Battered

 

Two days ago I began crunching the numbers for the next article as the yarn was all in hand.  I had a rough idea of what I wanted to do, but I needed to do some serious thinking about how I would get there in the most efficient way.  I want to use all one warp for each of the two warp yarns, but it was going to require at least 4 resleyings, so I wanted to make sure I knew what I was going to do, when, before I set it all up.

Unfortunately my brain is still not fully functional.  I had been expecting to take an hour or so and have it all in hand, but after spending an hour with calculator, samples, ruler (to do ruler wraps), and lots of scrap paper to write down my conclusions, I realized that I was far from done.  

And I was, frankly, exhausted.  When I came upstairs I could barely talk and I was cross-eyed with fatigue.

All the thinking I had already done about the project no longer made sense and I realized I'd extrapolated the wrong way round.  

Yesterday I went back to my work table and shuffled through the paperwork, spotted some errors, re-crunched the numbers again, thought about what I expected would be going to happen with these experiments, and re-checked the numbers, changing one sample.  Again.  For the 4 or 5th time.

Which made me feel like recovery was still a long way away - which it is, given the 24 month recovery everyone has been telling me.  

However, by the time I finished re-checking my numbers when I shut the studio down for the night, I *think* I have a workable plan.  Since this experiment is something I've never done before, I am leaving myself open to changing things again once I get started.

But that's the thing with working things out.  You try and see what happens.  And you add to your foundation of knowledge.  Gradually, layer by layer, you learn.  And then in the future when you run into something you have not done before, you rummage around in that foundation and see what makes sense, what 'fits', and you extrapolate.  And then you put your conclusions to the test and see if you've correctly figured things out.

So I'm expecting to weave and wet finish the first set of samples, and then I'll know if they show something worth writing up or if I have to re-calculate and weave more.  

Expecting to need more warp for just the samples I've currently got planned, I will plan to weave more.  And, if I don't, I will use the balance of the warp to weave some more towels.  

I will look the numbers over again today, and if they seem to make sense I will begin working out the length of warp I will beam (the width/# of ends is already determined), and when the current warp comes off the loom next week, the experimental warp will go on.  

And I'll do the number crunch for the 2nd warp for the article.  

Will I stop assuming that my brain is back to fully functioning?  Probably not...

Expertise

 

available here

This morning I read a comment that weaving was just a matter of trial and error.

Well, yes.  But there are literally dozens of highly skilled *and knowledgeable* people who can narrow down the choices that new weavers make.  Some of us have written books, answered questions on weaving groups, taught classes/workshops, done You Tube videos.

While there are many different things that can be done, any good teacher will point a new student to a way that works for specific circumstances.  Plus there are constants in the craft - a thread under tension is a thread under control; if you can't be perfect be consistent; never use a knot where a bow will do, etc.

Weaving is a complex craft, in no small part due to the huge variety of job specific looms - all based on (largely) what kind of loom is needed to weave the textile in question.

Looms can be quite specific in their potential - everything from a frame loom to a shaft loom, to a velvet loom.

But to declare that the craft is just 'trial and error' kind of erases our ancestors who did the majority of the 'trial and error' for much of our craft.

Yes, I do trial and error myself - the yarn for the next article is all here now, and I will spend several days mulling over what I will do.  But all that 'trial and error'?  Is based on the deep and broad foundation of knowledge that I have collected over the decades.  

I am considered a 'master' of my craft and I got that way by reading multiple weaving books, taking workshops from as many instructors I could, then weaving literally hundreds of samples.

In the 'age of information' we are drowning with information.  Unfortunately we are also drowning in *mis*information.

So, yes, trial and error - but collect as much of the constants as you can.  Build a solid foundation of knowledge to build upon.  And respect our ancestors who have brought us to the here and now.

Rolling Over

Stats:   All time3004468

This morning the count for page views rolled over 3 million.

Did I aspire to have this kind of readership on that fateful day I opened Blogspot and began in 2008?  

No.  I didn't.  At the time there was quite a large blogging community, and I saw plenty of others who had 'membership' counts much higher than what I did.  However, I was writing out of a desire to continue teaching, and at the time writing was the easiest thing I could do.  And, quite frankly, Blogspot was a free site so it wasn't costing me anything.

I felt...vulnerable...

My younger brother had died in February and we were dealing with my grieving mother, while grieving ourselves, and I was his executrix, which meant I leaned heavily on Doug as we each dealt with some health issues of our own.  The year 2008 was...difficult.

But I could remove myself from reality for an hour and think, and write, about weaving.

That so many of you have come along for the ride has been a pleasant surprise.  And I have felt less lonely knowing that there are some people who enjoy what I write and some let me know that my thoughts, which come randomly at times, purposeful at others, are enjoyable.  And maybe even helpful.

This morning the rest of the yarn for the next article arrived.  I spent some time yesterday examining the yarn already here, some of which isn't that familiar to me.  So I will be learning as I experiment.  Because that is what I will be doing - experimenting, in order to learn more about the craft I love.

Since 2008 I have experienced more health issues than I ever expected to do.  There have been highs and lows, and some of the lows have been very low indeed.  But I'm still here.

Since I am still here, I will carry on.  When my brother died, I experienced 'survivor guilt'.  Why him, not me?  I was older.  He was beloved in this community (standing room only at his funeral) and most of my life has been directed outside of this community.  In the end I realized that I hadn't died, so I'd better get living.  

The brain bleed Aug. 31 nearly put me down for the count.  I wasn't sure I could weave again, never mind teach - or write.  The surgeon was quite matter of fact that my speech may never recover fully, but I find - 4.5 months later, able to write.  It still isn't great, I still have sink holes in my brain, I still find myself typing duplicate words, or missing some altogether.  And my spelling?  Um, not great.

But I can form sentences, and I can edit to my heart's content, unlike speech.  

Still here, still standing - although with a cane when I leave the house.  Guess I will carry on.

So It Begins!

 

weft yarn for next article

This week the yarn I ordered for the next article will arrive.  The 'extra' weft I need arrived today, so I can begin analyzing it and start thinking about the details of how I will set up the experiment and document the yarns.

(Yes, I have to order yarn in to do this!  OTOH, the warp yarns can be used later in my own weaving, so I'm not too bothered about needing to do that.)

I'm making good progress on the current warp.  Yesterday I hit about halfway, and the only appointment I have this week is my back jab on Friday.  And then I need to 'rest' while it begins to take effect so I have some 'light duties' that I can work on.  Like the spinning, which I haven't been able to make myself get serious about.  :(   I also have a couple (3?) books I'm trying to read - not the most helpful approach when I'm still handicapped by the brain bleed Aug. 31.  I should set one book aside and pick it up later, focus on the other two, but...

I also offered to do another article for WEFT, and while the editor is overwhelmed with getting issue #2 ready, she seems intrigued with what I offered to do, so we'll see.

As for the bleed recovery, I'm 4.5 months out and doing 'better', slowly but surely.  I am hoping to be recovered enough to start driving again in the spring.  The driving conditions have been, frankly, horrible with temps too high, and rain in January making the roads black ice danger strips.  But the swelling in my face is going down, so that is an indication that the swelling in my brain is, too.  All good things, but teeth grindingly 'slow' when you have little patience.

But the fact that WEFT seems to like what I'm submitting keeps me going.  Teaching has been such a large part of my weaving life that I had worried if I could keep on.  I'm still having difficulty with speech, especially when I get tired, but I can pace myself as to when I write - and then, of course, I can edit multiple times to make sure I'm saying what I meant to say.  Not to mention a great alpha reader to help pinpoint when I mis-speak or mis-grammar.

I have offered to bring the first issue of WEFT to the guild along with my woven samples when the magazine arrives next spring.  If anyone is interested.  So, we'll see if that gets organized or not.

Looking to the Past

 

draft showing one repeat in the threading, two in the treadling and the hem area

This is a draft from Ars Textrina, one of the drafts from one of the old German weaving pattern books, translated by Pat Hilts.

The draft was originally developed for 12 shafts, but I have 16, so I extended the draft to use all of them.  Because I can.  

The interesting thing to me is that while the 'star' in the middle is symmetrical, the rest of the draft is not.  In the end it turned into something that I found quite interesting.  And why I can spend a long time (at times) at the desktop mucking about with drafts.  Push this line here, shove that line there, whatta we got?

In some ways, I liken playing with twill lines a lot like 'drawing' with an Etch-a-sketch.  If you keep the lines linked up and on the diagonal you can come up with some interesting things,.  And then you can play with the tie up, too, and see what happens.

When software for weaving first appeared, there were whole lot of weavers who declared 'that isn't weaving!'

Um, yes, it is.  In my own experience, I didn't spend any less time generating a draft, I actually spent at least the same amount of time, but I was able to generate many drafts, not just 2 or 3.  In the end, I feel that using weaving software made me a better designer.  I would go through larger numbers of designs until I was happy, not just 'satisfied'.  In the end I learned a lot more about how threads interlace and I could begin with the knowledge already in my head to try to execute what I wanted to do.  And then quickly edit the draft to get it closer and closer to what I wanted.

Now when I sit down at the computer I usually have an idea what I want to have happen.  At times I do start with a draft presented by another weaver/designer, but tend to edit them.  On the warp just cut off the loom, there was an error in the draft in the book, which I spotted immediately and fixed.

Weaving software is not 'artificial intelligence'.  It is a tool, just like a lot of other things I use.  It is a good idea if a new weaver learns how to do a drawdown by hand, just so that they understand the connection between how the loom works, and how a draft works.  But weaving software?  Yes, it is a weaving tool.

Finding My Voice

Magic in the Water, 2002

For the longest time, I worried if I actually knew something about the craft of weaving.  I hesitated to speak up, unsure if what I knew was only applicable to what I was doing, or if what I was observing and learning held some bigger 'truth'.

It was the same old thing - did I really actually know anything?  At all?

I struggled to write my final monograph for the Guild of Canadian Weavers.  After all, what I knew was essentially I had learned by weaving (and in some cases 'ruining') lots of cloth.  I had managed to find a couple of people teaching the topic of wet finishing, and one person who was willing to answer questions.

But it was finding an industrial book on wet finishing that finally made me realize that the whole subject was too broad and deep to grasp the entirety of it - just bits and pieces.

Finally I asked a couple people who knew a lot about wet finishing to read what I'd written, and when one of those people actually *learned* something from *me*, and thanked me for it, I finally began to accept that I did know something worth sharing.  The second person asked me to co-author a book on the subject with them, but they didn't think before and after samples were necessary - and I did.  So I thanked them and went my own way.

Finding my voice was not an easy journey.  And I still have doubts about what I know, in part because of the narrow 'slice' of the craft I've dug down into.  OTOH, isn't that true of every practitioner?

So yes, I feel I know stuff.  Ultimately, each person who reads what I have to say will need to judge whether or not what I know is applicable to them, their approach to the craft.  They also need to judge if their equipment is the 'same' as what I use, if they want to make functional (as in beyond beauty or a political comment) textiles, what yarns they use, their budget, etc.

As someone said, the time so short, the craft so long to learn.

I am entering my 50th year as a weaver.  And I still learn.  And I look forward to the journey.  Hope to see you along the way.  

My books are here

 

Memories

 

This morning Facebook showed me a 'memory' - the arrival of the actual hard copy books for the pre-orders of The Intentional Weaver,

Six years.  My how time flies!

But the memories are not just of the arrival of the completed books, but go back, at least 4 years beyond that because I actually started writing it that long ago.

A technical book doesn't always go quickly, especially when you are fitting Life in as well.  I needed the money to produce it, weave the samples, hire an editor, then pay for the printing - all before money from the actual books started coming in.

There were many times when I shut the file and walked away, wondering why on earth I was writing (another) book on weaving.  Weren't there enough already?

But my students had asked where to find the information I was giving them, and I could not point to a single volume where they could find that information.   And so, I would go back and open the file after the latest deadline crunches were over and poke away at it.

Ultimately I wrote the book I wish I had when I was learning how to weave.  Although it really isn't a 'simple' how to weave book, but hopefully, how to weave 'better'.

Did I succeed?  Dunno.  But copies still sell, albeit slowly.

Will I write another book?  I won't say 'never' this time, just 'it isn't likely'.  Instead I am focusing on writing articles.  They take less time (sort of), but also are less intense, in the way a book winds up being.

Not that I'm not bringing everything I can to the articles.  I am trying to stretch beyond what I know, see if I can wring more understanding out of the topic.  And even bringing more to my own weaving.  

Seems I'm not 'done' with learning about weaving - yet.