My Heart!

This week has been a hard one. On Thursday, my husband came home early, 930 am and demanded that I take him the Urgent care clinic 40 miles away. I asked him why while I changed out of my sweatpants and grabbed a jacket. It was obvious that he was worried, bordering on panicked, and he usually unflappable. I will admit, I am not. I tend to pick up on all the silent signals about how someone is feeling and find myself feeling it myself, and I would say he was panicking. In fact, his symptoms were much like a panic attack except for almost passing out. Not a normal panic attack then. While driving in, I asked him why we were going to the clinic and not the ER, he didn’t feel that his symptoms were severe enough. I wasn’t there, so didn’t argue, The clinic was across the hall from ER and they could send him over if need be.

They did a series of blood pressure tests in different positions to see if position made a difference, it was not significant. They sent him to the ER for a cardiac workup. The first thing they do is bloodwork to check for heart enzymes levels, when you arrive and then two hours later. A rise in levels indicates a heart attack and damage to the heart muscle releases these enzymes into the blood stream. It rises hours after the attack with normal levels at 6-50 and Scott’s were 77, so a mild heart attack. He was admitted into ICU and scheduled for a heart catheter and possible stents the next morning. He had a 90% blockage and another 70% blockage 10 mm further downstream in the same artery in his heart, one stent to cover them both and another night in the hospital for observation. He apologized for messing up my list of things to do, as if that was more important. Oh, my heart, to hell with lists that shit can wait.

He is worried about the medical bills to come, both from the hospital and the doctors we need to see next. I told that any bill is from the hospital and doctors were preferable to a funeral home bill and I would take that as a win! Then I grounded him for a couple of days after he got out, No driving, No leaving the yard and Definitely no work computer. I have all of his friends on my side in this, he can not win! I fight dirty, lol. I would like to keep him around for many more years and will do any thing I have to, to see that happen.

Oh, Sadie!

I was given some alpaca and wool a couple of years ago. There was seventeen bags worth, but the alpaca fiber looked like all of the thirteen animals were sheared with the fiber being tossed on the barn floor with no sorting or separation. It was heartbreakingly full of straw, barn debris and prime blanket mixed in with seconds, but I started the long process of sorting through the bags for the better parts and bagged up the waste to use in the garden as mulch.

The wool was a Suffolk fleece, only good for stuffing with staple length of only an inch, and 2 Rambouillet sheep fleeces. At least the sheep fleeces was bagged directly from the sheep as it was sheared. But because they were not skirted before bagging, there was a lot of debris in the better parts. Skirtings and debris was bagged up for mulching. I ended up with 5lbs of alpaca fiber, four bags of alpaca fiber to sort through yet, three pounds of wool stuffing and the two Rambouillet fleeces. Not a bad return for just my time.

So how does this relate to Sadie, you ask. Sadie is our new rescue dog. She’s a beautiful large dog with lots of energy, so we have fenced in the backyard for her to have more running room and space, but there was something I forgot. Yes you guessed it, those bags of waste fiber. Sadie has gotten into the waste wool and spread it far and wide through the yard :) . I can just imagine the fun she had with the new smells and chasing the fiber. They say to add stimulations and challenges to a dog’s day and Sadie has certainly had plenty.

The weather is nice this week, so some clean-up will have to be done before it gets cold again. But at least, Sadie enjoyed it!

May all your fiber dream come true!

Shel

How I got here!

As this is my first blog, I thought it would be a good idea to tell you about myself and how Wicked Tint came to be. I also want to explain how the member page works.

I have always been an artist, exploring several different mediums over the years; drawing, painting, embroidery, weaving, crochet, spinning and knitting. I came from a creative family of men and women who were always making something beautiful.

Mom has the most beautiful handwriting and was often painting signs, embroidering something or crocheting an afghan. Mom bought me my first pin loom for making potholders at the age of six. Little did I know that it would be my first exposure to weaving.

Dad had a woodshop in the basement, where he and my uncle would make items to sell in the local shops. I was often allowed to help with the sanding. Grandpa was an amateur photographer with his own darkroom. I spent many days in the darkroom with him. It was fascinating to watch images develop slowly as the paper moved to each tray.

My grandmother taught me to crochet at age of ten and I made a wonderful triangle. She forgot to show me how to add rows while keeping the stitch count the same, oops! I also have a wonderful art teacher in middle school who introduced me to rug punching, weaving and spinning. She encouraged me to explore all types of art from drawing and painting to the fiber arts.

It wasn’t until I reached my forties that I taught myself how to knit and found out that I had really expensive taste in yarns. So of course, that lead to spinning which I knew how to do thanks to Mrs. Lucas. I bought a spinning wheel and discovered as most of us do that spinning is also an expensive hobby. But I wanted dye my own fibers and yarn. I started with what my husband called my “chemistry set”. I had mordents, dye powders and all the dedicated pans to explore natural dyes, but found it impossible to get consistent results. Example: cochineal gave me thirty shades of pink and no two were the same. Yikes! So I switched to acid dyes for more consistent results.

My son encouraged me to put my art out there and start selling my yarns and fibers, but I needed a business name. When I was a teenager, everything great was “wicked” and tint was a natural association to color, so Wicked Tint it is! I wish he could have seen where it has taken me.

The member page is an added benefit for anyone who signs up to my email list. It is a page where I showcase all the new items I have been working on that month with details about fiber or yarn plus yardage. One place to see all the new items rather then hunting through all the pages on my website. It’s only up for a couple of weeks then I reset the page for the next month.

Included is a discount code to use on any order that is exclusive to the member page. Please take advantage of the code, I put it there to reward you for being a supporter and follower of my small business.

The member page has a new password every month that will be in the email so that you can access the page. You will only ever get one email from me a month unless I need to send out a correction. Weekly or even daily emails is a bit excessive to my way of thinking, but I felt that you should get some sort of benefit for subscribing to my emails. There is no charge for access, just subscribe to my email list.

May all your fiber dreams come true!

Shel