Then there's my supervisor. Lorianne, if you ever read this - you are a dear. She was so understanding when I called in, despite the fact that I will not be in to finish my training before she leaves for a sun-filled two weeks in Mexico. At least, I hope it's sunny for her. She's keeping me on emails until she gets back. At least I know my voice will be back to normal before she sets it loose on the customers. That's a good thing, because I sound like a dinosaur.
Now, on to things I've learned while sick.
- The silk noile I have is cotton. I've been spinspinspinning away at it, daydreaming of the lace it said it wants to be (Who argues with talking silk? Not me!) and eventually my vision cleared enough to notice the crimp. I'm far from an expert, but it didn't look quite like I thought silk should look. My sense of touch followed the other 4 senses to wherever they go when I'm sick, so that didn't tell me anything. Today I burned a tiny puff of it. You see, silk is protein based, much like hair, meat, fingernails, etc. When burned, it singes like hair, and gives off a similar disgusting aroma. This was plant fiber. It smelled like a dried maple leaf when I burned it. She didn't overcharge me for it, so I won't gripe. The price was right on the bag.
- Sometimes commercial rovings need to be re-roved. Is that a word? Whatever. I've been fighting with some pretty brown shetland roving, and brought my cotton experience into it. I grabbed a comb (hair comb - I don't have any "real" tools yet) and realigned the fibers on a couple of little chunks. The roving really had a look that said "I made felt but forgot to add soap and water" than it said "spin me". Anyway, the little bit of extra time has paid for itself over and over. It spins up much faster-and much more easily-than I had even hoped for. YAY comb!
- Energy can be changed from one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed. It can be converted from finger flicks to a twist in fibers, and when stored in those fibers, creates a substance called yarn.
- Energy spontaneously disperses from being localized to becoming spread out if it is not hindered from doing so. Should the yarn from #3, while still under tension and awaiting to have the movement of energy hindered by a process called plying(which would create a condition called inertia), escape from its confines, the resulting outburst of energy will create havoc and devastation previously unexperienced. And then entropy sets in. Entropy is a measure of disorder. Meters and meters of single ply yarn will become one compact tangled mess. LOTS of Entropy.
- My daughter is a genius. Stop reading if you're squeamish. I'm warning you.
Ok, you asked for it... She brought her poor, dear, ill mother a glass of water. She mentioned that she knows sick people need lots of water. Either they're dehydrated, or they're supposed to pee a lot. So I confirmed that it's easy to get dehydrated when you're sick. Just look at how much water I've lost by blowing my nose this week. She got more grossed out than I expected, and pointed out that when when I blow my nose, the water in the snot evaporates from the tissue and goes into the air. Thus, she has been inhaling my snot all week! Oh, my... she IS her mother's daughter.
