Two Looms in want of a Warp

Both looms are in want of a warp.  The above photo is all you'll see of what goes into the Megado next because I have pitched an idea to Handwoven and these will be the yarns I use to do the project.  Stay tuned!

Since there is a fair bit of prep work to get the yarn into the loom, I will likely wind the next mat warp and get that going while I work on the silk.

I am wrapping up this year and beginning as I mean to go on - weaving.  Maybe writing - for publication - or not. 

This past year was the bitter end to years of challenging years.  I am going to declare this decade over with 2020 the beginning on the next - and hopefully - much less stressful one to come.

In addition to a bunch of other things going on in my life, I have been plagued with chronic low grade pain.

There are many reasons for chronic pain (any pain that last more than three months without being resolved - or something like that.)  Sometimes it stems from disease, sometimes injury.  Where ever it comes from, it is pretty much invisible to anyone else.  Now I'm pretty open about what I'm going through, but the year on the cancer drug with muscle and joint pain as an adverse effect, just about did me in entirely.

Getting off of the drug helped, but I also have a life time of injury and over use and when I plateau'd, and then seemed to be slipping backwards down a very depressing slope, I cried 'uncle' and managed to snag an appointment with a local doctor who helps people with muscle pain.

I have several things that cause me pain, but to get rid of the muscle pain?  I was getting to the point where I couldn't see being able to weave at all because the pain was sucking all the energy and life out of me.

OTOH, I had a brand new, rather expensive loom sitting in the studio and I really wanted to be able to enjoy weaving again.

I have had two treatments.  They aren't much 'fun' - you have to deal with short term pain for hopefully long term gain.  But I've been told I have a high tolerance to pain, and I am motivated.  The good news?  After just two treatments, I am seeing improvement.

The worst pain is from whiplash injuries, one at 18, the other at 44.  One was side-to-side and never got any kind of treatment.  (Why?  Because in 1968 unless you were bed ridden no one paid much attention to a few injured muscles.)  The other I did have treatment but on top of the already existing and old injury, my neck was always hurting.  It was just a matter of degree.

Weaving didn't help, of course.  Using the pectoral muscles, even as ergonomically as possible, meant repetitive motion stress.  Aging didn't help, but the drug tipped me right over the edge.

With just two treatments, I am already noticing differences.  I'm still in pain, but it's a different kind of pain and the intensity is less.  But mostly?  I don't feel crushed by it.  Not only do I feel like doing things, I can do them.  The past few days I have gotten back into a much more enjoyable routine.  No, I'm not back to weaving like I used to - I'm retired (I keep reminding myself!)  But I have this stash I really want to use up.  Even better, I have designs that are bubbling to the surface that I would like to get into the loom(s) and I now feel motivated to work on them.

Getting old is one thing.  Feeling like you are old is quite another.  Especially when 'old' means you feel unable to do the things you want to do.

Now the treatment I'm getting isn't for arthritis or neuralgia, or other ailments.  It is for muscle pain.  Having rode this body hard and put it away wet for way too many years, my muscles are a large part of why I'm in pain.  If I can get that knocked back, I'm hoping I can deal with the other pain sources.

In the meantime?  I have two looms in want of a warp...