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Cotton bug?

Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 10:03 pm
by Pirog
Is the process of making cotton cloth different from hemp and silk?
I have started a cotton yarn project, saying it needs X amount of cotton fibres...but when I try to add cotton it says "project doesn't need more cotton".

Is the cotton fibre something different from the cotton you gather or is this some kind of bug?

Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 10:08 pm
by The Industriallist
Cotton fibre is made from raw cotton with a cotton gin.

If they meant cotton instead of cotton fibre, they would have said it, in the reliable place.

Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 10:41 pm
by Pirog
Oh...I thought a cotton gin was a machine for gathering cotton. Hehe, shows how much I know about fabrics :lol:

Thanks for the help!

Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2004 7:34 pm
by mortaine
When cotton is harvested IRL, it has a husky shell covering the white cotton fibre. Removing this husk is time consuming, but can be done by hand. However, the cotton gin is a remarkably simple invention that allows the husk to be removed quickly and without the tough labor that is required in hand-husking (you basically have to pry the husk open with your fingers, which hurts!)

This is different from flax and hemp, which both grow more "openly" on the plant. It's also very different from wool, mohair, and silk, which can be spun almost directly once separated from the fiber-producing animal.

Basics of cotton fabric production:
Pick the cotton.
Run it through a cotton gin to remove the husks.
Spin it into yarn.
Weave or knit the yarn into fabric.

With wool, it's a little simpler:
Harvest the wool (shear the sheep).
Spin it into yarn.
Weave or knit.
In real life, wool and mohair have to be cleaned and combed or carded before spinning, but you might consider those to be parts of the spinning process.

Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2004 9:00 pm
by rklenseth
Since this isn't a very bad breach, I'm not going to edit anything but I am going to use this opportunity to remind players that knowledge of how thing s work need to be figured out in game so telling another player in the forum how to do something in game is a technical breach of the Capital Rule if the person then uses that knowledge in game.

These things need to be figured out by your characters in game. If you don't know in real life either then that gives you the opportunity to figure it out as your characters figure it out.

Please refrain from using OOC knowledge in game. :D

Thank you.