Caroline Brinegar planned months ahead to make garments for her family from linsey-woolsey, a fabric she wove on her loom from wool yarn and linen thread. The wool gave the cloth warmth and the flax gave it strength. In mid-spring she planted flax near her house and sheared sheep kept in a nearby field so wool would be ready to card and spin. In the fall, the Brinegars harvested the yellowed flax by pulling it up by the roots and drying it in the sun. They then retted it by soaking it in water for about three days or leaving it in dew and rain for several weeks until the outer coating softened, and dried it again until it was brittle. To prepare it for spinning, they broke the flax to separate the woody boon from the long fibers, scraped away boon and straw with a scutching bat and board, and combed the fibers through a hackle to remove remaining pieces and smooth them. The short fibers left in the hackle, called tow, could be used for rough tow sacks. Caroline spun the flax into linen thread and the wool into yarn on her spinning wheel, while she and her daughters carded the wool with toothed carding combs to smooth out tangles. She then warped her loom with the spun flax by threading individual linen threads through each heddle eye and reed slot, and wove linsey-woolsey by passing a shuttle carrying wool between the warp threads as she raised and lowered them with foot pedals.