Note to Self...

by Penny Nelson January 9, 2012

Many of the stupid things I do are marked by a "Note to Self..." Here is the most recent one. Note to Self - even if you are tired and it's been a very long and totally wonderful Roc Day celebration, please remember to take everything off the porch and put it in the studio. Especially if rain is expected.

The grand total is 1 7' triangle loom with stand, one basket of cotton yarn wound in balls for the tri, 10 tubs of fiber all in plastic bags, 6 cotton punis carefully carded and ready to spin, 1 trash can, one upholstered chair on wheels and several wooden chairs - all somewhere between very moist and dripping wet. Yuck.

I went to bed last night happy and exhausted. Roc Day was wonderful. We had several people I had never met before, several more that I knew only slightly, good friends who had never been out here before and lots of friends we see regularly out here. It was a great group and I had fun. I hope everyone else did too. I woke up this morning about 6 am to pounding thunder, flashes of lightening and pouring rain. I didn't once think of the studio or the porch or anything else except how nice it was to have the rain and how glad I was that all the gates were open so all the animals had shelter to go to. Then I rolled over and went back to sleep.

It wasn't until nearly 10 am when I was dressed and had had my first couple of cups of coffee and I was on the way out the door to feed when I saw the tri sitting on the porch. Wonderful.

Not much damage, actually. The tri has come into the studio, been dried with a hand spun towel and will sit to finish completely drying before we start on the next shawl. I'll need to take the balls of yarn and put them back into skeins that can be washed and dried or they will end up smelling musty. It's only four balls of cotton yarn so it won't be too difficult. I fear the cotton punis are a total loss but I'll lay them out on some towels and see if they dry well. If not, into the trash they will go. The fiber in plastic bags should be fine. I've dumped them all out on the floor inside the studio to dry and I'll inspect them as they go into large trash bags for the trip to our next fiber festival in Oxford, MS. I'm hopeful the upholstered chair will dry out without smelling horribly musty. We'll have to wait and see on that one. The wooden chairs have all been moved back against the wall of the porch where they are protected from the worst of the rain.

There are also several bedraggled skeins of newly dyed yarn hanging on the line by the dye studio. Peggy worked very hard yesterday during Roc Day to get lots of yarn dyed and took all but the wettest of them home with her. The last 7 skeins are still out there hanging on the line. I'll give them a quick wash and hang them inside the dye shed to dry.

Here we are drying out fiber bags in the studio...