Dye Pots and Wet Socks!

Dyeing yarn for Your Daily Fiber has been something that has been easy for me. That’s why I like it. I get to choose the colors. I can procrastinate. There is not a whole bunch of heavy lifting. Ivy doesn’t boss me around much, in fact she doesn’t pay much attention to me at all. (We are going to talk about that in a minute.)

When you reach the age that I am now: things happen that have never happened before. One of these things happened this past week.

Dyeing yarn is really simple. Get some water hot; really hot. Add some dye stuff. Soak the yarn. Rinse the yarn and let the yarn dry. Sounds simple doesn’t it?

I’ve had something in the back of my mind every time I dye yarn. I think about hot water, just casual thoughts. You know, thoughts like, “Wow, I really have the water hot. I wonder how hot that water is.”

Yep, you guessed it. I found out how hot the water was/is. Sadly, I didn’t find out how hot the water was by using a thermometer. I chose another method.

I have mentioned I might be a procrastinator. When I procrastinate, I might get a little behind schedule and need to hurry a bit.

Ivy had given me a bunch of new yarns and asked me to dye them. I looked at that box of yarn for, well, quite a while. Ivy was quite nice about her request. (I know, I find that unbelievable also.) Anyway, Ivy finally told me she needed the yarn. I had to hurry.

If I dye multiple colors, and don’t procrastinate, I have time to let the pots cool before I dump the pot and change colors. Not this time.

You know when you are at the sink dumping hot water from a pot, you are dumping the water too fast or too slow and the water is running off the bottom of the pot straight on your leg. You don’t; I do. Luckily, I had plenty of cold water near-by to pour on now my extremely painful right leg. (Did I mention my right leg has always been my favorite leg?)

I drenched my shoe, sock and everything in sight with cold water. With the pain now bearable, I walked into the sales floor and removed my now soaked shoe and sock. It wasn’t long and Ivy walked up to me and said, “Can you get this wet shoe and sock out of here?” She didn’t ask, why the sock and shoe were wet, she just wanted them out of there. (That's the part where she doesn't pay attention to me.)

I knew just what to do. I will call Elaine and tell her. She will feel sorry for me and tell Ivy to be nice.

Me: I dumped a dye pot on my leg. Elaine: (giggling) What color is your leg? Me: Excuse me? Elaine: What color is your leg? Me: My leg is red, except the blisters, they’re white. Elaine: (now crying) OMG, you didn’t say it was hot. Do you need a doctor? Me: Now we’re getting somewhere! Ivy wants me to pick up my sock!

I have been asking Ivy and the twins if they want to see my blisters. They will not look at the blisters, so there is no point in asking them if they will put burn cream on my ankle. I honestly don't know why I have kids. Elaine tells me to put burn cream on them three times a day, but she doesn't want to see the blisters, either.

OK, the good news is, I've dyed all of the yarn. My leg still works. The Hot August Knits Yarn Crawl is still going on. Ivy is OK with where I had left my sock. (She still made me pick it up.) I wrote about yarn and the store. (Sort of.)

Our crazy lives!

Monner