Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Stash Reduction, Daily Exercise

2/8 cotton warp with cotton/linen slub for towel body, 2/16 cotton for hem weft - note cutting line - two picks of twill
Got home from doin' the Puyallup about 9 pm last night. Today I tried to get organized - banking and such - and in between wove on Fanny working on the tea towel warp I left on her.
The bad news is that just before leaving on the trip my blood pressure went wildly upwards, not even coming down after exercise, with a 'resting' pulse rate of 102. Not exactly the numbers we want to see. So I started half a tablet of the diuretic daily, hoping that would do the trick.
Unfortunately, this morning my bp still wasn't good, but I'm going to continue on half a tablet for a few days and see if it is just the stress of travelling that pushed it up. Seems like I can't live with them, and I can't live without them. I've got a doctor appointment on Monday for the arthritis I suspect is developing in my left foot. I don't doubt he will have words about my bp, too. I just hate the thought of having to take yet more chemicals to counteract the adverse reactions to one chemical! :(
I'm still thinking about what the future may hold and what path I want to meander down, but right now it would appear that my two priorities are to continue with stash reduction and make sure that I get at least an hour's worth of weaving in, every day. Having two looms, I ought to be able to keep them going in tandem so that I can always have loom time - each and every day. When I'm home that is.
Tonight I finished off the cotton/linen slub I bought at ANWG in Spokane this June. :D
There is enough warp for two more towels on Fanny, but I'll spend tomorrow morning at the guild room talking with a new weaver and getting her started on one of the guild looms. And possibly start getting ready for the next Study Group. I've been dressing a loom with the weave structure of the month, present an evening lecture on that structure, then they sort themselves out to weave a sample on the prepared warp.
Karena dressed the AVL while we were away, and got the warp about half threaded. So I'll try to finish that off tomorrow too. I've also promised someone some samples for an article she's writing so as soon as Fanny is empty, I'll put the first of those warps on. Since it's something I already had intentions to do - sometime - having a firm deadline means I'll actually get to that now. :D
My friend The Deadline.

3 comments:

Sharon Schulze said...

As a fellow meanderer I salute your efforts.

Since getting back to North Carolina from your house I have finished three warps and started putting a third on the loom. One was short - just four yards - but the other two were longer (more like 7 or 8 yards). That's well ahead of my goal of at least one warp per month. Being able to throw the shuttle faster makes a huge difference. I don't know that I'm doing the other parts faster but I have more confidence that what I'm doing is a good way to do things and that makes it seem faster if nothing else. And the patterns have been 8-harness huck, so I'm even going faster with more complicated patterns.

All that has happened in the context of figuring out where my life should go next and dealing with the usual raft of stressful, time-consuming, frustrating junk at work. AND going to exercise class several times a week. I've loved weaving from the first moment I saw a loom and having this confidence is a really, really cool thing!

barbara said...

Hi Laura,
Love the towels with the red stripe; really neat looking! I hope your BP goes down in a hurry; it would be stressful going to the show, the drive, the setting up, the packing up, the drive, etc. Take care of yourself. I woke this morning to a skiff of ice on my bird bath ... seems early for that. My three looms are empty, hopefully one or two will be filled by the weekend. Working on a fund raiser for the CIBC Run for the Cure tomorrow, this is our team's last fund raiser for this year. Wish us luck. Weaverly yours ...... Barbara

Laura Fry said...

Hi Sharon and Barbara,

Life is full of interesting detours and tangents. Sometimes the most interesting things happen because we wind up wandering down unanticipated paths. :)

My bp was somewhat improved today so I'm hoping for continued good news on that front.

Cheers,
Laura