Scouring Silk

It's a task that makes me grateful that my weaving studio has its own kitchen. DH *hates* the smell of simmering silk, and when I used to use the main household kitchen for scouring and dye-work, he'd leave the house whenever I brought a skein of silk out to scour or to dye.

Please note: The photo above is *not* a dyepot. That is the color of the water after scouring about 300 grams of 60/2 and 100/2 NM silk. I am always surprised at the amount of gunk that comes off the yarn. Some of it is spinning oils, and the rest must be just plain old dirt. Yuck!

I want to use up the mixed dyes I put in the studio refrigerator after I painted Connie Rose's loom-controlled shibori silk shawl. I'll pick two of the mixed colors for an interleaved warp of 60/2 silk, and dye weft yarns (the 100/2 silk) with the remaining two mixed colors, then decide what hues I want for the third and fourth scarf on the warp. Stay tuned.

In other news, I'm having lingering nerve pain from the shingles - surprising since it was (according to both doctors I consulted) a very mild case, plus I'd had the vaccine. But to control the electric-shock-like effect of irritated nerve endings, I'm taking an nerve-blocking medication: a light dose in the morning, so I can stay awake all day, and a heavy dose at bedtime. The light dose just takes the edge off the pain; the heavy dose is a real knockout! A good night's sleep is guaranteed. No prediction as to when the pain might stop, but I am supposed to continue the medication until it does.

Fortunately, neither the pain nor the medication interfere with studio work!