The Technology of Weaving

 

cover of one of my books

Over and over again I see newbies to weaving asking for answers to questions that they can find in books if they can't take a class.

Yesterday again, someone questioning about my use of 2/8 instead of 8/2 - aren't they the same thing?

I responded that they are the same count, but not necessarily the same quality.  And left it at that - it was a group chat, after all.  And I didn't feel like typing out half of a chapter in my book for their edification.

Call me a grinch.

And again, someone else suggesting AI as a way to learn anything.

The lying machine that just flat out makes stuff up but you want to have correct answers about technical weaving questions?  OK.  

Experienced weavers are still here, still educating, still trying to set people on a reasonable path to learning.  To be then told that we are no better than AI is discouraging from even bothering to try.

What can I say?  I'm stubborn.  And I'm not easily discouraged from trying to educate as much as I can.

So I am investigating options for the future - if I can ever get better enough that I can begin to manage a schedule of weaving, writing and/or online presentations.

I just sent the latest files to WEFT for the Spring 2027 (not a typo) issue and I have pitched an idea for the one after that.  They haven't accepted it yet, and I'm of two minds about that.  It is a topic that isn't amongst my favourites, but an idea burbled to the surface and I'd kind of like to explore it a bit.  But if they turn it down, neither will I be devastated.

I am, after all, supposed to be 'retired'.  And I'm still struggling with physical/health issues.  Although just this month I have actually seen some significant improvement in one of the more testing of the issues.  But I am not 'cured' and until progress stops, neither will I know if there is a 'cure' to be had.  The nerve damage may have progressed too far and I may still be managing pain from that one.

Plus my back continues to get worse.

In the meantime I keep weaving.  Keep stash busting (as best I can).  Keep reducing my expectations for what I can accomplish.  

Life is a journey.  Sometimes you travel quickly, sometimes slowly, sometimes you travel in comfort and style, or in a creaky old vehicle or even you just limp along, day by day.  But there IS still beauty to be seen on the way.  And sometimes travelling at a slower speed you can stop and enjoy that beauty for more than a minute.  

Sending everyone gold dust and the time to enjoy beauty when they come across it.

Things Change

 

Canadian flag over our front door

In the wake of changes to social media I have been looking for other ways to stay in touch with folk.

There have been a number of Canadian led initiatives launched in the past couple of weeks, one of which just days ago.  It's a little bit different and I'm not entirely sure if I'm happy with the format, but since it is new it needs to grow some - and *I* need to get used to the different format.

However, all that said, it allows for the creation of 'cafes' for special interest groups, so I've created one called Warped Weavers.  

The site is called Hey.Cafe and the link to join is here.  

They are growing rapidly, and it may take a while before someone can create a new account (it took me 3 tries as they were being overwhelmed with applications), but once on the site it was fairly simple to get an account set up.  

Last night I was able to post to Warped Weavers, include a photo and alt text, which doesn't show up until you click on the photo.

Anyhoo, if anyone is interested in a weaving group initiated by moi, come and share what you are doing, or ask me anything.  I may ask you to email me for a longer answer.  Weaving answers tend to go beyond the confines of a small text box.  Just saying...

Sitting With My Thoughts (CW current events)

 

This used to be the public pathway in my subdivision.  One of the people living next to the pathway had planted rose bushes and they bloomed pretty much all summer.  It was always a delight to go on my daily walk and appreciate the pink and white roses, nodding their heads in the breeze.

But a couple years ago the person who planted the bushes moved and the bushes were cut down.  I don't know if the city workers did it, or the new owner of the house.  But they disappeared about the time I could no longer walk more than a little bit. I have a few photos I took and from time to time I look at them - or include them in a blog post.

Because there are days when we need to remember:  there is still beauty in this world.

For as ugly as things are right now, there are still places where there is beauty.

Our job as humans is to work towards protecting what we have.  The beauty.  The life.  

Because we don't actually *own* this planet, we are just temporary passengers as Earth spins its way through the solar system.  The First Nations of this continent say that they are Earth guardians.  They don't claim 'ownership' in the way that colonizers do.  

I set the book 'Humans: the 300,000 year struggle for equality' aside while I read another (smaller) book.  But with the current events of this week, I feel the need to go back to Humans and try to winkle out meaning to what seems the stupidest timeline ever.

Can we be different?  *WERE* we different?  What changed?  What choices did homo sapiens make that put 'us' as the predominant 'survivor' in the evolutionary events for the past 300,000 years?

Can we find a 'better' way?  Is it too late?

These are questions that I wish more people would try to answer.

It isn't quite 'too late' - I hope.  But if we don't ask the correct question, we will never arrive at the proper answer.

In the meantime, I must hold on to the fact that there is still beauty in this world.

I am still a week away from getting the next injection in my back.  I am limping through my days, trying so hard to keep calm, keep sending out positive energy into the world.  Finding the tangles in skeins (quite literally right now) and bring order out of chaos.

I am trying to hold on to optimism, but it is getting harder while the alt right slash and burn their way through the world.  But we are still the majority.  And we need to push back the forces of darkness.  Let's start by never ever voting for another alt right politician.  

And make the alt right go back into the closet again.  

Two Things

 

Weaving is labour intensive.

Parts of the process can be frustrating to learn.

Some people give up because they hate warping.

And I get it.

But here's the thing.  Creating textiles by weaving *is time consuming*.  It takes as much time as it takes (given the weaver's skill level).

I chose to become a weaver as my profession.  Since I had a very strong desire to do that, I studied the processes.  I began with what my teacher taught me (mostly good advice), but then I modified it where I saw places that I could do the task more efficiently.  I took the time to go slower, examining what I was doing - one step at a time - until I had carved the steps involved down to the most efficient I could manage given my physical aptitudes and what my budget would allow.

Because sometimes?  Better equipment is what you need to proceed - more efficiently.

Do I hate warping?  No.  In fact, now that I am physically compromised (back issues) it is only *because* I am as efficient as I am that I can continue to weave.

I have had to make changes, but mostly in how long I can do any one thing at a time.  So instead of weaving for 4 hours (with breaks) a day, I am now just managing 30 minutes.

Thirty minutes isn't very much time, but I can get about 15-18 inches woven in that time depending on what I'm making.  (Currently silk warp with silk weft at 32 epi.)  I'm weaving about 80" per scarf, so instead of weaving a scarf a day, I am just barely managing 1/5th of a scarf.

It's frustrating as hell, but it's better than not weaving at all.

So, weaving *is* time consuming.  But you *can* learn how to do it more efficiently so that it is *less* time consuming.  

And that's also a good Life Lesson.  There are all sorts of times in life when you need to hold two different aspects of something as both being 'true'.

Over and over again I take lessons learned during weaving and gradually see how they apply to life generally.  And learning how to accept that two opposing things can be true - depending on circumstances - has been a big one.

Don't like winding warps?  There are businesses that can do that for you.  Or, you can hire a kid to do it.  Maybe.  But you would have to accept how they do the job - or teach the kid to do it your way.

Or, just a thought - you could learn a different process.  Or choose a different yarn.  One that is stronger, perhaps, than what you have been using.

Or, you could buy a more expensive yarn, better spun for purpose, for your warps.  The warp is such a significant part of weaving - from winding the warp to beaming it, threading, sleying, tieing on, why work with a 'cheap' (or poor quality) yarn?  Given how many hours you may need to spend doing all of that part of the job?

Humans tend to simplify things when in reality Life is Complicated.  I tell my students that weaving is not hard, but it's complex.  And it's labour intensive.  

People tell me that I must be a patient person.  No.  I am many things, but patient is not one of my qualities.  So I worked hard at becoming efficient so that I take less time to do the jobs required to get a warp into the loom.  

And then I slide into a state of a working meditation while I throw the shuttle and only come out of that state if something goes wrong - like a thread breaking.  Or the loom misbehaving.

The more we practice accepting that at times two opposing things can be 'true' depending on circumstances, the sooner we will make peace with how weaving - and living - works.

Calm

 

Morning comes

I wonder

What next bad thing will happen

Will things get worse?

Can they get worse?

Yes 

Yes, they can

I squeeze my eyes shut to 

Blank out the sights

Listen 

Can I hear the fabric of our

Reality ripping apart?

Yes?

Maybe?

No?

If no, I open my eyes

Try to figure how to keep fighting

Try to find the end of the thread

Untangle the skein

Bring order to chaos

Today, here

There is blue sky

Quiet

Calm

The kind of calm that 

Comes before the storm?

Managing Energy

 

If it was 'easy', everyone would be doing it...

Yesterday I got the appointment for the next injection into my lumbar back.  The best they could fit me in was in about 2 weeks.

I'm an 'old hand' at managing my symptoms and energy, but I am, quite frankly, running on empty after months (years) of chronic pain.

That said, I can pretty confidently say that the alternate B12 supplement is actually proving to be helpful - for the peripheral neuropathy.

The problem is that I have another equally awful issue that results in nearly identical symptoms - nerve pain in my right foot.  I fell a number of years ago and made a one point landing on the right SI joint.  It appears that the impact of hitting the ground damaged the SI joint.  In addition to that, I have a problem with the spinal column being pinched because there are a couple of discs that have deteriorated.  Same symptoms.

Which I suppose has been one of the big problems getting my body the help it needs - 3 conditions, sharing the 'same' symptom.  All leading to chronic nerve pain.

Just as I was beginning to feel 'better' due to the reduction in peripheral neuropathy, the steroid injections in my back started to wear off.  It took a couple weeks to realize what was happening, and then to phone the clinic to request another appointment for the injections.  Thankfully I only have to wait a little under two weeks.

But today when I tried to weave I realized that maybe, just maybe, weaving is not the best thing to be doing.  My usual pain mitigations are not working very well.  

OTOH, I finally am feeling somewhat better, and I've been making slow progress on the current warp and I really, really want to finish this warp off - because it has some issues.  Issues because I tried to use up some old yarn and wound up with lots of knots in the warp.  Which means I have to keep stopping and fix another knot.  It's not much fun and I'd like to finish the warp and move on to the next, hopefully with more enjoyment and less irritation.

After thinking I had a tonne of yarn, it's not going quite as far as I was expecting, mainly because I hadn't done the math.  But what *that* means is that I actually have a hope of using up some of this very nice (and expensive) yarn in my lifetime.  I doubt I'll actually use the really fine stuff, I'm having way too much trouble seeing the fine stuff nowadays.

But it looks like I can make a few silk warps and have a small range of silk scarves for the sales in the fall.  And empty a couple more bins, clear some shelf space.

And hope that the jabs work well so I can have a couple of months of pain I can manage and still weave.

In the meantime, the pain roller coaster continues, but with shallower ups and downs.  And I'll take that, with gratitude (while being impatient about having to wait for the next injections - what can I say?  I'm still working on that 'patience' thing...)

This Book

 

I 'discovered' Joanna Johnson because she does short videos and they appear on the 'reels' on Facebook.  I watched one, and began to watch others.  Recently I found out that she has written a book and out of curiosity I ordered a copy.  It arrived this week and I thumbed through it.

It's a 'slim' volume, but the Preface grabbed me right away with this comment:

Just like a tapestry woven with threads of different colours and textures, each of us carries within us a rich and intricate collection of stories, experiences, and perspectives that shape the very essence of our being.

How could I not continue?

Joanna Johnson is, first and foremost, an educator.  She is not 'standard issue'.  And while I had many, many good teachers in my school days, I wish I had had someone like Joanna.

I'm not going to talk about the book too much except to say that is a very personal journey and she shares some of the people, times, and things that is Tapestry Joanna.

I think there are many lessons in this book that others could benefit from, not just children, but even some adults that who are dealing with their own tapestries, some of which may be worn or damaged by life.  Like me.

Lives are not all that different than a textile, be they tapestry or tea towel.  We experience life through the experiences that we have, the trauma we have dealt with, and we get worn (down) and at times we need to make some repairs.

I don't have any young people in my life, but I know plenty of my readers probably do.  It might be good to take a gander at this book.  Maybe you have some young folk you can share this book with.  

At the ripe old age of 75 I am once again examining the tapestry of my life and attempting to make repairs.  It's never too late.  But maybe 'better' if it is done sooner?  Dunno.  This is my tapestry and this is where I am.  If nothing else, I am learning it is never too late.