaching materials every time they drank.
"It's okay, Uncle Er. This is Gastrodia elata wine. It'll be fine if you drink a little more. This thing can also lower blood pressure."
Zhang An was not too prepared for this medicated wine made from Gastrodia elata. Zhang Jianguo and Wang Fang spend a lot of money on drinks every time they eat.
Although they are not old in their forties, their blood pressure has risen somewhat.
If you drink some for a long time, it will help lower blood pressure. It also has the functions of dispelling wind, removing dampness, and dredging the meridians.
Anyway, as long as you don’t drink too much, it’s good for your body.
Zhang Jianjun was not polite. He found a bench and sat down, then took the Gastrodia wine poured by Zhang An.
"Xiao An, I want to pick these sheep peaches and put them on display in the town. What price do you think we should set?"
After the meal, Zhang Jianjun told Zhang An what he had come to say.
No one had sold these kiwi fruits before, so Huang Ming picked a few baskets from the mountains and sold them.
Zhang Jianjun is a little unsure about pricing. If he sets the price too high, others will not want to buy it, but if he sets it too low, he will suffer a loss.
So when the kiwi fruits in the field were ripe, he came over to ask Zhang An.
"Huang Ming sold one piece last year, so we all have to sell it for one dollar and a half, right? This fruit is bigger than the one in the mountains, and it's so sweet."
Zhang An peeled one and handed it to Su Ying, and then tasted one herself.
Although the taste is not as good as the ones grown in space, it is indeed pretty good and even more delicious than those grown in later generations.
(End of this chapter)