Begin Again

 

Even when you know quite a lot, you don't know everything.  Maybe I should add this to my list of 'Laura-isms'...

I'm doing some sampling, using a yarn I have worked with before, but am not particularly experienced with.  As such I followed a recommendation, even as I wondered if it would work, wound a warp, beamed it, threaded/sleyed/tied-on and started weaving.

My inner voice was correct.  It was not going to work.  Not even close.  I tried a few different things and finally just cut off what I'd woven, resleyed it to higher epi, (making two sleying errors in the process because my nice tidy bundles were gone and it was so much harder to keep track of the threads) tied on and started weaving again.

But now the warp was too narrow for purpose.  

The value of the yarn in the warp was maybe $10.  My time?  About 4 hours to that point.

But I had more yarn.  Lots, in fact.  And yes, it's a fairly price-y yarn, but the results were not sufficient to the purpose.  Rather than press on and use up that warp, I opted to cut it off and will wind a new one, wider than the previous one so that I can proceed with the higher epi and the end result will be appropriate to the purpose.

If there is one thing I have learned in my life - don't hang onto a mistake just because you have spent a long time making it.  Much better to take the knowledge and begin again based on the new found knowledge and get to a successful result because you are working from a place of increased information.

So that is my 'job' today - wind the new warp and get it into the loom.  If I can manage it, start weaving.  Maybe tomorrow after the Sunday Seminar I can weave the first 'sample' and finish the rest of the first sampling on Monday.  By then I should have the information for the rest of the samples.  But now we know what epi is going to work, and which one doesn't.

With the level of wildfire smoke outside I won't be going anywhere until I absolutely have to.

Last night we had a huge thunder storm bang and crash around us for hours.  The Purple Air site says our air quality this morning is poor and we've turned the air filter we bought a few months ago onto 'high'.  I may have to start using Benedryl, although I try to keep that for when things get 'bad'.  

In other areas of the province, more wildfires were sparked by rolling t-storms with at least one more town under evacuation as of bedtime last night.  Perhaps more.  I haven't paid much attention to the wildfire reports this morning.

We are beyond time to deal with climate change.  Some areas of the province are experiencing drought, almost all of the province is dealing with heat extremes, glaciers are melting which is causing flooding in some areas.  

Interesting times.  Interesting times.

Another Trip Round the Sun

 

This photo is from a few years ago, but it's not great outside this morning.

We have four wildfires to the west of us, which means it's all blowing our direction.  Since I'm allergic to smoke, I'm going to eventually start feeling sick - if the fires continue and the smoke sits like a chicken on her nest over us.

We have watched the climate change beginning in the late 1990s when the pine beetle invasion began.  It started in one of the largest provincial parks where the policy is to let nature take its course.  Not that there is much to be done against the pine beetle.  Normally Mother Nature deals with it by killing the larvae with extreme cold.  Well, we weren't getting any - at least not at the correct time or the correct level of extreme, for the correct length of time.  Our winters were becoming ever more mild.

Many people were thrilled with this gentle (seeming) warming trend.   They welcomed the warmer temps because they hated the cold.  (Which begs the question, why were you living north of the 50th latitude then?  But I digress.)

Over the years we have had to change our approach to living here, in this place, as we began to deal with far more grey dreary days and overcast, wet soggy snow instead of powder, dangerous roads due to ice from the constant freeze/thaw as the days warmed up above melting then froze again after sundown.

That was winter.  

In summer?  Dry bush due to the stands of dead trees (pine beetle kill at first, now spruce bud worm) and the barest spark, either lightning or human caused (cigarette butts tossed out of windows, hot boxes on train wheels, campfires not put out properly, whatever) meant more and more wildfires, going wildly out of control in extremely difficult terrain.

And here we are.  Once again under a pall of smoke, far too early in the year.  Made worse by temperatures unheard of - in JUNE - not August when we would expect hot weather.

So far this summer we have had temperatures in the very high 30s and two days at 40 C.   One small town literally burst into fire, cause still not known.  Lytton set a new world record at just under 50C - it was primed for exactly what happened.  Residents of the town had about 15 minutes to evacuate, nearly all with just the clothing on their backs, many leaving pets behind because they couldn't find them before they had to leave.  Two people died (that the authorities know about - there may be more - chaos reigns while people try to reconnect with family and friends.)

And of course, the ever present pandemic, making things even more difficult.  How do you suddenly shelter a 1000 people when the advice is to not gather in large groups or risk spreading the virus?

So today I completed another trip round the sun.  On Facebook I was urged to set up a fund raiser for a cause important to me.  I chose to not do that for a number of reasons.

Instead I urged people to donate to a cause important to them.  There are so many.  

We have weathered the pandemic in reasonably good shape, but we are old and have no children or grandchildren to worry about.  We are housing secure (as much as anyone can be when wildfires rage).  We have food enough and have been able to get more when we need it.  

But as climate change and the pandemic continue, supply chains may become disrupted.  Around the world there have been 4 million deaths due to covid documented - and many statisticians are saying that number is low due to the difficulty of collecting the numbers from places where the government has fumbled the pandemic response, or is covering up their ineptitude (or willful negligence), or that people are completely overwhelmed just trying to survive.

We have made some donations this year - Doctors Without Borders, UNICEF (for better vaccine distribution around the world), plus some local non-profits.  We have offered assistance to friends who were struggling.

Because when you have enough, build a bigger table.

If anyone is so inclined, choose a non-profit that is trying to help make things better and donate some money to them - if you have it.  

Bear in mind that this pandemic and climate change are linked, if not directly, then by the very fact that they are happening at the same time, each making the other more difficult to deal with.  

I never really wanted to live in 'interesting' times, and yet, here we are.

Thank you to all who have sent birthday greetings.  My most fervent wish is that we will all be here in another 12 months.  

Hitting the Wall

 

I appear to have - in many ways - hit the wall today.  OTOH, as someone pointed out, that wall is there to lean against and rest, so while I haven't been doing 'nothing', neither have I been flogging myself to go weave.

Instead I am working on some other projects that are/were in the background.  One has come to the foreground now and I have been sifting through the documentation, working with another person, so make sure they get what they need.  The bad news is that their deadline is now (ahem) looming and I need to NOT make any mistakes.

So I am taking some care to go through their emailed instructions to make sure I know what part I need to play in this project.

Another is still simmering in the background, but just now added a Zoom meeting to my calendar for 10 days hence to discuss further, now that we've had time to think about it.

And, oh yeah, did I remind y'all that my Birthday Bash Special is live?  Check it out on my ko-fi account (link below).

In addition to that a friend needs some help right now so while Doug is playing point on that, I still need to provide information.  He figures he's got everything we need to contribute lined up and now the wait to see if it all works out.

I was doing ok with the heat until the humidity took a leap up.  It's not super very high, compared to some, but it's 'high' for us and today has been a struggle.

Today I needed to see my chiropractor and a list had been growing of a number of small items I needed to stock up on, plus some other things that I felt I needed, so in addition to getting my neck crunched, I braved one of our smaller 'department' stores.  Of course it's been weeks since I've been in and they have rearranged their aisles to better deal with pandemic protocols (fewer aisles, more room, etc.) so it took far longer for me to find what I wanted and by the time I was done there, I was just done, period.  I was actually quite relieved that nearly all the people in the store were wearing masks.  I think I saw two that weren't.

After a break to rest and deal with emails and Fiberworks, I am just about ready to tackle heading to the studio.  I need to find a place to store the new handheld vacuum I bought, which should make keeping the studio floor clean easier, and edit a warp colour order I've been playing with, then send a photo to the person the samples are for, and then?  Then I am going to sit and listen to some music and finish filling the next bobbin of the 16/2 cotton.  

And that, my friends, is about all I'm going to accomplish today, I think.  Hopefully I can sleep better tomorrow and finally get to the point of cutting off the current warp and wet finish the first half.  That warp is going to have to wait while I deal with this other warp as a priority, but honestly?  There's no rush other than my desire to get it done.  

Flexibility

 

I learned a long time ago that it did not serve me well to assume that my plans were written in stone.  Many times I have been in mid-stream with a project and had to pivot to change what I was doing.

So, while the spinning is a pivot, of sorts, it is all part and parcel of weaving down my stash.

I inherited a great deal of yarn when a friend died and I've had a bunch of fairly fine open end spun cotton, not sure what I could or should do with it.

Turns out is is the 'perfect' colour to use as weft on the current warp (spools still in the spool rack).

But plying 16/2 cotton takes time.  A *lot* of time.  Since we downsized my studio last year, I actually have a bit of room in the studio and with another reorganization,  I was able to set up one of my espinners to do the plying.  Just a bit of a scale - it takes about 45 minutes to half fill one bobbin on the espinner.  

So it is taking quite a long time to get enough of the yarn plied in order to weave with it.  In fact, I was thinking that I'd weave off what I've done - and can do tomorrow - and will need to stop and just ply yarn for several hours.

But today another project, one I agreed to tackle a few weeks ago and for which I received the  yarns last week came calling.  I should have the instructions for *that* project tomorrow - just about the time I cut off the first half of the current warp on the Megado and wet finish that.  Since it will take several days to get the 16/2 plied, pivoting to the Leclerc loom and that project will actually allow me to continue at the comfortable pace of half a bobbin a day without feeling restless and as though I've 'wasted' my time.

Since that project will be woven on the Leclerc, I can leave the espinner set up behind the Megado and work on it at my pace while still weaving on the other loom.  And by the time I finish the project on the Leclerc, all of the 16/2 should be plied and I can hop back on the Megado.  Unfortunately, there is so much of the 16/2 cotton that I will need to do another warp in the turquoise/green in order to use up as much of the 16/2/2 as possible.  (No that number is not a mistake - two 16/2 plied together is written as 16/2/2)

Flexibility.  

It's a good thing!

My Projects

 

My life has been filled with Big Projects.  Some of them were financially successful.  Others?  Were not.

But the Project itself felt...worthy... to me and so I invested my time (and in most cases $$$) getting them done.

A few years back I encouraged Kerstin Fröberg to translate her monograph to English and add information for rising shed looms, then published it.  I still have copies if anyone is interested.  $25 inc postage to the US and Canada.

The Intentional Weaver is also self published and available on blurb.com.  If you scroll down to the bottom of the page you will find the link to the website where this publication can be purchased, either hardback or PDF version.  Also?  This one:

Another Big Project - two actually - are the DVDs that I did with (then) Interweave Press, still available via Handwoven/Long Thread Media as on line workshops.

And of course, I'm still weaving.  My Birthday Bash Sale continues until midnight July 9.  Link in the lower left hand corner of your screen.  (Or my screen, at least.)

Other projects were time sensitive and long over - conferences, mini-publications with samples, and the on-going Sunday Seminars

I am also hosting study groups on line and investigating other opportunities for continuing with on-line teaching in the coming year(s).

What all of this Big Project activity means is that my house and studio are in a constant state of upheaval.  I used to moan about the clutter, the mess.  Now I just do the Big Project and try not to fuss too much about the clutter and mess.  It's a constant state of flux and things get done and Big Projects come to a conclusion.

And then?  Then I'm usually off on the spark for the next Big Project.

And so it goes.

Currently reading A Quantum Life by Hakeem Uluseyi

Plus ca Change...

 

Things change.  Priorities change.  Life changes.  My studio changes.

And so I am in the midst of a re-organization of my studio.  Again.  And may need to do it again later in the summer, because reasons.

I have been steadily working on weaving down my stash but a few home truths have had to be faced.  I don't actually want to weave all of what I have.  But would anyone else want that yarn?  Sigh.

If I could just get rid of one whole category of yarn, that would free up many board feet of shelving, which would give me room to store what I *have* woven.  I'm running out of space.

I also need to decide about keeping some of the equipment I have needed for the years, but really don't much need now.  OTOH, I hate to get rid of stuff that still works and I do still actually use the photocopy machine from time to time.  Not to mention that's a nearly new toner cartridge and they are VERY expensive.  Be nice to actually get some of it used up.  But it needs to be moved because I need the space it currently occupies for something else. 

And so it goes.  Dominoes.  Move one thing and other stuff has to move.  And where does THAT stuff go?  So today my studio is in upheaval and I'm feeling distracted and overwhelmed with it all.

The annex was such a catch all for so many years.  Need more space?  Doug would build another shelving unit for the annex and we'd cram more stuff in there.  Don't have that option now.

The heat here is beginning to lessen, but a lot of people have learned some hard lessons the past few weeks.  Climate change is real and almost beyond fixing.  Some experts are saying the best we can do is mitigate the negative effects on lives.  But it's a big tangled mess and I don't know if we can get some solutions in place before a lot more people die - from heat exhaustion, from wildfires, from flooding, from pandemics.  They appear to be all tied in some way to the change in climate.

Or so it would appear.

In the meantime, this little worker bee will do the best she can to keep going, living a small footprint (knowing full well she is much more privileged than many).  

So much 'interesting' life right now.  The more things change, the more they stay the same?

Canada Day

 

Canada Day.  

Today we mark the 'birth' of a nation, but all too often, we do not tell the complete story of how this nation came to be.

I rarely 'celebrate' Canada Day - but then I rarely 'celebrate' any day designated to be 'special'.  That includes Thanksgiving and Christmas.

This year we are being forced to come to grips with a more complete history of Canada and the racism that underlies this country.

Personally I have had family members who attempted to justify residential 'schools' as being somehow 'good' and 'just' and 'best'.  In my heart I knew that they were not.

But the residential 'schools' are just a symptom of all that has gone into the formation of this country.  If we are to truly be a country that embraces all, then we need to face our history.  All of it.

Truth.

Then Reconciliation.

So today I do not 'celebrate' Canada Day.  Instead I remind myself that when we know better, we need to do better.

Today will be a time for me to reflect on what the 'Canadian Mosaic' truly means.  That we, as a country, a society, a culture, need to reflect on how we see others.  What we value as a nation.  In a nation.

The past year and a half has been made more difficult because a small segment of the population has chosen to move further to the 'right' and forgotten that we need to care for each other.

And that lighting someone else's candle does not extinguish our own.

Today I mourn with the original peoples of Canada and all they have lost.  I mourn with the people who came more recently as refugees and found racism in their new home where they expected safety.  I mourn for the earth, which this week especially has shown us that she is sick of human beings and giving us a louder, more urgent, warning of what is to come if we don't stop soiling our nest, our home, our ONLY home.  I mourn for those who lost their lives (and livelihoods and health) due to a pandemic that could have been mitigated by the simple protocols of self-isolating when sick, wearing a mask, keeping distant.  Getting a vaccine once they became available.

Instead we have just come through the worst heat event in recorded history, a thunder storm yesterday sparked wild fires, many in remote, hard to reach areas.  One small town, in the news for three days setting new extreme heat records, pretty much burned to the ground as a lightning strike caused a wildfire that engulfed them in just a few minutes.

There is little to 'celebrate' today unless we also stop, pause, reflect, and since we know better, do better.

So for those people who are now able to meet with a larger bubble, I hope that you will enjoy your day.  But let us not forget the reality of where we are, in this place, in this time.