Begin Again

 

It's hard to get a photo of the towels on the loom because the 'right' side is on the underside.  In the photo it looks like there is a change in colour, but that's just the area where the light can shine through the warp, making it look lighter/brighter.

I'm very pleased with this warp.  The towels are quite thick but good for hands, or a good rub down after a long hot tub soak.

The sale on ko-fi is going well.  Several designs are officially sold out.  (Anything with just one towel left has been pulled from the shop.  I can use them for gifts.)

Yesterday I wet finished the beige/brown version of this design so I may post those tomorrow.

We are having a hot spell for the next few days.  I'm glad I don't have anywhere to be until Tuesday, when I see the eye doctor.  The optometrist told me that I have damage to the cornea from the shingles, and as such the eye doctor will likely monitor me for the rest of my life (or until she retires).  However, she told me the baby cataract isn't impinging my vision yet, so I won't likely need surgery for a while.  Since I'm not a big fan of someone poking my eyes with sharp objects, I'm fine with that!

Finished the book The Pain Project today.  It was helpful, informative, and I'm glad I read it.  It's helped me understand what is happening in my body, better.  Given another pain flare last night after several nights of no flare, meant I was more accepting of it happening.  And it will continue to happen.  That's just fact.  

As long as I can keep weaving, I will continue picking away at my rather too large stash, and try to enjoy the process as much as possible.  And if I need an afternoon nap?  So what.  I'm retired.  I can do that.

If I have the spoons today (maybe not given the lack of sleep) I will do the final prep for the first article I'm writing.  I might even start the FA part of the process.

WEFT has surpassed their kickstarter goal and are underway getting the first issue organized.  And I can now tell you I have been asked to contribute.  I really hesitated saying anything in case it all falls through, but...the word is out and my name is on the list, so...

Time for lunch, then back to the loom for the 2nd session. Then see how many spoons I have left.

14 years

 

This morning Facebook showed me this photo from 14 years ago.

(my gawd have I really been on Facebook for *14* years????)

As I looked at the photo I thought, hmm, I think I still have some of those towels in inventory.

Sigh.

Doug suggested that if I do, I should add them to my current BOGO sale, but I've already got plenty of inventory on sale and to add more would become cumbersome.  So I told him, maybe for the December BOGO sale.

By then the autumn sales events would have happened and who knows, maybe some of them will sell during one of those.

Today is a 'light duty' day.  I have massage and usually feel like I've been run over by a truck afterwards.  When you go for therapeutic massage, it is NOT like having a spa massage.  At all.  Not one bit.  But it is necessary to keep this body from breaking down completely, so I go and hope that things will continue to get better.  Or, at least, not worse.

As a young(er) weaver, I saw an interview about massage and a patient on the table who was asked about why she went for massage.  "I'm a weaver" she said, which caused my head to whip around to pay more attention.  She explained that weaving was very physical and massage helped to keep her functioning in a way that allowed her to keep weaving.

It wasn't much later that I found myself on the table, beginning a decades long practice of getting a regular massage.  I credit my continuing ability to weave partially on doing this kind of personal maintenance.

So, today I will go for massage, pick up a book at the library I put on 'hold', then come home and finish sleying the current warp, then press the towels I wet finished two days ago.  Because yesterday got derailed and I ran out of time and spoons to tackle the pressing.  I don't like to leave damp towels in the bin for more than two days, though, so it works out well that I have massage today and try not to weave right away after that.

The weather forecast says hot weather (for us) is coming.  I'm glad we have a/c.  Not everyone this far north does.  But I needed it in order to keep weaving during the summer, so we installed it then and benefit from it now.  Even though I'm no longer weaving like I used to do.  With climate change, increasingly causing massive wildfires and the smoke pall (of which we have had little so far this year, thankfully) we keep the house closed up and stay comfortable during the hot - and cold.

I am currently reading The Pain Project by Kara Stanley and Simon Paradis.  For anyone dealing with chronic pain, there is a lot of information about what pain is, how it gets treated, and ways to manage it.  And lots to think about.  It is well written.  I'm finding it helpful, although mostly it is cementing my belief that I needed to get off the opioid.  The new medication (*not* an opioid) I'm taking *appears* to be helping.  I'll know more as time goes by.  I'm told that it takes two weeks to fully kick in and I'm at day 8.  Fingers crossed.

Favourite Colours

 

I cannot tell a lie - I have 'favourite' colours.

After weaving with beige warps for most of the spring, then the pale blue/grey, then beige/brown, this nice blue/green warp with pops of peach, yellow and pink is just the ticket.  I did something similar but with a variegated yarn with those accent colours in it and quite liked the result.  I still have a bunch of the variated yarn left, but it was faster to work directly from the tubes than deal with winding the variegated onto spools.  I have very little energy and I can't stand for long periods of time anymore, so I've had to adjust what I do and when.  What can I say?  Working with a body that is 'breaking down' is full of challenges...

The plan with this warp is to finish off the mystery yarn, then work on some of my other odd ball, odds and sods stash.  Like the yellow cottolin that I've owned for, oh 30 years?  In my stash, a little yellow goes a long way!

Since I was weaving to sell for most of my life, I had to get comfortable working with colours that were NOT to my personal taste, and weave them in such a way as I found pleasing.  But every once in a while I need to break out and give myself the pleasure of working with colours I *do* find appealing - on a personal level.

Today the plan is to finish threading, then start pressing the beige/brown towels from the last warp.  I have a few more sale orders to package up, but I'm not heading to town until mid-afternoon, so if any more come in this morning I hope to get them all processed and into the mail.

Yesterday I messed around with the draft I posted and changed where the plain weave happened in the repeat and may do that one instead of the first one I did.  My computer files are rife with drafts I've generated, then rejected.  But I never seem able to trash them.  Sometimes that makes finding something a challenge.  Usually I just make something 'new' rather than try to find something I did a while ago.  Just easier to begin fresh!

It's not raining today, just cloudy.  But that means it's not super hot.  The hot weather we were warned about has yet to arrive, and frankly I'm grateful.  Neither have we had to deal much with smoke from wildfires - yet - this year.  So I'm working on maintaining an attitude of gratitude.

Still lots of inventory in my ko-fi shop and the sale continues until midnight July 9, 2024.

Variations

 

variation on yesterday's draft

Messed around with the tie up and quite like how it looks this way.

Not sure which I will use since both are potentially useful, although I'm leaning more to this one.  OTOH, I won't really know until I start weaving.

The weft will be very close to the warp in value.  I purposefully chose paler hues to make the warps.  With such fine yarns, I could have gone with a higher contrast, but what I did was buy 4 different colours and I plan on mixing and matching the four to produce a range of towels that look different but play nicely together.

I suppose it doesn't really matter much since I no longer do craft fairs, but with each colour combo enough to beam 5 warps, I found I was getting tired of the same colour warps.  Mixing and matching will provide some visual 'interest', I think.  

With 5 kilos of the white linen, each kilo weaving about 20 towels, that's 100 or so towels ahead of me.  I'm hoping to get some done in time for the craft fairs in the fall, but I also still have to finish writing the articles I've committed to writing.  However, Thursday will be a 'light' duty day, so I expect to work on the wet finishing, then 'testing' (experimenting) for the first article.  As soon as I can, I want to get it to the editor in case they want more, or something different.

Plus my sale is on until July 9 and today I need to hit the post office with the bag of packages to mail.

It's a grey dreary day, but honestly?  Better to have rain clouds overhead than thick wildfire smoke pall.  I'm working hard to be grateful and not complain.

Thinking Ahead

 

Not a great image, but Fiberworks can only do so much in terms of showing the weave structure, especially when it has to be 'reduced' so much.

The motif is 1/3rd the width of the warp, at 36 epi.  This cut/paste image shows the selvedge and one repeat.

It is based on the snail's trails and cat's paws motif, which is usually woven in overshot, but can also be done in block twills.

Here I've interpreted it as point twill repeats.  At 36 epi, the tie up needs to have some plain weave in it, so the motif is not as clear cut as with twill blocks, but nonetheless, I think I'm going to use this for the warp after I'm done with the 'mystery' yarn.  I may play with the tie up some, try placing the plain weave in some other part of the tie up sequence, but that remains to be seen if it will improve anything much.

The warp and weft will be close in value, so whatever I decide to do, it will be on the subtle end of the range of things possible, so I'm not too bothered about having the motif not stand out.  

The tie up is not 'balanced' - iow, one side of the cloth will show more warp, the other more weft.  This is referred to as warp emphasis or weft emphasis.  I like doing this because it can give the two sides of the cloth quite different appearances.

My Birthday Bash sale went live yesterday.  It was ready, there wasn't much point in waiting.  Orders will begin being shipped tomorrow because today is a national holiday and the post office is closed.  I will attempt to keep the inventory numbers updated on the ko-fi website, but if something sells out and someone else wants to buy the item, I will let them know what is left and arrange a substitution.

There seems to be some confusion about how the sale works.  

You order one towel - I will ship two.  Buy one, get two for the price of one.  

Thank you to those who have ordered already.