a finishing day

Almost a year since I bought it, I broke out this warhorse of a machine because I don't trust the Janome or the Featherweight to do the right thing by eight+ layers of  service weight linen. 

I rolled the hem on this cloth one-quarter inch and ran up both sides, the fabric itself is loomed only 24 inches wide.  Toweling maybe? I've got tons of the stuff so I warmed up with hemming a towel for the kitchen. 

Then I cut a piece of the same cloth to back the pillow I planned for "The Rose" lyrics piece. In haste, I didn't even pin the two sides together. Just put it under the needle and was careful not to feed my fingers into the fire. The 99K stitched through all that as if the cloth was butter. An amazing machine. 

I scored a pair of 20" feather pillows on the 'Zon. I should have left myself a little more wiggle room on the closure - getting the pillow inside was quite a battle. Hand stitching the seam closed felt like stitching up a body bag. "You ain't NEVER coming out of there." 

This morning I retrieved the overdyed thread from the deck where I let them seep into two of those linen towels. 

Sweetie decided they needed a little more warmth before hatching.

I'm putting orders together to ship on Friday. Cloth and thread.

dirty threads : updated

 

There is a mountain of thread to be processed.  Lest ye think I have a hive of elves chained up in the closet making this happen, let me explain.

The wind-on happens while I'm on the clock and involves a heavy water glass and fifty fast flicks of the wrist. Each skein is tied off with a four-inch section of itself in a firm knot.

I have worked out a technique that, although repetitive, involves no physical strain. Or I'm an alien. 

The actual process of applying the dye is complex and mutable.

Once the dyed skeins have cooked in the sun until dry, they have to be gathered up (in a very specific way to keep them from tangling) then hand washed and rinsed until there is no dye run-off. I use Dawn detergent, so soap city.

Time to dry. Last year I bought a cylindrical mesh tower to dry my herb harvest. It's also perfect for drying skeins of thread. It never fails that as soon as the tower is hung on the high deck and loaded, the weather says, "Foolish woman!" and I scramble to get the whole thing inside. Grateful that Colin was here to handle that yesterday.  24 hrs to fully dried.

And so, to the great wind off. Where are those elves when you need them? Each skein has to have its tie-off clipped carefully. I loop the skein over my left wrist and transfer the finished thread onto the cardboard bobbins (Dee, the ones you sent are wonderful.)  One skein at a time.  I do this operation while I am working the night job, between calls for a company I used to call the Whine Mine, most recently promoted to The Shit-Show. It has paid the bills for a dozen years, but I'm coming up on my fill of lies, bullshit, and grief. Fast.

At first, this lot of thread presented as ho-hum, and I was thinking there'd be the nightmare of repeating the whole process in reverse in order to overdye the worst offenders.  Nope. Each one of these has a subtlety going for it. "Take me as I am". So be it.  I'll be posting groupings of six to the store in the next few days. 

I'm nearly out of materials and my time and attention are needed for other things.  The DIY book for Dirty Threads is looking more likely every day. 

§§§ by light of day, many were boring so I held a do-over. 

family

 

Mothers, you will wear your heart outside your body for the rest of your life. And beyond.

from the flight line

In just a few moments, everything can change. 

Dirty thread boogie

 Big reveal when it lands.

I paved the work surface with sections of cloth- linen,  cotton, silk- under the threads so they get the blessing, the grace, of color too. The process can be directed, not controlled.

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    Update: early returns!