DYEING MOHAIR LOCKS

I was watching a cooking program on TV when lo and behold I saw just what I needed to assist me with dyeing my mohair fleece.
Having been raised by a mother who, as a kid was struck by lightning, I am deeply entrenched in the “fear of God’ when it comes to electricity, gas, fire and anything that could possibly be poisonous. So it was only natural that breathing the fumes from the freshly dyed steaming fleece vapors concerned me no end. But with the little camping stove I’d seen on TV I would be able to steam the fleece in the yard while I stayed safely behind locked doors. The solution was perfect! I ordered the stove the same day.
A few days later it arrived already assembled (thank heavens!) along with a propane hose, a little vent shield thing, a spring and a fifteen page manual filled mainly with the Do’s and Don’ts and what would happen to you if you did the Don’ts and didn’t do the Do’s. Overly cautious to begin with I vowed I’d be extra careful when I got to the propane part of the agenda (how could I have ignored that part when I bought the thing?!). But after giving myself a severe talking to and then chanting affirmations about my courage and abilities I was once more psyched up about using the camping stove. So when I saw that the little vent shield thing used to regulate the air flow to the burner was missing the screw to attach it!...well…I was nearly beside myself. Should I return the whole thing: stove, propane hose, little vent shield thing and spring, along with a nasty letter? I was tempted. But then visions of noxious fumes wafting through my home set my heart pounding and I decided to simply go to the hardware store and buy a screw to fit.
Since I didn’t trust my measurement of the hole (third line over, on the tape measure) I decided I’d better take the stove with me. I invited hubby to go along and carry it.
When we got to the store and saw the array of nuts, bolts and screws and how messed up they were in the bins our hearts sank (well my heart sank, anyway). And after ten minutes of trying to find something that would screw in all the way and not just three turns, we tracked down a salesperson who found us a metric bolt. It still didn’t screw in all the way, but we were determined (well, I was determined) that we could FORCE it in once we got it home.
Unfortunately I hadn’t thought to bring the spring that was part of the set-up (actually I thought the spring had been accidentally put in the box instead of the needed bolt). So when we got home and put the spring in place, then added the little vent shield thing, and screwed on the new metric bolt we were dismayed (I was dismayed, anyway) to see that, try as we might, the metric bolt wouldn’t go in far enough to bolt down the vent – instead, the vent dangled off the bolt like a condemned man hanging from the gallows.
It took me a good twenty minutes of staring at the problem to come up with the brilliant idea of making the whole thing tighter by attaching a nut…or two…or three!
So back to the hardware store we went (as I bragged shamelessly about my superior brain). And this time we brought along the camping stove, the metric bolt, the spring, and the little vent shield thing.
This time we didn’t fool around; we walked in and immediately asked for help.
The man who assisted us found us a metric nut to go with the metric bolt. It still wasn’t a tight fit but we took it anyway – we were tired and hungry (at least I was).
It wasn’t until we were pulling up to the house that I realized that with my newly purchased metric nut and my newly purchased metric bolt I had managed to successfully plug up the hole where the propane hose (already complete from the factory with all necessary screws) needed to be screwed in!
Oh well, I’m sure I’ll find a use for the perfectly good metric nut and bold. I might even find a use for it on the next thing I purchase.
My etsy shop is at: www.recklessspinner.etsy.com