The play's the thing....

Midsummer Night indeed. Very pretty. Very cold. The play was pretty good, but at the end, the poor players got the most perfunctory round of applause - which could have sounded more like the chattering of teeth - before the audience wrapped itself up in its picnic blankets and started heading for the cars and their heaters.

We did have a really good time, though, most excellent picnic and the play was very well done. I think probably a group of drama students, they all seemed very young, but they made an excellent job of what can be a bit of a cliche. Interesting direction at times.

So. India
asks about yarn abuse, and what it is for other than having fun being nasty to defenceless yarn.

The elements of it are to shock the yarn with hot and cold water, and then to perpetrate further cruelty by rather roughly hitting the skein against a smooth surface like a counter top. This is most often done with a delicate yarn of cashmere, angora, or I guess a fine wool. Usually not highly twisted, so it is lofty, and therefore not very durable. The treatment very slightly felts the yarn, thus making it stronger. It also brings up a slight "bloom". But most importantly, in some miraculous fashion, it evens up the plies and greatly improves the appearance of the yarn. I don't really know why this last works, but it does.

It is also quite fun watching the horrified looks on the faces of an audience when demonstrating the aforementioned technique......