Saturday, April 11, 2009

The Games We Play



I confess that I am getting tired of this warp already. Part of that tiredness is due to the looming deadline for the dance skirts. I'd really hoped to be done this warp by now but I'm only just barely half way through.

I'm tired of having to wind the pirns by hand, thereby needing to use the lighter weight AVL shuttles.

I'm tired of having the shuttle yanked off the shuttle race to go flying into the wild blue yonder. Well, into the wall, at any rate.

I'm tired of needing to walk around the entire loom to pick said shuttle up and re-insert it into the fly shuttle box.

I'm tired of just getting my zen mo-jo happening only to have the pirn run out.

I'm tired of having to adjust the cloth take up because it's picking in at 17, not 18 - and I'd rather beat a few extra times every couple of minutes than have a cloth that is too loosely woven (at my next option, which would be 16 picks per inch).

Since it's hard to keep track of how much I have actually accomplished - which would give me the illusion of being productive in spite of the above list of complaints - I installed the meter onto the cloth so that I can see exactly how much I have woven and therefore do a count down. Right now I am feeling a little bit in limbo because I don't know precisely how much is left to do.

Being able to see precisely what I have accomplished will help to keep me going back to the loom and continuing to weave so that I can see those numbers add up.

It's all an illusion, but it's one that works for me. Carrot and stick - smoke and mirrors. Whatever tricks that work............ :^)

2 comments:

Janet said...

Ooo! Where'dja get that cloth meter? How does it work? Looks rather like my shiny new LeClerc yardage counter but the wheel's different...

Laura Fry said...

The meter is actually made for the textile industry and was *very* expensive. :} It's like the Leclerc meter on steroids and is very accurate.

I don't remember exactly where we bought it, but it was from a local company who carried other products from the same manufacturer - a special order. It's got two wheels, one for fabric as shown, and one with a channel for thread.

Cheers,

Laura