I started an elm bark dye bath two saturdays ago by soaking the elm bark. Colour is supposed to be in the pink/coral range. It's supposed to be finished by simmering for an hour and adding the wool, and simmering for another another. So... I stuck it on the stove last night and simmered it, and put a test strip in...and an hour later - nothing. No colour change at all.
For the moment, I've given up. Took the pot off the stove and back into a corner to soak some more. Any ideas?
Anti-V mentioned to me in email that perhaps I need to be soaking it in alcohol. Although the recipe I'm using is from Jenny Dean's _Wild Colour_ and she didn't mention alcohol. All the other recipes have worked so far, I'm surprised that this one hasn't.
Any clues?
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I've been browsing through all the images that I've put up on the web, and quite a few of them have never made it to the blog. So here's a couple more to amuse you.
Still blooming now in our garden, I'm not sure of this one's name, except that it's an aster of some variety.
This is Ginger, being weird, and sticking her head up between the coffee table and the couch. She's returned to her normal, healthy old-lady ways after a bout with fatty liver this summer.
This is Leif, or or in this position, sometimes known as "Belly Boy". This weekend, we took him up to Neil's Mum's house, where he got to spend time with Pogo and Shelley. Now, Shelley's been spayed, but Pogo hasn't yet, being very young. Pogo has apparently gone into heat, and it was amusing watching Leif and Pogo try to get together. Leif's been neutered for so long, I'm surprised he still knew what to attempt to do.
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Also, I bought 3 'pie pumpkins' with an eye to making pumpkin pie in the next few days, right from scratch. There's a recipe in the Joy of Cooking. Wish me luck, and feel free to send other recipes my way.
Karen
1 comment:
Pie Pumpkins.. Don't spend the time cutting into chunks, peeling it and then boiling. Just knock off the stem, stab a knife into it a couple of times for air vents, set it on a baking sheet of some kinds and bake it until soft. Then you can slice it in half, scoop out the seeds and you will have the pumpkin mush ready to use with almost no work at all. Alternately you can slice it in half and scoop out the seeds first before baking, but then you get a bit of a hard crusty bit on top that you can't use. I've done it all three ways and baking the whole pumkin is quite my favourite..
Aster is Fall blooming Wild Aster
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