Back to School....

Saturday afternoon's efforts!

Well the silence in our house at 8:45pm was simply blissful.  For those of you who do not have small children, it is very hard to get them to go to bed in the summer due to the long evenings and the fact that they can't really tell time well yet.  So they are monkeys by getting up early with the light and staying up late.  What it means for me is that I did not have any peace in the evenings.  I know with the shorter days we are a bit less productive and the weather might be bad (it might be bad in summer also), but having the small boy in bed for 8:30pm is WONDERFUL.  The stillness to hear myself think and to potter around the house--ahhhhh!  Back to school, but also back to normal.

Fionn is quite nervous about starting the boy's school tomorrow.  He is a bit sensitive and he is particularly upset about their strictness on Irish language.  I have heard that they are not to speak English on grounds at all and he is worried because he doesn't think he has enough to understand or talk, but I think he probably has a lot more than he realizes after four years of school.  I completely believe in immersion to learn a language, but I hope there isn't a penalty for not speaking Irish; negative begets negative and the kids will not love Irish like they should.  There are other boy's in his class that don't speak Irish at home, so I keep telling him that he won't be alone.  He will know a lot of boys there already, so I think once we get past the jitters then things will be fine. 

I got a lot of dyeing done yesterday with the fine weather.  I have a fibre swap to get in the post and a nuno dress project for myself, so I had to get dyeing while I had the weather.  Hopefully with small boy back in school I can get back in the studio on more regular hours as I have only been in on Fridays lately and it is not getting the big or small jobs done.  Still have yet to sew labels in--sigh. I did finish the lacy scarf and it's long and drapey and fab in a Mae West kind of way, but when I put it into the washing machine to felt it stripped the colour out of my lovely hand-dyed silk yarn.  I used acid dyes, so did I not use enough vinegar to set it???  I am wondering if I can put the whole lot into fuchsia dye and try to over dye it again.  Any ideas fibre people?

My first soy wax resist attempt

I felted a sample piece to start playing with the soy wax that I got from http://www.corkartsupplies.com/.  They stock it now and I can get my acid dyes from them instead of ordering from the UK.  Cork Art Supplies ship fast and I receive it next day, so it's wonderful to have them stock things.  I dyed the felt piece with chartreuse (light bright green) first and then heated the wax and painted it on in a random design.  I was more interested in the wax resist, not the design elements really.  I then dyed with turquoise and the silk fibres too the turquoise, but the wool turned a deep green.  After rinsing in cold water, I filled the sink with hot, soapy water and started rubbing the wax out.  Contrary to their claim (I should know better by now), it did not come out all that easily.  I left the piece to soak in hot water and Googled soy wax and it turns out that the wax has to applied very hot for it to absorb well.  I think that I had probably used too much wax in an effort to make sure that it penetrated the dense surface of the felt.  So it took a little work to get it all out.  I think I will do another sample tomorrow and try to keep the wax constantly hot and be a little lighter with it.  It also warned that rinsing out can add waxy build-up in your plumbing, so it might be a good idea to use a bowl and then you can pour it outside because it is all bio-degradable.  So more to come!

And my final piece of news is that I did a big Christmas-Come-Early order from WollKnoll in Germany and I got lots of Merino, Wensleydale, silk, prefelt, shoe lasts for felting slippers, and a hat block, which I have wanted for a long time.  I suppose I need to get going on these things to start making more things for ETSY.  I really need a long table for laying out the scarves as I am working with two tables pushed together in the studio and they are both too short and I have to roll and flip to get coverage on both sides.  It's awkward, but I know it will get easier.  Santa please bring me a long table to felt on!!