mysterious things

It has stopped raining, last weeks stormy skies are clear again and so I have been enjoying outdoors, very simple pleasures. I stopped off at Shorncliffe on my way home, its a beautiful area. The foreshore has great parks, walking and cycling tracks, and the Queenslanders and fig trees are so grand and stately, yep, its a charming place.

The view here of jelly fish, was taken from the Shorncliffe pier. There were thousands of them, swimming over each other. They are grotesque and beautiful all at once. My son Jack told me when they form a group they are called a forest of jellyfish? I could google it to be sure, but its weird, plausible and good sounding, even if its not true.

No matter how hard I try if I am at the pier at sunset I can't help but take cliche shots like this...

While I was mostly indoors this weekend I had a fine time and kept busy. I tried my hand at dyeing wool, the results are mixed, I got un-predicted colours, brighter than I wanted, orange instead of brown, etc.

I am re-dying some and getting better results with layering the colours on. It is mysterious fun, I liked, no, I loved the process, especially waiting to see what the colour would be once the wool dried. I used a mixture of food dye, water and vinegar and popped the wool in the microwave for a couple minutes to set it. I didn't really follow any specific set of instructions but there are some good sites out there.

here are my steps;

Wet 50 gram wool in warm soapy water. Squeeze out excess water.

Mix 1/4 bottle food dye with a 1/3 cup vinegar(adjust quantities for darker colour or more wool) and enough water to cover the wool.

Place wool in and soak, overnight or for a few hours for lighter shades.

Microwave wet wool for a couple of minutes, wrapped in a plastic bag.

Hang out to dry. Rinse in luke warm water and dry again. Voila!

xKate