The "M" Word

In a house that’s literally full of wool, there’s nothing worse than that evil little critter. You know: the one whose name shall not be uttered for fear of attracting it and all its nasty offspring. We discovered an infestation in the basement dye studio and spent yesterday evening in a clean and purge. Poor cats are now deprived of their sheep’s wool fleeces and have to make do with old towels. (I resisted the urge to buy 18 and 19-year-old cats new beds. I mean, how long will they realistically be in use, huh?) I also lost one stored unwashed fleece and a bunch of other items went into the freezer for a little arctic vacation. And I was finally forced to wash another nice Corriedale fleece that had been in close proximity to the really bad one if I didn’t want to lose it too. Really, I should have dealt with those oh, something like…12 years ago! They were living on borrowed time with a sign out saying “Yummy bug food here!” I’ve been unbelievably lucky. There are still a couple of fleeces kicking around unwashed that I absolutely promise to get to this summer by the latest. It doesn’t totally keep the m*ths at bay but it certainly does improve the quality of the fleece if it’s not left in the grease for decades. I have no excuse except that I didn’t need that particular fleece so I didn’t think about it. Not acceptable.

Now I’m wondering about all the wool up here in the attic storage space. However I don’t have time right now to go through it so it’s going to have to wait for another couple of weeks. Just another thing to add to the ATW list! Meanwhile, back in the studio, I’ve replaced the tie on the bottom of the baby sacque with a piece of white double-folded bias tape. It was all I had available that would work without going shopping yet again. It looks much better so it was worth the switch even though it’s another bit of Creative Recycling.

I dyed my fabric, another length of the infamous linen/rayon, yesterday in a very light green. I used Procion MX dye in a .2% depth of shade. The dyes were from Maiwa and were proprietary colour mixes: 1 gram emerald (bright blueish green) and 1 gram moss (more of an olive green). I had ’em so I used ’em. It turned out slightly lighter than I wanted but in my defense it was very much darker when it was wet and dried considerably lighter than I expected. I do plan for that but obviously in this case not quite enough. It’ll do fine anyway and the colour is very even. Except for one inexplicable dark blue spot, like an ink stain. The fabric must have contacted one errant undissolved speck of dye somehow. I have lots of fabric so can work around it no problem. This is one of the reasons why I don’t like dyeing for other people. Stuff always happens no matter how careful you are.

I’ve cut out T-Man’s undertunic and have the overtunic fabric all ready to go next. Then there’s just mine left. Nana is coming over today to get her hems adjusted if necessary so I can sew them. I’d let her do it but she has macular degeneration and her eyes aren’t good enough. Of course she wouldn’t admit that but I told her I still have lots of time. Yeah, right.

We had a little excitement last night when we woke up to smoke in the bedroom. We sleep with the window open and outside was really thick with smoke. After checking around all over (and waking up rather completely in the process) we concluded that there was no fire nearby and hoped that wherever it was, it was being taken care of. It turns out that there was a house on fire a mile away! Apparently, some idiot druggie was harassing his elderly mom for money and got mad enough to light the house on fire and then jump out the window. Everyone got out ok and he got arrested. Meanwhile it took 40 firemen to deal with the 3-alarm blaze. The house was an old heritage house full of a pack-rat’s accumulations and it was hard to fight. Last I heard it was still smouldering and was pretty much a goner. What do you do with people like that?

BTW, I never found out exactly what happened to the poor workman next door, but he’s not back at work yet. Have to see William or someone who speaks enough English to ask about him. Right now they’re putting on the roof frame ready to be shingled. I bet they’ll be much happier then because they’ve been working in the rain the last few days. Think it's brightening up a bit now? I have to go get some groceries because the Thundering Hordes (The Ninja and Family plus Nana) are coming to help eat this ham I've got lurking in the fridge. They're almost as bad as the m*ths for munching. OK, not Nana. She doesn't eat much at all. Or Stargazer. He just needs his mom. But the rest of 'em!