Also blue, this time deliberately, is my new work handbag, purchased on Sunday afternoon when I snapped after sewing for two days solid and then getting a sleeve caught in the machine so I had to cut it out, and decided that I was not spending any more time on the bloody thing before Christmas. It struck me that the only way I’m going to have a handbag large enough for work, which means the ability to carry a good-seized book, an umbrella, and lunch, without it feeling too big if I’m popping out at the weekend, is if I just go and buy one for work and use a different bag at the weekend. So now I have, and it takes sandwiches, an umbrella, and a hardback Pratchett comfortably. I seem to have managed to read some when I just wasn’t in the right mood, and re-reading now I wonder how on earth I didn’t like them a lot more first time round. Clearly I am now in the right mood, and am going to take advantage of it.
*A process I have learnt today is called "crocking".
**Salt doesn’t help – salt sets dye, but unset dye isn’t the problem, the issue is excess dye and the specific properties of indigo. Vinegar doesn’t help, because vinegar also sets dye, but for protein fibres, which cotton isn’t.
