Next!

 

All set up to begin threading.  I have one more lamp, out of frame on the left because I need to illuminate the area in the heddles in order to see what I'm doing.  On overcast/gloomy days I also have a lamp that will shine on the loom from the back so I can more easily see which bout gets threaded next.  You can just see the stick behind the heddles with the green painter's tape holding each bout.

When I had the AVL, I could tape the draft to the loom frame, but the Megado doesn't have anywhere handy to do that so I found my typing holder (whatever it's called).  Generally I put it on top of the lap top and extend the arm down so that it's more at eye level.  It has a little tray at the bottom where I put my pencil, and as I thread each group I check off what I've done.

Working with 'fancy' twills or other large threading repeats that have long sequences that change a lot, it's just a lot more efficient to go slowly and carefully, double checking each section.

Frequently I work on threading drafts at the end of the day when I'm tired.  Which means sometimes I make mistakes.  So it was with this draft.  I'd made a sequencing error in the first repeat, then repeated that section (mirrored, then rotated), so the error was in every repeat of the motif.

It's a common error and when I realized I'd done it (again!) I immediately got up and went to the desktop to go through the entire draft.  For one thing I wanted to see if correcting it would affect the thread count.  If it did, I might pull out the two inches or so I'd done and adjust the selvedge.

In this case, it didn't.  After correcting the draft, it was still the same number of ends and I printed out the corrected draft, carefully X-ing out the wrong one and tossing it into my paper recycle pile.  But I also marked the corrected draft to the point where I'd stopped threading so I knew where to begin again went I went back to the loom.

When I thread, I remove the beater top, reed and breast beam from the loom.  I use a shorter stool to sit on, which brings me closer to eye level of the heddles.  I refer to my printed draft for each section before I do it, and check each section I've completed off on the draft.

I have task lighting that illuminates the area I need to see - that is, the heddles.  I tend to do groups of 4, 6, or 8 or groups of 5 or 7 if that helps keep the overall draft easier to thread.  With large 'fancy' twills that reverse, sometimes you wind up with a section with an odd number of threads in order to keep the rest in a more logical grouping.

Each section of 4, 6, 8, (or 5, or 7) gets slip knotted together.  This makes sleying easier to do (for me) and I have fewer errors if I keep the groups small enough to also double check my threading.  Because sometimes I have a brain cramp and thread a point in the wrong direction.  I might thread the point /\ instead of \/.  Yes, I've done it, recently.  (Still not perfect!)

I'm going to continue using up my 2/16 stash as much as possible.  I'm down to just a few colours left, but one of those colours is nearly 3 kilos.  So I'll have a lot of that colour coming down the pipeline.

Why am I so focused on getting this yarn out of my life, my studio, my way?  Dunno.  I could do something else.  But in the end it all needs using up, so why not keep going with this one until it's gone?  And, once the 2/16 is finally used up, I will take the 2/20 mercerized cotton out of the boxes it is in and begin working on using *that* yarn.  More tea towels!

Once I get back from Olds I will have to begin working on the filming schedule for the next two classes for SOS.  Felicia wants me to do one on sectional beaming because she feels that tool is best seen in video.  She also wants the lecture I did on lace weaves to be a class, which is nice because I can demo how to do Bronson Lace in pick up.  Something that is much easier understood by seeing it happen, not trying to work out what is happening from the written word.

I bought yarn for the lace class while I was in Vancouver last month.  I bought a thicker yarn than I usually weave with so that it will be easier to see on camera.  I hope.  

Beginning now, my schedule is going to be very full up to and including the guild sales in Nov/Dec.  I'm still not anywhere close to where I was even a year ago in terms of health and energy.  But I'm determined to get these classes in the can (so to speak).  And to keep teaching for as long as I am able.

And that means continuing to avoid covid like the, um, plague.  And any other plagues that arrive in the future.  And that mans continuing to stay home as much as possible.  Avoiding crowds, especially indoors, as much as possible.  Wearing a mask whenever I'm out and about.

Because I have way too much yarn and too many plans to stop now.