This draft was created a number of years ago - in fact many years ago.
It was for the master level of the Guild of Canadian Weavers certificate and is a draft for huck lace, incorporating spot, lace and plain weave areas. Many hours were spent running through options and placement of the three different weave structures in order to create a textile that I would be pleased to weave.
Weaving software doesn't take the creativity out of weaving. What it does is allow me to run through a lot more options before settling on what I am going to put into the loom. After using weaving software (Fiberworks for anyone interested), I am pretty good at getting what I want - or something that I am willing to spend the time setting up the loom and weaving.
For the GCW tests, I relied more on my own knowledge and less on resources, but I'm not above using shortcuts, referencing drafts that already exist, tweaking them to suit my purposes.
So it was with the warp waiting in the wings. I tend to use the time during which I'm weaving off a warp to think about and design the next one(s) in the queue.
Right now I've pretty much accomplished my goal of emptying (most of) the pirns of their 2/16 cotton, but there are still some left to do. So I'm still in tea towel mode.
My goal of weaving down my stash has progressed nicely and I'm beginning to see gaps on the shelves as the tubes reduce in diameter, some of them even emptied.
Now that our province seems to be suppressing the Covid-19 here, we are slowly beginning to look to the future and what that will mean. The two major craft fairs are cancelled, but the guild still needs income. So one guild member is looking at potentially opening an on-line sales page on the guild wetsite. We are also discussing how and if we could or should hold sales in the guild room. Personally I think it could work if we think it through (and yes, masks in the room will be required - we have a number of immune compromised guild members).
Human beings are resourceful and adaptable. I am quite sure that in the face of a pandemic virus with no vaccine and no 'cure' - yet - that wearing masks in public will become accepted as normal. As one health professional commented to me, maybe if people get into the habit of wearing a mask, cold and flu season will be less severe, too.
We take safety precautions every time we get into a car - the car itself has been engineered to provide more safety in terms of construction, and we wear a seat belt. We wear safety goggles, hard hats, and protective equipment without thinking too much about it. Maybe masks will join the rest of those items and we will all be better off for them.
edited to add the photo of the silk scarf...
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4 comments:
Although weaving is totally foreign (and fascinating) to me, hand work with threads - usually fairly fine ones - is not. I would venture to guess that in any sort of handcrafted work there are some things that are less challenging and less 'fun' to do, but those parts (or whole pieces) are still beautiful. Your weaving is all beautiful to me.
StephanieW
Thank you. I thought I had a photo of the completed scarf but couldn’t find it. Since I still have the scarf, I will try to get a decent photo of it.
RE: wearing masks. A couple of times recently, you've commented that wearing masks will become routine -- a fashion statement, even. Three weeks ago, I'd have agreed. I went grocery shopping, and almost all of the customers wore masks and practiced social distancing. Two weeks later, at the same store, at least half of the shoppers were not wearing masks, and very few people were paying attention to one-way aisles or keeping apart from other shoppers. The feeling of "we're all in this together, let's take care of one another" had apparently become "hey, the virus thing is over with, don't need masks any more." In spite of store policy posted at the door, which said it required customers to wear masks, in spite of the continuing state of emergency in Michigan and related rules about wearing masks indoors and keeping distance between people, and in spite of news reports about the importance of masks to limit the spread. As a senior with an underlying condition, I felt almost as if I was under attack. It's hard to be optimistic about things getting better when the situation got so much worse so fast.
I am so sorry to hear that. It seems it is also happening here as well. So much for people learning. :(
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