Life, Interrupted

I'm not done this warp yet, but Doug says he can go pressing on Sunday so I cut off what I've got woven and started cutting/serging the towels apart.  He'll do a small load of scarves but that isn't really enough to make it worthwhile to fire up the press, so he will also do a load of towels.  Not sure how many he will be willing to do, so I just cut off at the cloth roll at the back of the loom and taped the rest back on so that when I feel able, I can finish off the last few towels.  I think maybe four, but that remains to be seen.

The past while I have been thinking a lot about Life, and What's It All About Alfie?  (You have to have seen the movie with Michael Caine to get the reference.)

So many people I know are dealing with huge Life Happenings.  I mentioned previously a friend is in hospice and every day I wonder if I'll get the email saying that she has slipped away to whatever comes next.

But others are dealing with chronic health issues - either their own or their partner's.  Some are doing their best to cope with other things, like jobs, income generating, family members going through some rough times.

Some things are seen as 'positive' in this society, some, 'negative'.  But either way?  They can prove to be very stressful.

My own journey right now is trying to find a new way to balance my life - and last month the rent where we have the press and store excess inventory/stash went up.  They had been threatening for some time that an increase was in the works.  I have to make some decisions about all of that but really, until I get through the next six months I just don't have the energy to tackle what needs to happen.  What I do know is that I can't afford to continue renting the annex so by the end of this year Puff will have to go away and all that stuff stored at the annex?  Will have to be shoehorned into my studio.  Somehow.

Then I got sick with a nasty virus and not being a patient person, found myself raging about not being well enough to get to the loom, think clearly, deal with problems as they arose with the conference.  This morning I finally came to the realization that these sorts of things are not actually Life, Interrupted, but just another pot hole in the Road of Life.

Everyone gets dealt jokers as well as aces in their hand, and it is what we do with them that counts, not that we have a crap hand.

It's also a good lesson to know when to walk away and stop investing time/energy in something.

Yesterday I dug through the box of variegated rayon chenille and started working with one of the colourways that doesn't appeal to me.  Might as well use that up and get it out of my way first, right?

At any rate, I examined the colours of the variegation, started analysing which solids I had on hand that would go with it (because the point is not to buy more but use up what I have) and then design a stripe sequence.

As I worked with the cone trying to match solids with it, I felt a 'rough' patch on the cone.  The cone of yarn had been damaged in some fashion - I don't know how.  Maybe something spilled on it.  Maybe it was stored poorly.  I don't know.  It just felt rough and there was no guarantee that, once the scarves were woven, that the roughness would or could be removed during wet finishing.  It wasn't a 'full' cone - less than a pound.  I tried unwinding the yarn to see if it was just on the surface, then realized the damage went all the way down and under the cone so that the yarn had damage pretty much all through it.

I held the cone, felt the roughness.  Thought about investing the time/energy into making scarves that might wind up 'flawed'.  Walked over to the recycle bin and tossed it in.

Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em.

Thank you Kenny Rogers.  Lesson learned.