This 'n That

Finally collected and cleaned off enough bobbins for a full day's weaving. Having woven with linen previously starting out without soaking bobbins, then half way through soaking them, I knew that the yarn would beat in differently. Or could. So I didn't want to dampen the bobbins if I couldn't weave a whole towel with bobbins that had been treated the same.

So now that I have enough bobbins for a day, I fill all the bobbins at the end of the weaving day, place them in a baggie with a wet piece of tissue and leave them overnight.

This higher humidity doesn't entirely tame the weft as the interior doesn't get as moist as the exterior, but it does help somewhat. The big change I've noticed is an improvement in the selvedges. With the linen slightly moist it is more pliable and turns the corners better. For that reason alone it's worth doing.

Frankly my selvedges aren't great on these towels, but the overall quality of the cloth is such that I'm not stressing over selvedges that aren't as good as usual. We are talking linen, so I'm just sayin.....

The last couple of days have been taken up with a lot of admin work so I haven't done as much weaving as I'd prefer. But the admin stuff has to be done too, and with the imminent arrival of the fibres from Ashland Bay it was time to deal with it.

The good news is that the iron supplements appear to be helping and my energy levels have been getting better so there is less tendency to just sit and play games on the computer. :}

My webmaster is working on a Paypal shopping cart for the fibres on my website and I'm trying to decide if I keep my Art Fire store going after this year. (I pre-paid for the year locking in a low price.) But if I have a shopping cart on my own website, do I really need Art Fire? Hmm.

And developing a customer list, crunching numbers for pricing, applying for shows and ignoring the deadline for teaching at conferences and events because I've still got a couple of weeks left to do those.

Being a professional weaver isn't just about weaving. It's about keeping your business going, too, and things administrative tasks like up coming shows, doing the books, filing taxes etc., can't be ignored.

The internet is well and good, but I find - at least here in Canada - that people are reluctant to buy textiles and yarns on the 'net unless they've seen and felt them in person first. So shows are an important part of staying in business.

And then there's my volunteer work. I'm secretary for an association that has taken to having on-line meetings so it seems like there are a few emails everyday that I need to track and decide if it is necessary to record them or if they fall under the heading of 'chatter'. I also volunteered (who was that person raising my hand????) to sell the local guild's surplus/duplicate library books. Little did I know how many there were! I've brought home two boxes filled with books and there are two more boxes at the guild room! Today I listed 10 titles, including The Magic of Linen by Linda Heinrich (our local guild's very first president!), Allen Fannin's Handloom Weaving Technology and a couple of Peter Collingwood's books. More - many more - titles to come. http://3.ly/Qut

But I have an eBay account, a Paypal account, and I sold my brother's library on eBay last summer so I'm familiar with the process. And the guild needs the revenue.

I also have 12 Ars Textrina I'm going to sell once the guild books are sold.

I've fallen way behind on transcribing WeaveCast - something I totally enjoy doing when I'm not feeling pressured by other stuff. Hopefully I will learn enough about the Ashford and Ashland Bay products quickly - and that my energy will come back fully - so that I'm not feeling quite so overwhelmed with all the admin stuff.


Currently reading The Story Teller by Margaret Coel