My body, equipped with vaccinations and booster, recognizes this invader and deals with it, but imperfectly. The Rona symptoms (respiratory struggle, no sense of smell) come and go within hours. In between, it manifests as a five-alarm head cold.
Nothing for it but to sit out in the fresh air and sunshine and hand wash chunks of cloth. And nap when needed.
Washing soda ash solution and excess dye out of cotton damask is labor intensive but tactilely satisfying.
On the first pass, an orange-sized ball of cloth feels slimy and will jump out of your hands and splat color on your bare feet.
Add just a drop of Dawn to the second pass and trouble doubles. The damask weave and the density of the fiber whip the detergent into foam.
A hot water pass calms everything down and soothes my paws. Back to cold water for the final two or three passes to make sure the water runs clear.
Then I snap them out and hang them over whatever; lawn chairs, railings, the old thyme and lavender shrubs (you may smell them.)
Then, the next day I found that a lot of these had dried to a pale mess so I set up for overdyeing. What caused the color loss? Old dye? Not enough time in the soda ash? There's no telling.
Washing these out today and then most of it will get blended into the Hot Scraps inventory.
6 comments:
hmmmmm ... your theory about Covid and the vaxxes sounds quite plausible ... and perhaps explains the strange sensation in my throat the other night ... Covid trying to get a foothold and the vaxxes fighting back perhaps?
I do love that your deck picks up and holds on to remnants of the dye fest ... much as Don's leftover acrylic paint water continues to enliven our tiny bit of back porch cement (it does fade, but he keeps splashing more on ... ha!)
The deck is pressure-treated wood so nothing stays for long even though it's long overdue for a good pressure wash. No lasting rainbows out there.
I'll rage here. On the plane home from Wilminton, my seatmate was a sick giant. He somehow crammed his 6'6" self into the aisle seat while I (masked!) tried to crawl between the window panes. He sneezed and coughed into his left elbow - right over my head. The woman behind him cleared her throat loudly every two minutes and the couple in front of us never stopped their very loud conversation the entire trip. My bio-defenses didn't know whether to shit or go blind. I still have aches and a head full of boogers.
ugh ... I'm dreading the flights we are taking next month, but long distance driving isn't an option any more ... thank goodness I can dial down my hearing aids while Don puts on his headphones to block out the inevitable endlessly-talking couple (who also manage to attend every singer/songwriter event we go to ... and I'm quite sure they're related to the guy who shows up at every golf tournament and yells "to the hole!") ... that we will be N95 masked goes without saying
Each variation has different symptoms......so what we know from 'before" might not mean anything right now.
Daughter had a head full of snot and a low never ending sense of having a fever. then it was gone.
Others have the cough. Endlessly.
Deb~ Love reading about your process to create these beautiful cloths.
Me too over here. Since Sunday, low fever, sore throat...2 negative covid tests. Who knows what is happening...I wear two masks all day every work day...life must go on for me. Waiting for the weekend.
the deck...i would press my face into them...drape them over my head, wrap self with them, press my face into the to Take Them In.
Post a Comment