I've not updated in quite a while... not been showing up much on any of the lists I subscribe to either. I've been soooo busy... busier than a one-armed man in a paper hanging contest or a one-legged man in a... well, ahem, you get the idea.
The busy-ness started three weeks ago when Jeanette was hired as a rural postal carrier associate. That was supposed to be part-timeâ??maybe on day a week. But as she progressed through the testing they urged her to do more... she became qualified to work city routes, too. Then she took the real test and passed that, too. The long and short of it is that she's gone postal... workin' six days a week and I'm here at home doing what it used to take 4 people (2 Geminis :-) ) to do. Whew.
Add to that I spent a week in Denver â?? first for a 3 day class at the DyeWorks where I along with several classmates learned to use natural dyes, then for Convergence. I got back home at about 4 a.m. July 4th after my truck 'sploded (blew the water pump) on the way home. I had to call Jeanette and she was able to come and get me. Spent Monday, July 5th back at the truck replacing the pump. Finally got home for good late July 5th... exhausted!
The DyeWorks class was a lot of fun!
I have to admit that I walked into the class very scared. I had used very few dyes and did not, in general, like dyeing. I though it was too much work. And I thought natural dyes would be that much more problematic. I thought it much more fun to just select and spin natural colored stuff to begin with.
I was wrong!
The DyeWorks uses natural dye extracts. This stuff is as easy to use as Kool-Aid (as long as you mordant your fibers or fabrics first).
In the course of three full days we used more than 27 natural dyes on 4 types of fabric and then experimented with recipes and painting, too. I came home with some dyes, a nice swatch book and a whole new outlook on dyeing... not I want to dye everything!
<hr>
Convergence was a blast, too. I wasn't vending. I was volunteering and I did quite a bit of booth-sitting and demonstrating and just generally helped out where ever I could.
I did get to meet several people on my 'must meet someday' list including Eileen Hallman of New World Textiles, Alden Amos and Stephanie Gaustad, Richard Ashford, the Kromski Family, and more!
I came home with a Convergence bag, 3 baskets and a lot of information and great memories and a lot of great contacts, too!
About the subject line...
It's obviously a play on words, but I gotta tell ya... we've been finally getting rains down here in SE Colorado and it's helped and I don't want them to stop, but the weeds and the flies have gone nuts! This is the worst we've had flies in the last 3 or so years and the weeds! When I left I had mowed/pulled all I could get my hands on... when I returned they were all knee high again.
Stay tuned... there's more news coming up soon... I hope. We've got several really exciting things in the works, but I can't spill the beans just yet!