While the unusual abundance of various mushrooms was at its peak this October, I was of course in bed fainting couch with pneumonia, then dizzy from the antibiotics (I hope), so after a light sprinkle of frost last night I rushed out into the sunny, quiet day to check on a few local specimens.
Tag: colour
The yarn that wouldn’t
As I mentioned in passing yesterday, I had some non-results with dried walnut on one of my overdye projects. I can’t remember what came first, I think possibly alum and St. John’s Wort solar dye method (= mucky fawn).
Then I tried dried walnut shells, bought in a store, not collected, regrettably. (=beige) Ammonia: no change. Yes, it really lost colour compared to the original.
Another option would be mixing my used dye jars of hollyhock, cochineal and safflower on the odd chance they were not exhausted from the other hanks I showed yesterday. (=this added a slight greyish tint to the beige)
Dumping the science projects
For a while I’ve been recording facts about each yarn I’ve plant dyed, I’ve made solar and indirect light exposure tests (more about that when I have the energy to make a list), the pH values, the modifiers.
Well, I felt it was time to lose that for a while.
Another kind of purple
Just thought I’d un-whine a bit. (but I’m still very close to running out of whites š® )
Incidentally, the warp is not lost nor abandoned, although it is no longer on the loom.
So…
This is another one of those days where I have a number of blog drafts sitting around, but can’t get to the end of them because stuff is missing. (I can’t tell you of a loom I did not get to buy for instance because somebody else beat me to it) But I need to keep in touch or I’ll go missing entirely I think, there’s definitely something to staying in the flow, not just with art, but with blogging too. The more you do, the more ideas happen as well.
Busy week here preparing for an insurance inspection, ditto meeting and generally a very tiring May. My journal has ONE page in it, that’s how little I’ve been “me” instead of janitor/general manager/headache monster. Trying to reset myself now, mentally and physically, by doing very little, my brain is boiling a wee bit. Definitely hoping to get back to work on Monday, and I know I’ve said that about some previous Mondays as well, but this time I mean it or I’ll murder somebody. I don’t even care if they deserve it. š
Anyway, we were out of dog food and old ladies get special low calorie senior kibble, so I had to drive to town today and decided to try a marathon run of my long accumulated shopping list. No more room on the whiteboard. Only forgot to look for two things and didn’t get one other which was not available, so all in all I feel very efficient and also accomplished enough to relax about granting myself some me-time. So much for resetting, but I did that most of yesterday at least and haven’t done much else today either. I may not be able to get artsyfartsy on weekends, but I think tomorrow will be for a couple of projects where I just have to point. Rhubarb pie might happen.
Only yesterday I was thinking about how it would be nice to have various shades of bright thread to make scrap blankets/quilts from old clothes. Well, first stop on our tour was getting a new cover for painting on the dining table and what did they have at the checkout counter? A little junk basket of very marked down threads… Thanks a bunch!
Second score was a new hedge trimmer. The one I’ve been using for the last 12 years is a bit weak and I often have to hack my way through if I need to trim close. My arms, shoulders and back just aren’t up to the job anymore, so we agreed last year that I’d get a better one. Tried various types and the really good ones were also too heavy, so I hope I’ve found a good medium variety. Why doesn’t the large person in the household cut hedges? Because he is not a garden freak and I’d go bonkers having to supervise the job. He could theoretically use this one too, but it wouldn’t work the other way round; which means I’d have to be a major nag to get it done. Not my favourite situation at all. And, well, I kinda like doing it. Especially after.
I’m going to try fishing line for helping with my selvedges in weaving. Do you think this will be strong enough? I obviously didn’t have a chance to pull it before buying…
I also bought a piece of wood. Maybe another day I’ll show you what I want to make from it. It amuses me no end to prance around the hardware store, try things out and pick what I want, with a guy in tow just carrying the stuff!
My saori jacket is not making a lot of progress, oodles of design errors and remakes. I was picking out buttons the other day, haven’t found the perfect set, but decided on “good enough”. This pile I received from Melanie in Toulouse along with chocolate and two lovely scarves, how’s that for a score!? Maybe some day surprise packages will go out in the opposite direction, but for now that’s a secret.
And that’s about it from the cottage this week. The lilacs are looking spectacular at the moment, but so far I’ve forgotten fresh photos of them. Lucky for me, they look just the same as last year. I’m going to try my very best to be a little bit interesting in the near future.