Juggling Act

Maybe I should just break down and buy a few more pots. Big ones. But then storage would be a real issue. I thought two good-sized pots would be enough! But when both of them are full of dirty wool, you can’t fill one of them up with the rinse water. Which obviously creates certain difficulties.

For instance, if they’re both full, you have to smash (gently, of course) all the wet wool into one of them so you can use the other pot for dyeing. For instance, I am trying to cycle the new giant fleece through the wash as fast as possible, because that’s a lot of dirty wool to be sitting around.

Therefore, I use both pots for soaking and heating and such. We needed the smaller pot for a dye job, so I had to haul both large pots and the colander (with the help of someone stronger) down the porch steps, then drain them, hoist the up and down to get out extra water, put both in the big pot, run back upstairs with the smaller pot, fill it with water, haul it down to the rest of the operation, drain and rinse and hoist again, then bring everything back up. Pick through the fleece, put it all into the big pot to soak longer, and then dye the three skeins of yarn. Sorry, I don’t have pictures of the yarn.

So, now the wool is sitting in the big pot comfortably soaking. I need to drain it so I can use the pot for a certain dye project I’ve been planning. Yes, it’s the cochineal.