Not the mountains, just my back garden, with dogwood, redbuds in various states of undress, and Jane and Steve's giant oak. As we discovered yesterday, the mountains have already passed from fall into winter, with the trees all bare. Driving up Highway 181 from Morganton, we literally rounded a bend from gorgeous, flaming October (we were too busy driving and looking to take any pictures) to Nothing November.
We drove on the Parkway for a while, but it was too many people and no leaves, so at Blowing Rock we got off and began to drive down again. There's a pretty highway that runs east of Lenoir to Wilkesboro, passing the historic Fort Defiance, home of William Lenoir, built beginning in 1792. I had been passing the turn-off to this site for years, going to and from the mountains with children, but never stopped until March 2020, on the last weekend when anything at all was open, when my husband and I were celebrating our thirtieth wedding anniversary by driving around. It's really an interesting and worthwhile stop, but the road it's on, leading through the Yadkin River valley, is lovely from beginning to end.
From Wilkesboro we proceeded to Elkin, a town we've visited before and enjoy walking around. We had Dora with us so did do a lot of walking before crating her in the car again with her supper and taking ourselves to a local brewpub for beer and dinner. More walking after dinner, then a leisurely drive home, following the GPS set to "avoid highways."
AND today I'm kind of sick. I went to bed with the beginnings of a sore throat and have woken up with same, plus a sinus headache. So I'm staying home, mostly because the last time I went to Mass at this stage of an illness, back at the start of September, I gave it to my friend Anna-Kate (she of the shawl), who had terrible Covid in the earliest days of the pandemic, almost died, and sustained a brain injury as well as lung damage and a compromised immune system. Thanks to me, she was really sick all through September and much of October, and is only now just feeling back to normal, so I am NOT going to Mass to give her a hug at the peace again, no no indeed.
So I'm home and taking things easy. I really would like to kick whatever is brewing in my own system before Friday, when I'm set to drive to Steubenville, Ohio, for this little literary festival I'm participating in. I don't feel too bad, but I'm also eager not to feel worse --- in addition to feeling that I don't want to share this around.
Lately everyone I know has been sick, though. My mother-in-law, aged 91, had Covid three weeks ago, and is fine now, though she still hasn't got her voice back. "Makes me so mad," she said on the phone the other day --- she despises any shadow of infirmity in herself. My mother, meanwhile, has had some coldy virus thing that isn't Covid and spent a lot of time sleeping this past week, she says. My littlest childie at college has something awful that I hope isn't Covid, but she hasn't taken a test --- it began with coldy stuff last weekend that kept her out of class Monday. She went back to her classes Tuesday wearing a mask, just in case, but felt a lot better. She was basically fine until Friday, when she woke up feeling off, then was hit with a wave of fatigue while sitting in the cafeteria talking to some girl she didn't know very well --- she said she was thinking, "Why is this girl draining all my energy?" So she dragged herself home and went to bed and was still really sick yesterday. She's bummed because Halloween is her favorite holiday and there were many parties she had planned to attend, but no go, sister. Fortunately, she said, she felt so bad that she wasn't even remotely tempted to try. Her sweet roommate brought her Gatorade (there was throwing up involved yesterday), and I hope her whole suite doesn't get whatever it is. I also hope she can kick it fast by staying in bed and sleeping until it's over. We talked on the phone some yesterday --- me walking up and down in front of the coffee shop where my husband had stopped for his "about to start driving" caffeine jolt --- and I advised her about what to tell all her professors in all the emails she needed to send right then, to get extensions on deadlines this week.
So, hey. EVERYBODY's sick. I think we've all forgotten how to be sick, especially those of us who seem to have managed to evade Covid all this time. We've forgotten how viruses sweep through communities, like at college, and people are down for the count. It is kind of bizarre that there seem to be at least as many non-Covid things knocking people flat this fall as there are strains of Covid doing some version of the same. What I had and summarily gave to Anna-Kate was not Covid, but Anna-Kate wound up with walking pneumonia, which might as well have been Covid.
But what I think I've learned is not to power through dutifully when I think maybe I don't feel that bad. I do feel guilty because it's Sunday, and I'm not flat on my back, soooooo . . . but no. I can't go giving whatever this is to somebody else. It's bad enough that I might have given it to my husband, though he seems never to get what I have.
What I've done today so far:
*Read the Mass readings (still need to make a Spiritual Communion)
*listen to Benjamin Britten's setting of "Lyke Wake," a fifteenth-century Yorkshire song about Purgatory which was our Friday Poem of the Day at the Sun.
*not get dressed yet, though I will have to take the dog out. I might just tether her in the yard with some kibble to sniff out of the grass, rather than essaying any kind of walk.
As you can see, the weather is drizzly and dreary, real end-of-October fare. It's not cold, just damp, the kind of weather that does make me want to cocoon.
If I get dressed in any interesting way, I'll alert the media. But yesterday's Sierra and leggings are still hanging on the drying rack, and odds are that I just put them back on.
PS: I have received an alert that my birthday dress has passed through Atlanta. She's not supposed to reach me before tomorrow, but hope does spring eternal. If she should show up today, I would totally get dressed. But eh. I can wait patiently. Right?
UPDATE:
I have begun my refurbishment project on one of my two dark-brown ramie-cotton cardigans: this one. as it happens. It's the one I've worn more consistently and like better, mostly because of the drawstring waist that gives it a fun vintage-40s kind of shape and vibe. I think that revising the color will make it a more useful part of my wardrobe, especially given that I already like wearing it so much in spite of the less-than-optimal original color.
Right now I'm soaking it in color remover. I want to see what this will do. It's very possible that I won't redye it, if I like how it looks once the color is stripped out. It would be nice to have a natural/off-white cardigan, and the cable and ribbed details in the knit of this one would make it a good candidate for a lighter, plainer color.
And, hm. I've filled the machine with hot water, stirred in the color remover, added the cardigan.
10-minute mark:
Still looks really . . . dark brown.
*At this point, for the sake of a control, I added the second cardigan. I really had to search to find a photo of myself wearing it, and even so, you have to scroll to the end of this post from last year. Checking the label, I was reminded that this second cardigan, a thrifted Talbots item, is all cotton, not cotton-ramie like the first one (thrifted Loft). I've had both these cardigans for more years than I can remember. They are both REALLY nice cardigans. I just don't wear them nearly enough because of the color.
*I am thinking that I should have bought more color remover. Still, at the 20-minute mark (10 for the second cardigan):
There's definitely some dye in the water, more than there was ten minutes ago. This was true even before I put in the second cardigan. My plan is to leave them to soak for an hour, at least. I really should have thought to buy multiple packs of color remover, but since I didn't, I'll just extend the time and see if that makes a difference. At some point I'll re-start the machine and run them through the rest of the wash cycle, and then we'll see where we are. After that, I'll make decisions about what to do next.
I bought two bottles of Rit "Wine" color. I'd really like a burgundy cardigan. On the other hand, I have begun to be anxious about having the dye bleed on my other clothes. My redyed Camellia has rubbed off some --- not on outer clothing so much, but definitely on a white bra. I don't want to ruin a good dress this way. So . . . I am really kind of hoping that I can leach the dark brown out of these knits and that I'll like that end result enough (off-white? some neutral gray-brown?) simply to wear as is. I'm taking this risk largely because it would be hard for me to wear these cardigans any less frequently than I do. And I'd be hard-pressed to replace them in colors I want at a price point I'm comfortable with. So . . . we're experimenting. I suppose I could follow this phase with a regular bleach soak, if the non-chlorine-bleach color remover doesn't do the job.
At any rate, I'll have very clean cardigans when all is said and done.
1-hour mark:
Yet more dye in the water. I've decided to go ahead and let the cycle run through, and see where we are when it's finished. It's the longest "super wash" cycle, so the items will have longer in the color-remover bath before the end. I will be interested to see whether they're lightened at all --- compare this process with the color-removal when I redyed a bamboo dress back in the summer. Then, the color-stripping was dramatic and almost instantaneous --- but I had had the presence of mind to buy two boxes of color remover, which doubtless made the difference. I should have revisited that post before placing my order this time!
Post-wash-cycle:
As you can see, the Talbots cotton cardigan (left), responded to the color stripping. The Loft cardigan (right) did not.
So . . . this is when I read the Loft label. Turns out I've been laboring under all kinds of misapprehensions. The Loft cardigan is NOT after all a ramie-cotton blend. It's ramie-nylon. That explains a lot (like for example: that Sally should be more careful about reading labels).
I'm thinking I won't be dyeing that cardigan, sadly. I'll either wear it as it comes or let it go to the outbox. The other cardigan, meanwhile --- I like this relatively taupe-y brown better than the dark brown. It's at least in the neighborhood of my hair color. I am wondering if I could make it even lighter . . . so I'm trying a soak in a bleach solution, watching it carefully because I don't want to turn anything yellow. I'd really wear a taupe sweater, so that's what I'm going for.
Not sure what I'll do with the wine-red dye. Hang onto it for now, I guess, and think about what I might want to turn that color.
UPDATE:
Well, well. Shoulda left well enough alone. Now the Talbots cardigan is . . .
. . . totally not my color.
Dyebath it is.
And again, we shall see what we shall see. I tossed in the Loft cardigan, since this dye is supposed to work on nylon, too. Added plenty of salt, since cotton, at least, requires that rather than acid. Two bottles of Wine/Bordo. I'll need to wash and wash these before I feel safe wearing them over anything other than dark clothes, but if I can get a pretty color, that'll be something.
20-minute-in-dyebath mark: I didn't take a picture, but it's looking like a really nice cherryish pink. I'm going to leave it to soak at least an hour before running the whole cycle, then washing, because I know a lot of dye will wash out when I wash it.
Hoo boy, this has been the adventure so far. But I have high hopes for the outcome . . .
ASIDE: I am still worried about the dye rubbing off. Color fixative did not prevent bleeding/rub-off in my Camellia dress. I think I'll just wash and wash and wash things until the water runs clear, rather than risk my good clothes.
30-minute-soak mark:
A lovey rose pink. It would be nice if the final result were about this color --- I'll leave it in to steep for another half-hour, then run the cycle.
I'm also pretty happy with the buttons. The color remover leached out the dark brown, which on the whole is a good thing, because I'd thought I would have to change them out. They should be able to pass for wood or bone, though, with the new color. In fact, they might actually be something like bone. All this time I've been assuming they were plastic, but then all this time I've also been assuming that these cardigans were composed of different fibers from the ones which do in fact constitute them. So much for me and my assumptions.
Feeling decent-ish, by the way. Tired, coldy, disinclined to walk the dog, but as long as I'm inside where it's warm and cozy, I'm okay. Glad I didn't go to Mass, though.
Stay tuned for more dye updates!
While we wait: a tutorial on mordants and fixatives.
Obviously I'm not using a natural dye, but it's good to know that salt is, in fact, a fixative for dyeing cotton. I have added more salt to my dye bath, and will maybe add some more to the rinse when we get to that stage.
1-hour mark:
Again, I didn't take a photo, but it's a gorgeous wine-red. Still letting it soak, because the longer it soaks, the darker it will get, and I know that washing will fade it. Happily, there seems to be no trace of the orange shade pictured above. I did note that plenty of burgundy color formulas on the Rit site involved mixes with colors like camel and orange, so felt pretty hopeful that what I ended up with wouldn't be really brassy or rusty. Just letting that cardigan live in that wine-dark sea a while longer, though . . .
Almost to the 90-minute mark, at which point I am going to turn the machine back on and let it run through this cycle.
Then I'll run everything through a hot wash. Maybe even two hot washes. Good thing I haven't done a whole lot of laundry in the last week or so --- just saving up to be really extravagant with the washing machine today. But it does work better, in my experience, than the bucket method, and I can't, right now, sacrifice a stockpot for non-food purposes.
So I guess this is wasteful, in pursuit of sustainable clothes. There's always some cost somewhere, alas. Fortunately I don't dye things often!
UPDATE: The End of the Wash Cycle
I had to take the cardigan outside to photograph the color accurately. It is very pretty --- I wish it weren't going to fade! I added salt to the wash water for this next round, washing it in actual detergent, so hopefully it won't bleed too much. BUT better to bleed now and get it over with, than to bleed on my clothes.
Here's a less-good shot in terms of color, but you can see more of the cardigan:
It looks actually much pinker than this, not so much like rust. The top photo really does show the color as it is. The buttons have also absorbed some of the dye, but in any case, I think they look really nice. I was afraid they'd look weird and I'd have to replace them, but nope, that at least has worked out just fine.
The other sweater remains . . . dark brown. Oh well. That's what I get for not checking labels.
Washing them both now on hot, again. We'll see what the Talbot's cardigan looks like after this go-round.
LATER:
I've both washed and double-rinsed the cardigans on hot. The Talbots cardigan is holding her color pretty well. The Loft cardigan doesn't look that different, maybe subtly redder than before. Both of them are in the dryer now. I'll probably wear the Talbots cardi over my navy bamboo dresses for a while, or over some white tee that I don't care about for an hour (like one of my husband's discarded undershirts) to see what the dye-bleed situation is like. I'll keep washing it a lot for a while.
But it does look nice! Final photos to come!
AAAAAAANNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDD:
The whole outfit doesn't really match, and there's still a sploodge of conditioner on the mirror from my haircutting adventures of the other day.
But look!
Look at this pretty color!
Look what a nice little cerise/raspberry bracelet-sleeve shrug I have! It's shrunk a tad, but it was kind of like this anyway. In any event, I can really use another bolero-length cardigan.
The knit pattern shows up really beautifully in this lighter, brighter color.
The top button broke off in the dryer, so I am going to have to replace them after all, but that's really NBD.
I tried the cardigan on VERY gingerly over my Sierra and took it off quickly. But no transfer of dye. I rubbed it with a rag --- no transfer of dye. Maybe it's going to hold all right and not bleed.
And in the meantime, I love the color. It's a pinky red that I can wear, and wear with so many things I own. It looks great over Sierra. It'll look great over Maggie. It will be good with my pink dresses and my sage-green twill skirt. Should I ever decide to wear pants again, it will look good with pants.
If I work up the nerve, and am SURE that it's not going to transfer dye onto anything else, it'll be smashing with my birthday dress, which I hope will --- at some point in the day --- be tomorrow's news.
Still feeling a wee bit pallid here, but happy to have spent my Sabbath profitably, in somewhat restful endeavors.