Flexibility

 

flowers determined to break through the concrete

Goals and Plans.

Goals are where we want to end up.  Plans are the route map we intend to use to get there.  But sometimes?  Sometimes Plans need to change.

My goal for the past few years has been to use up my stash.  To that end I made plans.  I settled on one of the yarns in my stash and set about using up as much of it as I could.  In November I could see that I was getting close so it was time to think about the Next Step.

When I was done with the 2/16 cotton, what should I do after that?  I had, at the time, intended to set about making scarves, but that would have been using up finer threads, about the same thickness as the 2/16 cotton.  Not a deal breaker.

But as December turned into January, I started looking at my shelves (and shelves, and shelves) of yarn, plus I wanted to see if I could weave on the Leclerc again, and instead of working on a new scarf design, I slammed some place mat warps through the Leclerc.  

I had intended to do 4 warps, but stopped after three.  Because the first warp was ok, the second, mmm, maybe this wasn't such a good idea, the third?  Pushing the boundary of enough and too much.  So I am going to have to move a lot more carefully as I regain my physical fitness and not push as hard as I used to be able to do.  The fact is, I may never regain that level of 'fitness' again.  That doesn't mean I can't do things, just that I have to swallow the bitter pill of realizing that I am dealing with some physical issues and my present body simply does not heal as quickly or completely as my younger body.

Acceptance can be difficult.  But acceptance is also a reality check on what is possible and what needs to be moderated.

And so, flexibility rules the day.

After three place mat warps (heavy beating, hard on my neck, shoulders and that loom is even hard on my hip) I am taking a break from that loom and going back to the Megado which is kinder on my body.

However, instead of doing the planned scarves, I am doing...towels.  Like I need more towels (not!)

My eye caught on the tubes of cotton flake I still had sitting in the store room.  And the 2/8 cotton.  A combination I have used before and quite liked for a heavier, thicker towel, suitable for wiping hands.  I called them kitchen utility towels.  At 20 epi and about the same ppi (need to test that in the header) they will weave up much more quickly than the 2/16 cotton at 32 epi/ppi.  

Each towel will take about 30 minutes to weave, not 50, which will make both my therapists happy since they both say I should be limiting my weaving time to 30 minutes, twice a day.

But also?  I am spending a lot of time right now writing.  No, not another book, Power Point presentations for Zoom meetings.  It is challenging to try to distill segments of the book into a one hour presentation using Power Point.  What do I want to focus on?  What photos/diagrams do I need to present?  Bullet points or full sentences?

Personally all my bullet point lists very quickly evolve into sentences, plus the meetings will be available for review later, so I'm not too bothered about providing more encompassing text.  A video can be paused so that it can be read, which also stops the voice over.  Just another tool in the teacher's and student's toolbox.

My approach is not to attempt to teach a specific skill but to explain the principles.  Not the how, but the why.  As I have been working through the presentations, I am beginning to see them as a 'master' class.

Which may be egotistical, but it is the kind of information I was thirsting after when I set out on this journey.  I picked up nuggets of information here and there.  Every book, every teacher, every workshop and seminar, I learned something useful.  It may not have been what I was expecting, but...

So in the end I determined that these 'master' classes would last for about a year, maybe a little more, maybe a little less.  As I begin to break the info down into manageable chunks, it is becoming clearer to me what my investment in time and energy is going to be and I am able to more clearly see what needs to be done.

Spending a little less time at the loom in order to present this information is not a bad thing.

And none of it would have happened without a pandemic and all in-person learning postponed.

My goals remain the same.  How I get there can change as the circumstances change.