Dying To Dye?

Posted on September 20, 2005 | 1 comment

I was restoring some mysterious invisible threads on the Mirabilia BB t’other day, and came across a post I wrote regarding hand-dyeing fabrics. I thought I’d replicate the info over here, because I don’t trust ezboard not to lose it again, and besides, Cathy asked about this a while back, and I’ve been meaning to post about it here.

You’ve seen Waiting For Ships stitched on one of my hand-dyes, though it doesn’t photograph especially well. I have some more pics over here of some (most of these are small, ornament sized pieces, good for cheaper experimentation). There are a couple more that I’ve done that I didn’t remember to photograph or scan before sending them off to various new homes, whoops.

Before I started dyeing, I scoured the internet for information. Here are some of the links I find useful:

www.quilt.com/FAQS/FabricDyingFAQ.html
www.pburch.net/dyeing/howtodye.shtml
www.straw.com/sig/procion.html
www.prochemical.com/directions/F_LowWaterImmersion.htm
www.dyeingfabric.com/
www.dharmatrading.com/

Plus a couple of books that I have which are both very useful:

‘Color by Accident’ by Ann Johnston
‘Fabric dyeing for beginners’ by Vimala McClure

Dharma trading is very informative if you dig around the site, and you can purchase your Procion Dyes there too (I’m lucky enough to have a local resource not too far from me here in Melbourne).

If you’re interested in dyeing your own fabric, the best suggestion I can make is: experiment, experiment, experiment. I don’t really have any hard and fast rules I follow, though I’m gradually developing my technique as I practice. Oh, and experiment on cheaper fabric (obviously this depends on your financial situation) . The results you achieve differ between fabrics, but dyeing cheap fabric will get you a pretty good feel for the techniques. Colour wheels are a great way to get a feel for the results of mixing different amounts of dye… not always what you expect! I only bought the primary colours and black, and do my own colour-mixing; you can also buy many pre-mixed dyes if you prefer.

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Posted in Dyeworks, Other Craft

Post #45

Posted on September 19, 2005 | 2 comments

This is the mysterious Post #45. It’s been sitting at the top of my blog Admin panel blowing raspberries at me for some time. It’s time something was done about it!

Sometimes, I start some amazingly witty blog post, don’t finish it, and save it as a draft. When I come back to it, it seems somehow less amazingly witty. So I just leave it there to fester. But I really can’t stand the unfinished posts just sitting up there. So I’m overwriting said unwittiness with this post, and sending Post #45 out there into the world to fend for itself.

You know what’s going to bug me though? The post list is going to be all out of order now. Instead of going 60, 61, 62, 63, 64…, my post list will read 60, 61, 62, 62, 45, 64, 59! Fifty-nine! Yep, that’s the other of my malingering drafts. I’ll recycle it the day after tomorrow (or thereabouts) to get rid of it. I can’t recycle it for tomorrow, because 64 is already written, and timestamped for tomorrow. After 59, I’ll have a clean slate again, and numbering can progress as normal. I wish WordPress didn’t assign post numbers until actual publication, but since I’m not going to go developing a way around that, I guess I can’t complain about it.

Oh. I just did? Well, whatever.

In other bloggity-news, I finally realised my pinging problem was not going to solve itself, so I added BlogRolling to my auto-notify list. (The WP default is to notify ping-o-matic, which is supposed to notify everything else, but evidently it wasn’t). Fingers crossed in the hope this will actually work, and you won’t need to waste your time coming over here when I haven’t updated in a week ๐Ÿ™‚

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Posted in Blog Blather

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In The Realm of Spooky

Posted on September 18, 2005 | 1 comment

Don’t know if it was the recent sighting of someone I went to college with, or if it was the glib ‘stalking’ remark I made in an email to a friend. Perhaps it was the recent post by Laura about an ex-boyfriend of hers. Whatever prompted it, I have been doing my own teensy bit of cyber-stalking tonight. I found something I thought quite bizarre.

I looked up two people whom I was once very close to in college – one an ex-boyfriend, and one an ex-friend. I need not elaborate on the whys and wherefores of either relationship. But at the time, they had little to do with each other, and as far as I know, still have little to do with each other.

Anyhow. It turns out that they live only three blocks from one another. That in itself might not be so strange, were we all still in the same city. But no, both of them moved almost as far away from me as it is physically possible to do while remaining in the same country. (Actually, I’m fairly certain that it has nothing to do with me, however it does make me wonder :giggle: ). So that’s why I find it so completely strange that they independently moved all that way, and they ended up so very close!

I wonder if they run into each other in the supermarket…

I wonder what they talk about…

๐Ÿ˜ฏ

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Posted in General Ramblings

Before and After

Posted on September 17, 2005 | 1 comment

I am now getting to that point in my Masters degree where, because I “don’t work” (aka I am “just a mum”), I am beginning to be asked what my plans are for when I finish. Courtesy of the wacky dudes at the Southpark Studio*, I am now able to demonstrate to you visually, exactly what “my plans” are:

Exhibit A: Mel before finishing Masters degree:
before finishing Masters degree

Exhibit B: Mel after finishing Masters degree:
after finishing Masters degree

*Link discovered on Robin’s Nest. Thanks Robin ๐Ÿ™‚

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Posted in General Ramblings, Postgrad Study

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Washing Machine: 4, Melanie: nil

Posted on September 15, 2005 | 2 comments

Ahahahahahahahahahahaheeheeheeheeheeheeeeeee! :topsy:

Yes, folks, we have moved from the minor breakdown phase, into the loony hysteria phase. The washing machine broke down again last night. I assure you, I don’t know which deity-of-machiney-things I have offended, but I promise, I’m sorry. Please, please, can’t I just have some appliance-breakdown-and-vehicle-collision-free time now?

If this was an old washing machine, I would be less concerned about the situation. In fact, we would have replaced it by now. But it’s only four years old. It’s still under warranty (thank goodness – some time after we bought ours, the warranty period dropped to 3 years, we were lucky to get the 5, as it turns out). This machine is a complete and utter lemon, let me tell you. At 2 years old it had to have major structural repairs – the drum ended up being replaced. At 3 years old, the pump was replaced, and we were told to ‘just live with’ some odd noises the drum was making. (Incidentally, at that point I was told I did ‘too much’ washing… what?!) Now, at 4 years old, it has had its brains replaced – the expensive-looking electronic board which controls the whole thing. But the burned out board turned out to be just a secondary symptom of whatever is really going wrong, because a week after that was replaced, it’s gone out of its tiny mind again. I’m ready to dig the thing a grave, warranty or no warranty, I tell you.

I’m not going to be petty and name the brand (ahem-Italian-starts-with-‘A’) , but for darned sure we will not be giving them any more of our dollars.

By the way, no, the car was not terribly damaged in the brother-in-law incident. In fact, to make lemonade out of lemons, an old scrape that I was responsible for myself (neighbours fence ๐Ÿ˜› ) has been covered over by the new damage, so the repair will be like a two-fer-one freebie! In the light of ‘one-week-after-it-happened’, I do feel mildly embarrassed by my breakdown, but as I said at the time, it was not really about the car. It was more about the everything. I’m good now. Hysteria is much more fun :giggle:

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Posted in General Ramblings

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Smash Magnet

Posted on September 12, 2005 | 2 comments

Sooo…

You’re gonna love this!

Five hours after I wrote that last post?

My brother-in-law backed into my car.

My newly repaired car, not four days after picking it up from the repairer.

:grr: :grr: :grr:

I’m able to smile (wanly) about it now. At the time, I had a minor breakdown in the bathroom. Stupid, really. All the things that are going on in my life are so infinitesimally small… it’s just that cumulative effect thing taking a hold.

In better news, the exam timetable for this semester came out today. I know, that doesn’t sound much like a good thing. And in fact, it is a little scary, my two exams are within two days of each other. The good bit is that my exams are earlier this semester, so I get it over and done with. Last semester I had three weeks of twiddling my thumbs er… I mean studying, before the exams. This time, I’ll be done on the 29th of October, so I’ll have two entire months off before my final unit in January. Yay!

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Posted in General Ramblings, Postgrad Study

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On The Upswing

Posted on September 9, 2005 | 4 comments

Didn’t I tell you I’d post an all GoodThings post someday soon? Well, things are not quite all good, but are definitely back on the upswing.

The washing machine finally stayed dead long enough for TheGuy to see what was wrong, and hoo-boy was it nasty. The control board had burned out badly enough to have charcoal on it! I don’t want to know what one of those things costs, I’m just super glad the machine was still under warranty.

The car is fully repaired and happy to be home again. The liability issue is ongoing. Let’s not talk about that :giggle:

Then, good things arrived in my mailbox on Tuesday and Wednesday. First, official notice of unconditional approval on our home loan application. There had been some delay in that, for reasons beyond our control. Second, a lovely stitched piece by Annette arrived. This was the final mailing in the seasonal exchange we took part in last year, and I just love it, it’s a great design. And thirdly…stash! For me! New Stash! I’m sure you can tell how happy I was about that – I bounced around the room for a good half an hour :giggle: Kati from The Wagon sent me these great Paw Printings charts which have been on my wishlist for a good long while:

I think I have enough black perle cotton in my stash to stitch the ornament on the Onyx chart, and suitable substitute beads, so after I finish my red piece, I might treat myself to a new start. I can do that right? It’s only small, after all…!

Thanks Annette and Kati. It’s so nice to share a hobby with such a great bunch of people. Kati’s gift was a RAK (Random Act of Kindness), which have just been introduced on The Wagon. I RAK’d someone this week too, but shhh, it’s a secret!

Oh, and the final GoodThing I have to report? I’m not going to turn this into a weight loss journal. But. I’ve lost 5.5kg in the last 6 weeks. Happy Dance!

4 Comments

Posted in Counted Stitchwork, General Ramblings

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Why I’m Grumpy Today

Posted on September 5, 2005 | 3 comments

This is pretty much just a cut-n-paste from a post I made on The Wagon, so I’m sorry if you’ve already read it. But I’m pretty shaken by this, so forgive me if I seem preoccupied with todays events.

You remember the accident? The uninsured driver? Well…

…it now transpires that the girl who hit me is claiming she was not at fault, and requesting I PAY FOR HER REPAIRS!!!! I am speechless and in shock. What is more, she is blatantly lying with regards to the existence of an independent witness. I saw her leave the scene at the same time as I did, and travel quite some distance along the same road I did (in fact, I thought she was going to hit me again at one point). She didn’t get a witness at the time we were at the scene (I now wish I had thought to do so, or call the police, but she seemed to admit she was at fault at the time, so I trusted she would do the same later – like, say, I would, because I’m an honest kinda person). I really find it difficult to believe she could have found anybody who witnessed the collision still in the car park if she went back later. So I think she’s lying, or someone has agreed to lie for her. And I feel like it’s my word against hers/theirs. I’m really upset about this.

My insurers, after being a bit of a pain over some missed damage, are now being somewhat helpful again, and saying they still believe me. What’s more, they will have their investigators check out the damage to her car, see how it relates to my story, and interview her ‘witness’. They say that I have done all the right things so far. But I don’t think I’ll sleep tonight anyway. She looks like the kind of person who might have big scary male relatives to send around my way, and she knows where I live! ๐Ÿ˜ฅ

I just want this all to go away. Gonna go and have a big cry now.

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Posted in General Ramblings

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My Precioussss!

Posted on September 4, 2005 | 3 comments

It would seem that I am a hoarder. Well, OK, I actually knew that. But what I didn’t know is how extraordinarily difficult it is for me to throw anything away. Our impending move is making this problem abundantly clear to me. Books are the worst, it is just agonizing for me to try culling our collection. I am slightly better at throwing OtherHalf’s books into the ‘must-go’ pile, but books I’ve amassed myself are a whole different story :giggle: We did manage to donate half a box of ancient cookbooks to the Op-shop – mostly lovely 1970’s offerings, full of that peculiarly orange style of photography, and wholly unappetizing recipes. Practically everything else has been boxed up to take with us (including the books OtherHalf rescued from my must-go pile!)

But hey… books are understandable, right? Lots of people cling dearly to their book collections. I’m totally sane. Well. Except for the next bit…

Today, it was the bathroom cupboard’s turn to be trimmed down. Our new house (hee… those words still give me a little thrill) has no storage in the bathroom. Well, it has a very narrow little medicine cabinet thingy behind the mirror. But nothing else. So until we manage to scrape some cash together for renovation (that may be quiiiiiite a while), we have to pare down what we keep in the bathroom. Hmmmm. Seems we have about a million bottles of sunscreen lotion, and the same again of moisturiser. And hair product, and fragrance… where the heck did it all come from? And why am I physically incapable of throwing it out?! This is crazy stuff. For goodness sake, Finn was weaned 18 months ago. Why do I need to keep nursing pads? I honestly can’t explain my behaviour – I did manage eventually to bag and bin about a third of what was there (nursing pads included), but there is still more that should go… and I just can’t seem to do it! I have adopted the plan that instead of throwing it out, we should use it up. So for the next 6 weeks, expect me to be frightfully moist, sun-protected, hair-styled and smelly aromatic, in a bid to get rid of the bottles in our cupboard. Or, you know, you could come over and throw them out while my back is turned!

I think I’ll cry when I get to my mountains of crafty-stuff ๐Ÿ™

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Of Zen, and Frogs, and Dingoes

Posted on September 2, 2005 | Comments Off on Of Zen, and Frogs, and Dingoes

The washing machine picked itself up off the floor and behaved like a perfect angel when TheGuy came. I gritted my teeth, and of course after he had left, it blew me a raspberry and resumed its former position on the matter. Grrr. There’s a laundromat around the corner where I expect to be spending some time studying over the next week or however long.

After last night’s post, I decided I needed more Zen in my life. Went looking for something I just knew would be on the www. Yes, you too can play with your very own Zen garden. I taught Finn how to do it, he had a ball :giggle:

So I stitched a bit more while he had fun on that this morning. Sadly, while stitching in monochrome is somewhat easier, and almost meditative itself, it is not exempt from the froggies. Three separate frogs visited me in a short space of time, so I put it down for the rest of today. I think I’m about 25% done in these few days though, so it shouldn’t be too long before another happy dance.

That covers the Zen and Frogs of my title, but what about the Dingoes, you may ask? Well, since TheGuy got in and out before our regularly scheduled story time at the library, we were able to make it there after all. And… who knew… it’s the 21st birthday of Wombat Stew today: Happy Birthday WS! Total coincidence that we were at the library for the 11am National Simultaneous Storytime. I love this book, we have it at home, and Finn thinks my singing voice is hilarious as I emulate the dopey dingo and his “Wombat Stew, Wombat Stew – Gooey, Chewy, Crunchy, Munchy, Wombat Stew”. And of course, I’m not one to give away endings, but let me tell you that the Wombat comes to no harm in the end!

So that was my Friday. Sadly, tomorrow is Saturday. While for some (OtherHalf, Finn) that means sleeping in, indulgent breakfast at home, and pottering about the house and garden, for me it means 4, maybe more, hours at uni. Blech! Looking forward to Sunday.

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Posted in Counted Stitchwork, General Ramblings, In Progress

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