Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Full Steam Ahead


The yarn arrived yesterday afternoon.  I immediately opened the box and checked my initial calculations once I had the actual yarn in hand, and everything seemed ok.  I wound the warp and started filling out the project notes.

By the time I'd done that it was dinner time, so I left it until this afternoon.

But. 

Last night I could not get to sleep.  As I tossed and turned the thought squirrels started flailing.

Was the epi I chose really good for this slippery silk yarn?  Should I increase it?  That would mean redoing the draft to accommodate the narrower width.  Did I have enough yarn to wind more ends?

I mentally did the math.  Never a good idea, never mind at 2 am.  But I did it.  And then I thought about adding another 40 ends.  Mentally pictured the yarn left on the little cones.  Hmm.  Probably enough yarn for 40 ends?  Maybe...

Eventually I fell asleep but had to be up early. 

After lunch I re-did the math.  Eyeballed the cones.  Yes, it looked like enough for 40 ends.  As I wound the warp I realized I probably only needed 36 ends.  So, back up to the computer, adjusting the draft.

Yes, 36 ends it was.

Back down to the studio to finish the small chain, which then got added to the lease sticks so I could rough sley both chains and get them beamed at the same time.

There might have been enough for 40 ends, but it would have been squeaky close.

And a reminder that sometimes you really need to pay attention to the thought squirrels, as annoying as they may be at 2 am...and thank goodness for always adding in a bit of a fudge factor.

1 comment:

Peg Cherre said...

Yeah, those thought squirrels really only come out at 2AM, don't they? I learned way back in college days that body rest, while not as good as sleeping, was better than not getting that body rest. Lay as still as possible and keep your eyes shut. Just do it. These days it's harder than it used to be as the knees or back or shoulder or... will hurt if I don't change positions.