Computer Woes

 

me, contemplating life

I have been writing this blog since 2008.  Blogspot seemed like a fairly easy platform to use and it had some nice features that made it user friendly.  And it has served me well.

However, I heard that Google/Chrome now 'owns' the platform and for the past year or so I've been ignoring Google as much as possible.  Over the weekend, Google shut me out of Blogspot - unless I use Chrome as my preferred internet browser.

I don't like it when companies run by dude bros try to force me to do something I don't want to do.  So I have been looking around for another option to continue writing my posts.

There are a list of things I'm trying to put 'right' (in my definition) and getting out from 'under' Google is pretty high on my list.

I'm 'stuck' with Word even though that isn't great anymore either.  But I've been edging out from under the thumb of Google/Chrome and continue to work to do that.

But I needed a transition option.  So I took a deeper look at the blog platform on ko-fi and while it is not as sophisticated, I can make it work in the interim.

The goal right now is to move my blog to my own website where hopefully there will be less interference by billionaires dictating what I can and cannot do.

Of course redesigning my website to accommodate the blog is going to take some time plus I will need to learn yet another software program (probably).  But in the meantime, I have written a couple 'practice' posts on ko-fi which are now posted to my ko-fi site.  (You can reach my ko-fi site by clicking on the little coffee icon, then bookmark that page.)

I think you can 'subscribe' so that you get notices when I post another, but I've yet to test that.  I will continue to post links to the blog on FB and other social media (I'm trying a few different options at the minute) and so far I'm on Bluesky and am trying out a brand new Canadian based site.  

In the meantime I will leave this account active so that the index is still 'live' and the topics can be searched.  But I will only rarely post here.  If nothing else, leaving here will mean fewer bots mining my site for data or leaving comments to promote their products, which means I have to keep removing them.

Plus ca change and all that...

Humans

 

I started reading this book a while ago.  It is one of those kinds of books that are meant to be read carefully, even slowly, thinking as you do.  It's written by a history professor, and is 'textbook' in it's language.

But I have read other books that attempt to delve deeper into history than the 'usual' 10,000 or so years, when, basically, literacy began to develop.  But Prof. Finkel's isn't the first book I've read that posed the question - how did the growth of literacy change human behaviour and culture/society?

Because it seems to be a watershed moment, this development of the written word.  This is the second book I've read that pinpointed that time, about 10,000 years ago, that humans took up a stylus and began to 'write'.  The written work of Sumer is now able to be read, and boy howdy, have we ever NOT changed.  The copper merchant writing about how his copper supplier is not giving good 'customer service'.  The wife berating her husband for not sending enough money to pay the bills.  The tablets could have been written now, essentially.

So what shifted when humans began to write their thoughts down, not just count cattle or bushels of corn?  (And by 'corn' I'm using the European definition, not maize.)

Both books (I've forgotten the title/author of the first one I read) posited that prior to the wide spread adoption of written language, many cultures were more egalitarian.  Many were likely matriarchal.  That God, was in fact, female.  Why did cultures then shift to be more patriarchal?  And why are men so reluctant to give value to females beyond being pregnant and barefoot in the kitchen? 

And why are we so interested in 'owning' things?  Why are we so interested in collecting what we currently 'value' and then lord it over those people who have not been able to collect a dragon's hoard of gold - which of itself is kind of useless compared to clean water, clean air, and healthy food?

The author is taking time to 'build a case', documenting what is known about indigenous peoples around the world and then what happened when Europeans began colonizing.  A further eroding of human rights and equality between humans.  But it is not just a dry recital of dates and 'famous' figures from what we know about history (in the narrow colonizer definition).  And so I continue to read, in bits and pieces, and then let what I learn settle into my being.

And I think about Penelope, who while waiting for Odysseus to return from another war, weaves all day, then cuts out what she had woven during the day, in order to delay making a decision that causes her to have regrets.  A combination of men not paying attention to what it is that women do, and a woman trying to preserve her life without the constraints of another man telling her what to do.

If you want a little different perspective on that:  

Penelope's Daughter by Laurel Corona

Lately I have become interested in a new translation of The Odyssey, translated from the ancient Greek to modern English.  And she has made some revisions to the accepted 'text' which is putting a new light on the society of Odysseus and Penelope.  I might need to read that next.

Maps

 

I have always loved maps.  They help me understand where I am, and remind me that the world is much larger than my reality bubble.

But here's the thing with maps - to be useful, they must be accurate.  Plus they need a 'legend' to help you understand what you are seeing.

Unlike the map pictured above which has all kinds of errors.  How do I know?  Because I have the 'shape' of the United States as a mental picture.  

When I was travelling, I would routinely check a map to see the layout of the route my trip would take and get myself familiar what might be there waiting for me once on the ground.  Because I like to know 'where I am'.

But apparently we have reached the stage in the 'information age' where we have a shit tonne of information, but a bunch of it is just plain 'wrong'.

As I wove today I thought about maps in the back of my head and I thought about weaving drafts.  

And how many new/beginning weavers just don't understand what they are looking at.  (In spite of loads of books that will tell them exactly that, they want members of an online group to explain it.)

Or they ask ChatGPT, which is even worse because that app will flat out lie to you.

Sometimes the questions is: where are the tabby treadles?  Or they can't work out the symbols: what does it mean to do this 3X?  Or whatever. 

I thought about huck as a weaving draft.  And how many people get confused because there are 3 (at least) different ways to write the sequence and they don't understand.

So here's a short explainer:

Huck is generally (not always) written with a 5 thread by 5 thread 'unit'.  It can look different depending on the resource one looks at:

3 ways to thread huck - blank spaces indicate that I am providing 3 different threadings

I have not included the tie up because each of those threadings needs a different set of treadles tied up to create the cloth.

Here is the option as given above for the first threading sequence, reading from the right to left.

This option weaves huck in every place it has been threaded for huck.  Yes, you can insert plain weave sections if that meets your design requirements.  Look where the plain weave treadles are placed - in between the two 'pattern' treadles.  You don't need more treadles when plain weave is already in the DNA of your weave structure.

Some people find this sequence to be easier to thread.  Note the change in the tie up.  This is the middle option in the above 'draft' showing 3 different sequences:

And then the third option which changes yet again, and makes expanding the threading to more than four shafts if you want to do that and have the extra shafts:

Which of these is correct?  

They ALL are.  The threading, tie up and treadling need to give you what you want to have in your cloth.  Drafts are not writ in stone.   It is possible to switch things around.  For example, you may not have enough heddles on a shaft.  In that case you either need to add more heddles, OR if you have more (some weavers routinely load extra heddles on the front two shafts) you can shuffle the draft to take advantage of having 'extra' heddles on some of the shafts.

Plain weave is not always 1+3 vs 2+4.  And sometimes it doesn't best serve the needs of actually weaving it by being placed on either outside treadle, OR to one side of the rest.  And sometimes you really need to get the warp set up and sit at the loom and weave a bit to really understand what you are trying to do.

Or read the beginning bits in the front of the book.   The author will generally give Important Information about the symbols they have used.

Quiet Days

 

One of the lessons I am trying to learn is to be kinder to myself - my body.  I have been through the wringer for the past few years, and my body is essentially battered and bruised.  And it has been letting me know it is not happy.  So, my therapist has left me with the homework of being kinder to myself, in and out.  Let's just say it's a rocky road.

However, I try to get to the studio at least once a day, two if I can manage it.  

Right now I am taking a deep dive into my silk stash, trying to find enough yarn to make a few silk warps for scarves.  The majority of the yarn arrived on skeins, and the ones I'm trying to use are in the 2/20 and 2/30 sizes, many of them dyed.  Some of them not gently, but energetically, so they are tangled.  Most have been fairly co-operative in unwinding on the squirrel cage swift, with some gentle coaxing, but not all of them.  And it's been extremely frustrating.  Being able to do the job of transferring the yarn to spools slowly is just about the right pace for me right now.  I can no longer stand to wind spools or bobbins, but my little kitchen stool is about the right height.  (I also use it for threading the Megado.)

I had intended to carefully measure off the yarn as it wound onto the spool (I have a very accurate counter), but the skeins were just tangled enough that that became an exercise in frustration.  Now I just 'guess' by eyeballing one of the spools that I did manage to measure out and hope that I got enough on the spool (and not too much).

The first warp was white, the next warp will be darker values, the one after that will be lighter values, and if I do a fourth that will be much lighter values.  Each warp will be about 20 yards long and should yield 6 scarves each.  I will know better when I come to the end of the first warp - I'm currently on scarf 4.

For the first warp I'm using dyed silk for weft (since the cashmere was too damaged to use), and I am eyeballing my stash of very fine worsted wool, thinking I'd like to use up some of that, too.  Beyond that, I have a stash of fine rayon (bamboo rayon as well as no-name rayon) that I could potentially use.  I won't know until that warp (spools on the spool rack to the left in the photo) is ready to go and I can weave some samples.

I get the injections in my back on Wednesday morning, and I will need 3-5 days of 'light duties' during those days.  I will not be able to finish the current warp before the injections, and I'll have filled all the spools I have pretty soon.  Next decision?  Do I strip all the very fine silk off those spools?  It didn't work to beam a warp the last time I tried but I kept it to use for weft.  OTOH, I need spools and light duties could be stripping the 'old' silk off the spools so I could at least keep winding the silk I want to use while I can't weave?

TBD.

Making Plans

 

potential draft for next silk warp

I had a bad pain day yesterday, so I've decided I need a 'light duty' day today.  (I had massage - no it wasn't pleasant, therapeutic massage rarely is.)

It feels futile to be making plans in light of current events, but it is when people begin to feel powerless against forces which are out of control, or at least, out of *their* control, that they will give up.

But dammit I've just been through all kinds of shades of horrible and I am finally beginning to see some improvement in my quality of life and I refuse to give up, now.

I have zero idea of what will transpire in the next couple hours, never mind the coming months or years.

I cannot control anyone but myself.  And I am just stubborn enough that I will not give up now.

So I have plans.  I have desires.  I have goals that I have set.  And all of them are subject to change, given the powers that are beyond my control.

In the face of a certain segment of the population who want to destroy it all, I refuse.  I will continue to make things.  I will continue to try to help others, if I can.

Because if it all goes to hell in a handbasket, we - humans, that is - will need cloth.  We will need to know how to make cloth.  Look around you.  Where does all that cloth that you see come from?  It comes from looms.  And we will need weavers to take up the slack once the worst comes, IF it comes.

But beyond all that?  I will weave because I can.  Because I love it.  Because I want to share my knowledge with others.

What will I do?  Dunno.  I'm still in 'recovery' and I have no idea where it will plateau.  So I think about the things I might do.  File them away for 'later'.  And wait.  

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...