In These Uncertain Times

 

In going through some binders of 'stuff' a while back, I 'found' this newspaper clipping.  It was from 1997, and I was having a small exhibit of my weaving in a local gallery/shop.  One of the things on display was the 3 piece outfit I wove, which won a 'technical excellence' award at the ANWG conference in Victoria, BC that year.

I used this outfit in Magic in the Water - yes, planning for that little 'excursion' was already well underway - and then almost wore the jacket out.  I no longer fit into the top and slacks, but oh well.

Having hit a 'significant' birthday this week, I have been doing a lot of thinking about...things.

I have no crystal ball that shows me what the future holds.  All I know is that we are living in 'interesting' times.  Charles Dickens kind of summed it up.  It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.

History is the record of where we have come from - or it was until the current timeline, where you can't count on the 'news' accurately *reporting* what is happening but instead spews lies, misinformation (at best), disinformation (at the worst) and platforming people who wish others actual harm.

In one way, I'm relieved that I have no kids to leave this bit behind to muddle through.  In another I feel guilty because I'm not doing enough to prevent the harm I see looming on the horizon.  As if the present isn't 'bad' enough, it is poised to get worse...

And what am *I* doing?

Weaving tea towels.

Seriously?  

Um, yes.

There is very little I, personally, can do to fix what has gone horribly wrong in society today.  I can protest.  I can post sarcastic observations to social media.  I can vote (although I live in an historically 'conservative' riding, so my liberal vote doesn't do much).

On a personal level, I try to encourage other people.  I try to inform them, as best I can.  I try to be an example of someone who does not accept the dark reality we find ourselves in, right here, right now.

So, when I stumble across a reminder that I have 'accomplished' a few things, I remember that I tried to help others, I bear down and vow to keep on, keeping on.  

To show that being creative is a human thing to do, and is of value *because* it was done by a human.  I try to put positive, creative, energy out into the world.

There was a meme on FB the other day that said (I paraphrase) even if your only 'job' is to take hold of one thread in that tangled mess and tug, you might be holding the key to unlocking the tangle - so go ahead - TUG!  (my emphasis)

We cannot despair because then 'they' win.  Find some little thing you *can* do.  Some small act of resistance.  Keep on, keeping on.

In the meantime, I continue to write for so long as they will have me   My classes continue on School of Sweet Georgia and Longthread Media  and my books are still at Blurb.com

And for sarcasm, I'm on Bluesky as weaverlaura

Before and After

 

The photo shows the cloth, one piece is prior to wet finishing, (background) and the other after wet finishing (foreground).

It shows more in real life than in the photo but it does show a few things that if you squint you may see.

The blue colour has intensified.  During wet finishing, the threads slip/slide to areas of least resistance and the threads tend to tighten up.  The hard press then compresses the threads so that they indent into each other, increasing stability.  The overall look is that of the design having more definition and the colour to 'deepen'.  This cloth has slightly more white on the 'wrong' side and more blue on the 'right' side, and generally I choose the warp emphasis side to be the be 'right' side, even though I've woven it with the least number of shafts rising - in this case 7 instead of 8.

What you cannot see is the change in the tactile - the additional drape, the reduction of a sense of 'coarseness' in the finished fabric.

The finished fabric is no longer a collection of individual threads but a 'whole' cloth.

At times the change that happens in wet finishing is dramatic; at times subtle.  What happens, though, is that it changes.  In my opinion, that last final step is required to create useful, practical cloth, built to fulfill a purpose.

Not everyone wants to do that, and like one 'famous' weaver insisted, they were a weaver, not a laundry, and they never wet finished anything.  Others want to create effects that can *only* be achieved through the magic in the water.  

And some just want to make cloth that will wear well, and last well.  Wet finishing is part of helping those threads function as they should be able to do, if made well.

I don't remember who wanted to see the before and after photos, but I thought it was good to discuss this important (imho) step and try to show the effects.

Great Big Number

    

 

Well, I made it.  Wasn't sure I would, for a while.  But Life is Like That.

We awoke to a nice sunny day.  And no, we have no plans to 'celebrate'.  We don't generally do that.  Doug usually forgets his own birthday, never mind mine.  And neither of us *needs* gifts.  If we *need* something we buy it.

Lately, the only thing I *need* is more meds.

Yesterday I gave myself the 'gift' of cutting the warp off the loom.   There wasn't enough warp left to weave one more towel, and besides, I want to move on.  The next warp keeps calling.

I have to keep going, because if I don't, I give up.  And something, somewhere, seems to want me to stay here.  For a while, anyway.  Maybe the Loom Goddess sees that there is still room for improvement?  I know I sure do!

Or maybe I need to keep helping others, best I can?

Mostly, I just want to know more, understand more, about this craft.

Anyway, thank you to those who ordered items from my ko-fi shop.  My elderly desktop may not function well on Win 11 and my IT friend cautioned me to be prepared to replace it.  The sale continues until midnight tonight.  I'll decide if I run another sale in November.  Or not.  Too many loose cannons to tell if that will be a possibility, or not.

I've outlived my father and brother (and a whole lotta aunts and uncles), but not my mom.  Not that I'm sure I want to live to 90.  I'm tired.  Exhausted.  But I came out of the brain bleed in much better shape than I had any right to expect.  So, I guess I keep going.

The yarn for the additional samples arrived, but I feel like I need to do more thinking about how I'm going to execute them, in the most efficient way possible.  :)  So today I'm going to begin beaming the next tea towel warp, which I finished designing over the weekend.  And mentally I had already committed to doing that 'next'.  I have to have the samples to the magazine by the end of August(ish) but that won't take long once I get it figured out.  I just want to crunch the numbers to make sure I'm on track to do what they want.

At this point I am on 'bonus plus' time.  Whatever I can do will be just that - a bonus.  It's rather freeing, actually, not feeling like I have to 'prove' myself.  So when people tell me I don't know what I'm talking about (yes, some still do that), I don't care.  Maybe I just don't know what *they* want to know.  Or they don't want to know what *I* know.  It's nothing that diminishes me.  (Still processing this, but making headway.)   

In the meantime, I'm going to go get dressed and to the loom.  Start beaming that warp.  Looking forward to seeing how it looks once it's woven - and more importantly - wet finished.  Because you know it isn't finished until it's wet finished, right?  :D

Oops!

 

Two different qualities of cotton yarn

I'm going to be weaving more samples for an article for WEFT, but to do that, I needed more of the 2/20 mercerized cotton from Brassard.  I placed the order before the Canada Day holiday, and waited for the invoice (which arrived a couple days after I ordered), and then the tracking number.   I usually pay as soon as I get the tracking number.

Not hearing anything, assuming they were on holidays or something, I went ahead prepping for another tea towel warp.  (What?  I have stash to weave down!)

I'm hoping to cut the current warp off the loom today and start beaming the next warp.

Except, this morning the box of yarn from Brassard arrived.  Oops.

Well, I am going to go ahead with my plans.  I have until the end of  August to produce the samples, which *ought* to be enough time to get them woven and wet finished.  Plus I have some number crunching to do to make sure I'm weaving what I've been asked.  Truth is, I kind of ran out of word count, and instead of weaving yet *more*, I stopped.  But they have asked me to do exactly what I would have done if I was continuing on the path I had started following.  So, in a way it feels right to do the additional samples.  And IMHO, will make the whole exercise more informative, I think.  

I have offered to have a weaver's meeting for the local weavers after each issue of WEFT arrives.  If I have an article with samples, I'll bring the samples for people to handle.  If I don't (which I don't always), I can still bring what I'm currently working on.  And we will talk about the issue and I can answer questions.  And hopefully they will bring things to share, too.

In the meantime, it is nearly my birthday.  The sale continues until tomorrow at midnight.

Birthday Musings

 

The past 10 months or so has been...interesting.  As of August 28, it will be one year since I fell and almost died.  The past 10 months have been a roller coaster ride that I never wished for but found myself on, anyway.

Which is sort of how 'life' works.

You make plans and then life knocks you over and you have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again.

It is an interesting time, not just for me but for almost everyone.  Forces are afoot in society and the planet that feel enormous, too large for one person to deal with, or - perhaps especially - fix.

I keep circling round the same few questions:

What's it all about Alfie?

Why am I here?

What can I do?

What *should* I do?

I waffled back and forth if I should run a sale, as I usually do, this time of the year.  In the end I went ahead with multiple qualifications and much trepidation.  But if anyone wants, the sale continues at my ko-fi shop until midnight Pacific Time, July 9, 2025.  Buy two towels, get one free.

OTOH, after seeing that tariffs would be paused until later in July, this morning I see that the president of the US is sending sternly worded 'letters' to a bunch of countries who have been 'nasty' to him.  So I am hoping that my tea towels will be beneath the notice of US Customs.  

When I began this journey 50 years ago, my father was dying, I was stifling working at office jobs, I hoped for freedom to do what I wanted, suspected that I would love weaving.  I didn't really anticipate how much I would love teaching weaving.  How much my inner child wanted to write and discovered I was pretty good at writing about weaving.

In my mind I thought I would weave for 25 years, then teach for 25 years, then retire.

Well, that 50 years is up this year.  After I did all of it, all at the same time.

But I didn't die last year.  I can only come to the conclusion that there is something else I 'need' to do.  Some reason why I am still here, still able (with help) to write.  And still able (just) to weave.

I still have way too much stash that needs to be used up, somehow, some way.  Still have textile dreams that clamour to be born.

So, I keep searching.  Looking for something that calls to me.  Looking for answers to my physical issues.  Keep on keeping on.

Remembering that lighting someone's else candle does not diminish my own.  I can sit here in my 'office' and cheerlead others.  Encourage them.  Help them (maybe) understand what a complex thing bringing threads together to create a textile can be.  How everything depends.  Everything.

And how truly 'fragile' we humans are, so we really need to help others, if we can.

New Tech

digital cover of Issue 2

I recently updated Windows with the help of a friend, and I'm still discovering new ways Windows doesn't work like it used to do.  :P~

However, here is the cover of the next copy of WEFT.  Yes, I have a small contribution in it.  :D

I got the 2nd issue the other day and scrolled through some of the offerings.  I think one of the things I enjoy about WEFT is that they seem to fully embrace the 'it depends' reality of cloth construction.  I have not read all of the articles - yet - because Friday and yesterday got super busy and I ran out of energy long before I ran out of day.  But a quick perusal of the contents page is intriguing.  In some ways, it's like going to a conference and able to listen in on many different conversations - all of them about weaving.  (Be still my heart!)

I've been stymied, for a number of reasons, on the current writing, but I had a meeting with one of my healthcare team on Friday and we have a plan for going forward.  I'm such a special snowflake, I'm a 'it depends' patient.  It depends if we have targeted the actual issues I'm having.  It depends if the plan works for me, or if we will try multiple approaches.  One at a time, so we know what is working - and what is not.

My birthday is a week away - less than that now.  It is a 'significant' number, and I have to decide if I keep trying or finally 'retire'.  OTOH, I had some nice comments from folk online who appreciated my feedback, so...I dunno.  But when I began this journey, my intention was to 'retire' at 75.  And here I am.  It has been 50 golden (sort of) years...

I do have two more articles to write for WEFT.  I have samples woven for one of them, and a rough idea of the shape it will take.  The other I will likely dig through my teaching examples for that one.  I have kept most of my samples from when I was doing in person workshops.  I couldn't bear to get rid of them.  Yet.  That day may come.

But Word doesn't work quite the way it used to do, either, and I'm still trying to figure how to do what I need it to do.  So perhaps these last two articles will be the last ones I do?  To be determined...

Holding On

 

This is the walkway I used to walk in the 'before times'.  I would turn the corner and there would be the row of rose bushes, burdened with blossoms.  A sight for sore eyes - and soul - every time.  Gone now, but never forgotten.  A memory I cling to as the world wobbles.

I'm almost done the current warp and have almost finished fine tuning the next.  Truth be told, the threading is ready, but I'm not.  The past couple of days have been taken up with personal maintenance, with most questions still unanswered.

Turns out healthcare is much the same as weaving:  it depends.  Turns out we are, almost all of us, 'special snowflakes' and much of trying to cure dis-ease (spelled that way on purpose) is a matter of knowing what is expected, and figuring out why a certain person isn't responding the way everyone expects.

And some of us present more challenging, shall I say, puzzles so it takes a while to figure it all out.  If it ever gets figured out.

What I am coming to learn is that the human body is a minor, maybe even a major, case of miracles on two legs.  The complex systems that keep a human being up and mobile (so to speak) are opaque and sometimes care and diligence are required to figure out what a particular person requires to become 'balanced' and functioning - I won't say 'healed', although sometimes that happens, too.

In the meantime, I'm told to reduce stress, while the world burns, quite literally in far too many places, or goes quietly - or not so quietly - bonkers.  

There is a meme saying (I paraphrase) my desire to remain informed is at odds with my desire to stay sane.

So I return to the studio and loom to do nothing at all earth shaking or important - weave tea towels.

The act of creativity becomes a rebellion.  To bring some positive energy to this world in spite of the people who are determined to rip it all up, burn it all down.  They want people like me to despair.  To give up.  To give in.  To be complicit in advance.

I refuse.  

My mother used to accuse me of being bull-dog stubborn.  She was not wrong.  

Canada remains under threat of the loose cannon south of our border.  We have our own home grown maple maga, and I will refuse to comply with them, to the best of my ability, and refuse to agree to be annexed.  

I have no idea what will happen, or when.  In the meantime, #elbowsUp and #never51.  So I'm going to head to the loom and at least get one session at the loom done today, before it is time to leave for the dentist when I'll be propped upside down (so to speak) for at least an hour.  When I fell and did the faceplant last August 28, my jaw got shoved out of alignment and the swelling took months to come down so that my lower teeth would go back to where they belonged.  In the process three of my teeth were damaged.  Today is the day and I get the other two fixed.  Oh yay?  OTOH, I now qualify for the new federal dental plan.  I have no idea how much that will cover the cost of the repairs, but I'll take whatever it amounts to.  This year has been exceedingly 'expensive', what with one thing and another.

My sale continues until midnight July 9, 2025 (Pacific Time).