Snow Day

Today is a snow day.  For us that doesn't mean we all rush to the store to buy bread and milk but instead grab our heavy coats, put on our boots, make sure that the block heater is turned on.  Both vehicles have snow tires on and the truck, at least, has a shovel in the back of the cab.  The van may, too.  I didn't check to see.  When we go on road trips, the tire chains are tossed into the back along with the road side emergency kit.  Mind you, the kit is almost always in the back of the van, because you just never know...

Today I am going to head to town as soon as I get the parcels packaged up and pop them into the mail.  (Thank you to those who have purchased tea towels.  I'm very grateful.)

Yesterday we took a look at what needs doing to continue the move out of the annex.  Doug has been using the annex to re-build shelves so it's a bit of a mess, but when you look beyond that, he has made good, steady progress.

There are 15 large boxes of yarn, 5 of which are earmarked for charity shops.  The rest will come here next week once the next set of shelves gets installed in the studio.  Then I'll unpack, sort and see what else will head to...somewhere else.  Some of it may wind up in the donation heap at guild for purchase by donation. 

Once that is done, the bins of lace supplies and teaching samples will come over.  I have no idea where those will go, other than perhaps stacked in corners.  Lace supplies are really hard to find (here - almost everything has been purchased mail order - or gifts of hand painted bobbins from my friend who died earlier this year - there is no way I'm getting rid of those right now.)  My teaching samples are mostly applicable to the Olds program, so instead of getting rid of them, I will keep them.  But they will get sorted into their appropriate levels.

Level one is about wool, with a heavy emphasis on wet finishing.  So all those samples I used for my workshops will be kept as examples for level one.  Level two is about cotton, double weave, twill and overshot.  I have colour gamps to illustrate the colour portion of level two.  Level three looks at weave structures like Summer and Winter, lace weaves and so on, plus silk and linen.  So my samples of those things will be kept for level three.

I don't know if I will ever teach level four.  It's about colour and design and while I could do it, it would definitely be a stretch for me because I'm not an intuitive colour/design person.  However, I have learned various tools/tricks over the years.  And maybe that is really what needs to be conveyed?  I don't know.  At any rate, there are woven samples of things like colour and weave effects - log cabin, shadow weave, etc., so I would definitely want to keep those.

This afternoon I will begin beaming the next warp onto the Megado.  The draft is ready, I know how long/wide it will be, the tubes of 2/16 cotton are already set up on the rack.  All I have to do is gird my loins, set up the supplemental light and start.  During rest breaks I will go through the Brassard catalogue and figure out a fill-in yarn order of 2/8 cotton.  Maybe some 4/8 because we have a full class of beginning weaving plus two more in a second class.  I probably should have more yarn on hand for the classes! 

I have also (or will - need to address those padded envelopes) cleared off the dining room table.  I am going to give myself permission to start making jigsaw puzzles.  I have a bag of them here, plus three boxes at the annex.  If I make them, I can pass them along to a friend.  :) 

And I can practice being 'retired'...