Upheaval

There is pretty much always some sort of upheaval in terms of life.  It seems that whatever the current upheaval is, it's all consuming.  Or, at the very least, like walking into a gigantic spider's web and trying to get it off, wondering all the while where the damned spider is that could spin a web so large.

Today is grey and gloomy and rainy.  I'm trying to not complain because rain is a darn sight better than the wildfire smoke we had last year.  At least if the lightening strikes don't start fires, the rain will keep the bush damp.

But the grey and gloomy are affecting my mood, which was already 'low' and I'm really struggling to stay on track.

Yesterday I cut the cloth off the AVL and sacrificed the balance of the warp.  It was about 5 yards - or about $8 worth of yarn.  (I buy wholesale.)  I had a bit of a pang because I really liked the colours, but frankly?  I have more.

The frustration of trying to get the loom to work reliably had been sucking out any satisfaction I normally get from weaving, and by the time I took scissors to it, I was relieved.

But today I stripped the leader/ties off the sectional beam and started thinking about what comes next.

A whole lot of upheaval.  This loom will go away and that end of the studio can be cleaned and readied for the Megado.

Doug and I took a look at the other end and figured out how to add more shelves almost right away by getting rid of a dresser that had been storing most of my silk stash.  Once that is gone, the walls can be lined with shelving to store the estate silk coming at the end of July.

Some things I can do now, some will have to wait until after the craft fair season is over and we begin moving out of the annex.

On the other hand, I found myself last night discussing plans for projects going into the future - once all the obligations for this year are over.

A friend might come in January to help with studio re-organization.  The big challenge will be fitting the stuff stored up there, back into here.  :-/

There are things that Doug will keep - the compressor for one.  No doubt some of the other tools will come in handy for him in his work space.

But today is a day for processing the emotions closest to the surface.  What feels like a monumental sea change in terms of my weaving practice.  And my teaching practice.  I'm sure that once all this studio re-arranging is done it will be fine.  But when you are in the midst of the storm, it's not always easy to be calm.  And enthusiastic.

As for the loom, the following have been spoken for:

The old style auto-cloth advance.
The higher pick old style auto-cloth advance.
The Compu-Dobby and spare parts.
The lags for the manual dobby.

Potentially for sale:

The sandpaper beam with brand new gear.  Can be cut down - it's 60" weaving width
Sandpaper beam with cheese grater cover.  Nearly new.  Ditto 60" weaving width
Plain beams for cloth storage (I would remove the beam with apron and replace with a plain beam so I could keep cutting off the cloth but carry on with another plain beam while processing the cloth built up on the other - 60" weaving width.)
The parts for the manual dobby (which we kept when the Compu-Dobby was installed.)
Leclerc sectional rakes.  Set of six cut down to fit into 60" AVL sectional beam.
Leclerc sectional rakes.  Set of four (were attached to the AVL's 'plain' beam)
TexSolv heddles.
Industrial shuttles - larger and heavier than the AVL shuttles.  Doug modified the fly boxes to fit them.
Pirns for Industrial end feed shuttles - can be filled on a double ended pirn/bobbin winder.  Will only fit into the shuttles for them. (friction fit into a clamp in the shuttle)
AVL  end feed shuttles.
AVL pirns
Some cable for shafts/treadles.  There may be other 'spare' parts as we sort through the tool/equipment boxes.

While Doug will take the compressor, there are pistons and foot switches from the air system that he may not want.

While I am listing stuff that will be for sale, I will add here:

industrial cone winder - would need to be picked up.
'baby' boiler - ran the industrial steam press -would need to be picked up.
industrial pirn winder - would need to be picked up.

The pirn winder will go to the scrap metal place along with the industrial steam press by the end of this year.

If anyone wants more information, email me laura at laurafry dot com