Thursday, June 14, 2012

I Love My Job...

...most of the time.

Well, let me rephrase that - there are aspects of my job (work, career, avocation, what have you) that really don't appeal to me.  But, nonetheless, they have to be done.

While I am self-employed and therefore I get to choose what I will and won't do, there are times when I do things for - how shall I say this? - the greater good?

As in teaching.  There are times I will choose to include weave structures or techniques that I don't personally find appealing but know that they need to be exposed to students.

Hence this sample with fringe on all four sides.  I used to do this when we were doing production table textiles because it made the most sense in terms of efficient production.  But you know it's been a long, long time since I've had to sit at the sewing machine, rip ends and picks out to create a ditch and sew around all four sides of the textile.

It's a good finish.  A single line of stitching is totally adequate.  I know this because the past few years I've had customers tell me that place mats they purchased decades ago (yes, really) are still wearing well and going strong.  So I have no compunction about recommending this finish to handweavers.

But do I really want to sit myself down in front of the machine and do the work?  Not really.  But I will because it is a good technique and weavers need to know about it.

Which is why I am going to go back to a previous post and change the title from Ripsmatta to Rep Weave.

I was reminded (and I ought to have known better because I do know this) that ripsmatta actually means a rep woven rug.  I could blur the issue by claiming that the sample is meant to be for a mug 'rug' but that is sort of beside the point.  The actual fact is that the sample as woven is not suitable for a rug - it would have to be woven much thicker and denser.  So for the sake of accuracy, and ultimately wanting to use correct terminology, I will change the title.

It doesn't do to become sloppy - in our work practices or our language.