Fiber Techne
 

Actually, it was the barter thread got me thinking about this.

Something which really seems to run below the radar is

The manufacture of cordage and clothing.

If/when TSHTF, demand for usable clothing is gonna go vertical.

Supply is gonna be nil.

The societal withdrawal pains will make a bigtime

Heroin addict look positively healthy.

How many here know how to spin, or weave, or knit, or sew?

Or shear a sheep, grow flax, and to prepare either

Wool or linen yarn/thread?

And by the way guys, this isn't a womany thing.

Leather clothing is a miserable uninsulated bitch in any kind

Of wet, cold weather at all.

And there is a reason mountaineers and backwoods people

Around here call cotton "The angel of death."

I can see the inscription on the grave marker now

"Died of hypothermia with 20k rounds of ammo left"

Now, part of my checkered career included building spinning

Wheels and handweaving looms as a living for about 12 years,

And doing a lot of handspinning and weaving as well.

You can go simple/primitive with a drop spindle and

A backstrap loom; hell you can even spin good cordage on

Your thigh. I've made a lot of bowstrings and general purpose

Cordage that way.

To me, knowing these skills and putting the equipment and

Fiber by (I have probably 10 fleeces stashed and a little plot of

Heirloom flax with self-seeds every year)

Is as important as food or fuel.


scyth