Come What May, round 2

 

Sorry, I put these pictures up without any words. After the day was done, I was totally out of gas and words.

Don't know what inspired this. I actually started basting the hanks to a piece of heavy linen. After two or three, I slapped myself. The hanks have to be able to be moved a little. I switched to straight pins and rolled it up. The roll went into the sauce first and so was at the bottom of the tank, last on the deck and I had run out of a couple of colors already. 

 

They are waiting for me to start to clean up. 

Just as I was setting up, Colin appeared with a big bag of crocheted cotton throws from my major scout, Mel. They are gorgeous and in pristine condition and I feel a little icky doing this AND cutting them up.

Well, maybe just this one. 

Fruits, some unripe, some rotten. updated

 I fiddled with that cotton/silk twist and also remembered its provenance. Liz, I am pretty sure you had this sent to me all the way from AU or NZ? Please confirm. Thanks. I found the post about the greasy demise of that original hank. Be glad there were no pictures.

I used a tapestry needle on a piece of heavy linen because I couldn't find my damn glasses and was too intent on the project to get up and find the spares.

They were in my hair.

Weather is going to play a bigger role in this work in the future. I have not retaken the holy BATCHING oath. It's because I'm a lazy bitch and if I have to wait for a red-hot thunderstorm to do the primary rinsing, so be it. There are no elves to help out here. 

I wound off a few because they looked so unappetizing in the hanks and I needed to look deeper. 

Revelation #1: Morton's Kosher Salt gave a new dye delivery option that paid off nicely. Short and abrupt color changes were further enchanted by some clumsy handling with dirty gloves. And yes, the new Black Mix really came through nicely. 

                                                You always wondered about that 'dirty', didn't you? 

Basics...once again with feeling

 

Lessons learned all over again. Temper that Hot Pink harder, harder I say. Keep it away from that insipid blue and haul deeper on the turquoise, it's a noble color.

Where is my A Little Chaos blue? The granddaddy of long lost Bonnie Blue. Sad. 

And what the EFF were you yellows doing? Sleeping on the job? 

The new black is nicely neutral!

Y'all must think I'm nuts but I talk to the colors while I'm working. Lots of swearing going on.

They are all languishing in the studio. Drying thread and cloth indoors it tedious but the rain has come to stay for a few days.

My absence caused a bit of disapproval. Now I am sharing a queen-sized bed with four cats.

Finally

 

The glass jars were neglected on the deck over the winter and picked up a patina of rust that two passes through the dishwasher and hand scrubbing could not remove. I could hardly tell what was in the jars after I mixed colors and decided to not label them.

If this batch has a name, it's Come What May.

Even though (I thought) I had a whole day to work with, I only picked a bundle that I could carry down from the studio to the deck, one handed. Three big sections of that light linen, a few damask and woven napkins. A J Jill blouse, dismembered. A twin percale sheet for wiping up spills. Some sections of heavier linen. One of those silk/cotton threads and about twenty of six-strand DMC.

notes before I forget. The silk/cotton did NOT like the soda ash sauce and may have some kind of sizing. Next time, an overnight in hot water & Dawn first.

the lightweight linen allows for a lot of color creeping. very important to not over handle it. Some of this may wind up being discharged, waxed and overdyed. I'm considering them bases for other things.

Of course, all of this depends on how everything looks after rinsing, washing, and drying.

I made a point of choosing colors that I'd overlooked last summer.

I made a mix for black that looks like it's going to be terrific. It seems so neutral here. Again, results will vary a lot.

Equal parts Raven and 629. a dash of Deep Space and Bronze to counter the blue. They ALL show out in the linen.

The percale table moppers are going to be sublime!

Here's why I cut the day short and why nothing is going to get finished before Friday. 

I may get lucky and the rain takes care of the first rinse or two.

Bonus for small batches handled in a studied rather than a frenzied manner - I was not physically or mentally wiped out.

It was also barely 80 by the time I wrapped it up. 

I feel like I was cheating.

Words & weeds

 

As in the past, when the words on paper get stuck, stitching some seem to grease the wheels. Even in the face of some heavy-duty adulting, (so appropriate at my age) scenes are starting to fill out. Characters are having conversations that need recording. It feels good, but it's still a precarious state of mind. Like walking on a very narrow cliff edge with no handholds. 

The severe shortage of thread is hampering me, too.  We had frog-strangling rain all day yesterday. Today, the sun is blazing but it's only in the 40s. It's going to be a challenging dye season.

Just before the rain set in, I walked around the Wood Chip Heap and scattered several pounds of flower seeds that I have been collecting all winter. Native perennials. Butterfly and Hummingbird garden seeds.  "Ooooo, that's pretty" Seeds. I got suckered by the seedmen weekly. The seeds fall down into the top chips hidden away from birds and squirrels into the decomposed stuff that will hopefully nurture some of these seeds to blossom. If a quarter of them make it, it's going to be amazing. I have a mix of vinegar and soap to spray on the emerging poison ivy, brambles, and pokeweed to give the flowers some breathing room. Beyond that, the rest is up to nature.

This is right outside my kitchen windows.