Staging Area

8 boxes of hand wovens all packed up ready to be loaded into the van

Once again my living room floor is acting as a staging area as we prepare for the first of four consecutive craft fairs. Doug has gone off to unload the rear seats of the van, store them at the annex and pick up a few things stored there that we will need for the shows.

threading proceeds on the beige tea towel warp

Recovery is not a straight line, as a friend observed recently, and the past few weeks have seen plenty of zigging and zagging as my energy waxes and wanes.  Getting a flu shot probably had something to do with the decline of energy this week, but at least I'm somewhat protected for nasty bugs as I head into a month's worth of high exposure to crowds of people.

And craftspeople are famous for showing up for shows, sick, mainly because there is no one to phone in sick to so they can stay home in bed.  :}  I know that's happened to me often enough over the years.

With a muzzy head I didn't do much threading this week but am feeling alert enough today to tackle that job and this morning got almost to the half way mark.

A lot of people colour their heddles as a way to keep track of where they are in their threading.  Personally I don't find that method particularly helpful.  My drafts are printed out with numbers showing which shafts the threads are to be on, which means that I would have to translate the numbers into colours.

Rather than attempt that mental gymnastic, I number the shafts - the top of the bottom shaft.  You might just be able to see the numbers if you click on the photo to enlarge it. 

Since I also quite often need to shuffle heddles from one shaft to another, colouring them really isn't all that helpful to me.

My hope is that I can finish setting up the loom over the weekend - the Artisans of the North at the U of Northern BC doesn't have killer hours - and maybe even weave a bit before we leave for Vancouver and Circle Craft.  But I'm not too bothered about that - mainly I just want to leave the loom ready to weave on for when we get back from Calgary (Art Market).

Currently reading Flash and Bones by Kathy Reichs