Rough Sleying

View from beneath as I rough sley

Just a reminder that if you tie off all four 'arms' of the cross to remove all four ties before doing anything about spreading the warp to the width in the reed.

I don't tie the waist of the X because I find it compresses the yarns and makes it more difficult to select the yarns in their proper order for rough sleying.  So I tie the 'arms' of the cross instead.

Yesterday I finished weaving the samples for Tien Chiu and will be sending them to her next week.  This completes the weaving I have been doing for her.  The last colour blanket was woven in 1:3 twill on my roller type counter balanced loom.  Yes, you can weave an unbalanced weave on such a loom, even without the shed regulator, if you sink the three shafts.  The shed was large enough I didn't even have to change to a low profile shuttle, just used my usual standard Leclerc shuttles.

I seem to be more or less recovered from all the travelling I have been doing and was able to think clearly enough to draw up a job list of what needs to happen in the next four weeks.

My editor should be arriving sometime around the end of July (date to be determined) and the studio needs a serious clean up.  Since it is easier to deal with wound warps by weaving them, I started rough sleying the first place mat warp this morning.  There are four of those, plus four table runner warps.  Since Doug is going pressing on the weekend, I'm going to try to weave as many of the mat warps as I possibly can and get them ready for wet finishing, pressing, then hemming (and then their final press).

Once those pre-wound warps are woven, I will begin shifting the heaps of bins and boxes to the annex for storage.  Because what she will be photographing is the studio, my work spaces, processes and so on for The Book.

If I can get that done quickly, I will start designing and weaving the rest of the book projects.  I have a couple done, friends are doing a few, which will help take the pressure off of me, and I may ask one more person if she would allow me to use some of her weaving as samples, too.  Still thinking that through.

After being on the lowest possible dose of the cancer drug I now have a much better idea of what my new 'normal' is.  And it isn't very much fun, but so much better than the higher doses, plus it appears to be keeping the cancer under control.  Now that I have an idea of what my new 'normal' consists of, I can begin to devise coping mechanisms.  With the muscle pain, it means shorter weaving periods and longer 'rest' breaks.  Since I also have a lot of conference administrivia to deal with, it will just be a matter of reducing my expectations in terms of what I can realistically accomplish in a day.

Life.  A constant round of adjusting to what is happening and focusing on what is important and what I need to let go of in terms of expectations...