Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Re-inventing

 


It seems I am re-inventing myself once more.

It was just 12 months ago that I was in the process of shutting my business down, curtailing my activities, preparing to 'retire'.

And now?

Now I have a calendar full of Zoom meetings.  Like I mean, literally full.  So full I had to go to Zoom yesterday and enter all of them so that I didn't double book myself.

But this is no different from other folk who have retired only to find themselves just as 'busy' - just that now they are busy doing other things than the daily grind.

I cannot say that I am now doing what I want, when I want.  I pretty much always have.  Sort of.  Paying the bills meant I took on work that didn't much appeal to me - except for the money that came in at the end of the job.  I was still weaving, and that was fine by me.

What I am bringing to my life now is a greater understanding of how I have abused my body and finding a better balance of continuing the physical aspects of weaving and the more, shall we say, cerebral?

12 months ago I thought the cerebral aspect would be more experimentation, more intellectual.  But I was (am) faced with a yarn stash that just doesn't seem to quit so I concentrated on weaving that down.  Forgetting how much yardage my stash represented.  It took literally over a year just to weave down the 2/16 cotton.  Granted I'm not weaving at the same pace as before, but still...

As I use up my yarn, other yarn comes to my attention.  So instead of starting on scarves, I am going to see if I can use up the cotton flake.  And some of the 2/8 cotton.  Today I will finish off the place mat warp on the Leclerc, then switch back to the Megado.  While I was able to weave on the Leclerc, I have to be careful when weaving something that needs a hard beat.  My body is telling me three place mat warps are enough, thankyouverymuch.  So, back to the Megado for a while.

I also have to make a decision about the electric spinning wheel.  I mean seriously, how much hand spun yarn do I want to add to my yarn stash?  What was I thinking?  I might instead just sell it off.  The local spinners and felters will no doubt be happy to buy my spinning fibre stash from me.

Except.  Except spinning keeps coming back into my life.  So I'm going to sit on that decision for a while.

In the meantime I'm going to be spending a lot more time at the computer.  I have a dozen Power Point presentations to build over the coming months.  Plus the recording/rendering/uploading of the meetings.

Plus I got an inquiry from Handwoven yesterday.  Something that I think I can handle.  But it has a deadline, too.

So.  Not 'retiring' so much as 're-inventing' it would appear...


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