Wow, I got up today and decided to master starching and ironing. I achieved success in neither task.
I keep my skillet and irons oiled while I'm not using them and since I never use them I forgot that I keep them oiled. So imagine what happened when I put the skillet on the stove and fluttered around the house. Yep, smoke. Sux doesn't it? Like the lazy sloth that I am I decided to just let it burn off. No biggie, and yes the smoke and smell stopped and I was able to continue on in comfort.
Using squares of cotton fabric, I made 4 examples of starches: light, medium, heavy and extra heavy. I think I have no short term memory. Making different batches of starch was a little bit time consuming then, I forgot that I had to boil the stuff accordingly and after that I kept forgetting which level of stiffness I'd just completed and the more I re-starched, the more frustrated I got, and the more frustrated I got the messier my workspace What a mess! It was a winter wonderland of cornstarch by the time I finished! Finally I finished my 4 masterpieces and hung them out in the trees. While damp I collected them from the trees and with excitement, put iron to cotton. I scorched the fabric on my first 3 tries. That didn't happen the last time I experimented with the irons!
This time, because I have to go to work tonight, I put the skillet on the stove and the irons were unbelievably hot. Way hotter than last time. And not only were the over-the-top hot, my sloppiness in 'letting the oil burn off' came back to bite me in the bustle. The irons left dark greasy stains on the fabric. Guess that shows me huh? Bad, bad lazy laundress! I kept ironing anyway as I realized that I needed a lot more practice to become one with the irons and to judge heat, movement and the feel for what I'm doing. I mean seriously, even the ironing pad was wrong and I ended up taking it off and ironing on the bare table.
Oh well, I learned lessons and I'm confident the next time I try, it will be a more positive experience.
Regards,
Mrs Peters
