Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Red Dye Everywhere

Not any blogger time lately with my mother in the hospital, but now she's in a nursing home and, as of Monday, I am only allowed to be with her for four hours each day. I spent the afternoon at the farm doing a few small chores and chatting with my neighbor who is working on getting my hayfield and pastures ready for haying next year. When I finally came home, I decided to throw some wool in a pot to see if a nice piece of Black Stewart plaid would bleed enough black to make antique black. That's the third or fourth batch of antique black I've made recently, but it seems I need more and more. The Grasshopper rug border requires more and I've changed the background on the silly hooking class mat so it's now antique black. The only problem was, I forgot I put the pot on the stove when I went into the living room to read and fell asleep.

I had added some red and green wool to the black stewart and the pot was pretty full. When it boiled over, the liquid was quite red. The stove was red, floor was red, and the large bath towel that I used to soak it up was red. Now the white enamel pot is quite red.

I added vinegar to the pot, turned the heat waaaay down, and put the pot back on the stove - then I promptly fell asleep again in the living room. I woke up about 2AM and thought I smelled another boiled over pot, but this time I was lucky. Most of the red had been absorbed, so I set the pot in the sink to cool. I guess that's really effortless dyeing.

2 comments:

April DeConick said...

Phyllis, I'm so sorry to hear about your mom. This must be terribly difficult for you both.

kookaburra said...

Phyllis, sorry to hear your mom isn't able to be at home with you. I'm concerned about you, perhaps until you get more rest and not under so much stress you should leave the dyeing, you could have burned your house down and that is indeed a scary thought. Please take care and look after yourself because if you don't, no one else will, has to begin with you.
Della