For a few weeks now I've been thinking about how to talk to her about this without saying anything offensive and really never called her. Haven't even paid her but I'd already told her before it arrived that my money has been rather tight since the last major shipment.
I think she's thinking that I can't pay yet.
Anyways I realized that her most recent batch of sweaters was really 100% wool. When the final product was at least twice as heavy as the sample after I repeatedly told her that the sample was too thin and the weave was too sparse, I thought she used a thicker weave and mixed it with cheaper materials.
It was only when an uncle came over to visit my mum and we talked about this that he told me there was a foolproof method to test a material - you burn it.
I googled it that night right after I got home.
It's probably not the best idea to tell everything but it's already on the Internet, just hard to find. I googled "how to differentiate between wool and cotton" and never saw the guides.
What I found after using the right words is this:
Watch:
- if a tuft of loose fibre catches fire before the flame touches it, it's likely to be cotton.
Smell:
- if it smells like burnt paper while burning, it's cotton.
- if it smells like burnt hair, it's wool or silk
- odourless, some kind of plastic like acrylic
Examine:
- if it ends up as ashes, it's cotton
- if the remains are black and brittle, it's probably wool or silk.
- if it's a hard lump, it's plastic
Disclaimer: It's an online guide. There's no certified expert backing these words. I cannot say whether this list is completely true, only that I think it is likely to be true because it makes sense. Also, don't blame me for any health effects caused by the inhalation of gases produced by burning plastic.
As for the piece I experimented on, there was no ashes, there was a strong odour of burnt hair (and I know the smell only too well from my cooking experience with the frickin gas stove) and the thing that remained was black and crunchy.
It was pure wool and was so heavy!
It's now clear to me it was a terrible idea to sell those sweaters for just S$49 but I don't think I can raise the price now that they're already on the racks.
Damn.
I should still speak to my buyer about it.
Hopefully they will sell quick and I can make a slightly different version at a much higher price.
Also learnt to write the stuff on those bags of offerings.
This isn't completely correct, according to some people, but this is what I did.
I was fortunate enough to find this blog that had very detailed instructions on this. Slightly different from what my relatives did but that's not really important. The terms for the familial relations can be found on this website that was also linked from that blog.
The year was written by the stallkeeper herself when I bought it because few people my age know anything about this sort of thing here in Singapore.
I took a few photos for personal reference, in case I ever feel like doing it again for whatever reasons and that blog dies or something.
I wasn't sure about which date I was supposed to write but since she wrote the name for this year, I thought I should put in the date for the day I burnt it. Had to check an online calendar for it since I no longer have a Chinese lunar calendar.
These bags are the next best things to the paper chests which contain even more papery goodness for a better quality of afterlife.
I couldn't find those chests because the stall was closed at TWELVE NOON!
The other only stall only had these, so I got one for my father, one for my mother and one more for my grandmother. S$10 each.
Red ones are for guys, so this bag in the photo is for my father, while green ones are for women. Apparently it doesn't matter which dialect group the deceased is from where these bags are concerned even though the funeral traditions are different.
This was for my grandmother and I made a mistake there. I was actually correct originally but I somehow thought I was wrong so I cancelled the surname there and wrote it below.
Her maiden surname should have been below as I originally thought while her husband's should be right where I wrote and cancelled it. The larger blank space below was for her given name.
I left those blank because I didn't know it and I was going to let my uncle finish it when we go to the temple together.
It's simpler for guys because there's only one surname.
Also cleared out most of the offerings my mum bought just in case she didn't feel like going shopping just before any days that required them.
Took half of them together with the bags.
Not sure what I'm going to do with the rest but that's not really an important question when we found evidence of termite presence at the back of the cupboard.
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