And So It Begins

 

Today I started doing the preparations for the two classes for School of Sweet Georgia.

I am a wee bit nervous about doing these in part because we will be interleaving the topics in order to reduce camera changes.  But my brain fog seems to be lifting and I was able to think through the topics, set up the trouble shooting section, get the smaller loom dressed for the lace weave class, and didn’t feel overwhelmed in spite of not being in my own studio.  

I have the ‘luxury’ of taking two days to complete the preparations so when I got tired and started hurting, I stopped for the day.  Tomorrow I will finish setting up for the lace pick up, then sort through my teaching aids, organize my samples.  While I don’t have a lot of samples, I do have some nice ones.  

Getting the looms ready is the most time consuming, so I was glad to get that done and out of the way. 

I also have firm dates for when they will launch now, and once home I will generate the supporting documentation for the SOS website, which is a comfortable schedule. 

Filming will happen over three days, again a comfortable pace.

I am grateful to work with an enthusiastic crew who responds when I express concerns, or just ask for additional assistance with supplying what I need.  I enjoy the forums and being able to answer questions as they arise.  

Covid isn’t over and being able to teach in person is no longer on my radar, although I may do a very small beginning to weave for my local guild if everyone wears a mask.  We have had requests and no one seems confident enough to do it.  I got tossed into the deep end and that isn’t always the best approach because not everyone can swim.  When I get home I will talk to the new workshop person and the treasurer and see what they say.   Tonight I am putting my feet up and maybe will hem a couple more towels   

Quiet Day

 

Today is a quiet day.  A day to just be.  No plans, other than to let the injection do what it needs to do.  A day to let concerns go.   A day to pick up needle and thread, sit by the window where the light is better.  To listen to music.  To still my mind.  To stop fussing.  Because I have done what I can, and if I’ve forgotten anything I will have to wing it.  

Soon enough it will be time for focus and busy.  Time to order my thoughts.  Think of everything I can. To present the information as best I can. 

To reduce camera changes we will record out of sequence, and, more challenging yet, both topics interleaved.  Hopefully by Monday the brain fog will have lifted so I can pull this off. 

I’m no stranger to teaching weaving ‘out of order’ but this is the first time for doing two topics at once, so to speak.  But I’ve mostly only ever had live audiences.  Taping like this is going to require my complete brain power.  Challenging?  Oh my, yes!  

Fortunately both Felicia and Greta are weavers because I’m going to be relying on them to let me know if I’ve said what needs to be said.  Or we do a re-take.  And keep doing re-takes until they are satisfied. 

The weather here is quite lovely and if it weren’t for Covid and my feet, I wouldn’t mind going somewhere doing something.  But the classes are my primary concern, so I will sit in the hotel room. Hem. Nap. Rest. 

And just…be.  

Endings

 

The piles of boxes and bins have made their way upstairs, ready to be loaded into the van.

The past few weeks have been filled with me thinking 'this is the last time'.  The last time I will pack up a major portion of my studio and head (in this case) south to once again try to share my knowledge with others.

Neither of us is in our 30s anymore and we are tired.  So as I collected all the 'stuff' and Doug packed them into boxes and bins, I could see he was as tired as I am.  So I kept reminding myself that I don't actually *need* to keep doing this. 

I gave up the dark o'clock flights when I 'retired' in 2019, but the drive out to Alberta in June, and now this one, with covid still raging (and too many people 'ignoring' it) has meant more stress than I really want to deal with.

OTOH, I had to go to Vancouver for a medical appointment, so while it means we'll be away for longer than is comfortable, we are able to do two major things with just one trip.

So we have packed half of the kitchen (not really, but it seems like it) and will stay in the hotel room unless we need to go to my medical appointment or head on over to School of Sweet Georgia.  We will begin loading everything into their studio on Friday, and the rest of Friday will be spent getting all the prep work done.  If I need it, I can return Saturday to finish up.

Hopefully, if I've done all the thinking correctly, getting things set up the way I want means we should be able to get all the filming done in two days.  And then head home before the holiday traffic gets going - because it's Canadian Thanksgiving coming up.

Of course things just couldn't go smoothly, so yesterday our elderly microwave stopped working.  Doug has gone to see if he can get a replacement before we leave so that we don't have to worry about it when we get home.  And so I can heat my lunch today!  Because I'm trying to empty the fridge before we go.

The brain fog from the pain/painkillers has made all of these preparations far more difficult but I pushed through on Friday and Saturday and I'm as ready as I can be.  If I've forgotten anything, I'll just have to wing it.

It's really hard to face the 'end' of my teaching, but OTOH, I *can* still teach - just not in the way I used to.  But life isn't the way it was, and 'normal' means something completely different when it means I must continue to protect myself from an airborne virus.

One of the reasons I am working with School of Sweet Georgia is that they not only tell me they want to protect me, they actually make decisions that *will* protect me - like offering to wear N-95s while we film.  I will bring my HEPA filter as well, which will mean they probably won't have to wear them given it will be just the 3 of us.  But I appreciate their offer and am so grateful.

It is a pleasure working with the SOS team and I hope we can continue beyond what I am already committed to do (the live lectures, plus these two new classes).

I am considering teaching beginning to weave classes locally, in part because I don't have to travel anywhere and the guild room is fully loaded so I don't have to pack up my studio.  And I can make the class(es) be mask required and limit the number of students.

Because that is the guild policy right now - masks are *strongly* recommended, but also?  If an instructor requests masks, we will make their 'class' be masks on.  

If the craft is going to continue to thrive, we cannot start killing off our teachers by exposing them to a virus that could seriously impact their lives, and in some cases kill them.  I know several very experienced and talented instructors who are, like me, immune compromised.  We should be protecting our knowledge assets.

And while this may be 'selfish' because I am one of those people, if you protect *me*, you actually protect *everyone* in the room. 

When I was 25 I though I would be able to teach until I was 75 (if I made it that far).  This year I turned 72, so maybe 3 more years, if I can manage it.  But I think I'm really and truly 'done' with packing up half my studio.

Decisions, Decisions

 

Playing around with more options for the upcoming warps, I think I will be going with this one.

The warp will be 2/16 unmercerized cotton, the weft 2/20 mercerized cotton.  The play between the shiny and mat yarns should make this an interesting textile.

These will be 'proper' tea towels.  The yarns are light enough and absorbent enough that they should work well.  With a finer weft than warp, I am planning on increasing the epi I've been using for the 2/16 towels from 32 to 36 epi.

Someone asked me (in another context) if increasing the epi by one or two ends actually matters, and I said 'yes'.

One of the exercises I did for my master weaver monograph was weave the same yarn at a variety of densities.  I chose a singles wool and used a very open density, then increased that by one or two epi to make a variety of different qualities of cloth.

I then wet finished them, including fulling as part of the experiment, but I did the fulling in pre-set times - 2 minutes, 4, and if I had enough cloth 6 or 8.

The changes may have been subtle, but they were absolutely discernible, if not to the eye, certainly to the hand.  And they would have made a difference in how the cloth functioned.

In most cases, the 2 or even the 4 minutes of fulling left the cloth unstable in the more open densities, and my conclusion was that people should not be afraid of fulling.  It does, however, need to be monitored in order to not go beyond the state you want it to be when 'done'.

Cotton, however doesn't full, so you do have to pay careful attention to density.  Given that 2/16 and 2/20 are pretty close in size, I might not have increased the density very much.  But mercerized cotton is more slippery than unmercerized cotton, and the fancy twills I've been working with are less stable.  So the 32 epi I had been working with seemed too loose to me, so I'll be using 36.

If I find that the cloth still isn't stable enough, I can change the tie up and add some plain weave, but for now it's a 1:3:1:3:2:2:3:1 tie up.  (I like using tie ups where I can arrange to lift fewer shafts, even if it means weaving the cloth 'upside down'.)

My goal today is to finish threading the 2/8 cotton warp which will use up the last of the thicker linen for weft, and may even use up the slub that is one ply cotton, one ply linen.  If there is still warp when those are gone, there is a fairly large cone of textured cotton.  

Little by little I am making headway on the my stash.  

It feels a bit awkward to be ordering more yarn so that I can use up what I have, but the 2/20 mercerized cotton simply is beyond it's best buy date for warp so it will get used up as weft.

My story, sticking to it... 

Goat Trails

 

This was the state of my studio up until a few minutes ago.  Much of the rubble on the floor has been moved to the other end of the studio so that nearly everything is in one heap.

I've tagged everything so that I can - hopefully - find what I'm looking for when I begin setting up the filming studio at School of Sweet Georgia next Friday (and Saturday if I need that much time, which I may).

I'm juggling two completely different and separate topics, which will actually get filmed concurrently in order to minimize camera set up changes.  I'm really hoping my pain and chemically induced brain fog will have lifted by then.  Based on the last injection, it took 3 days for everything to clear my system and give me my brain - and executive functioning - back.  Fingers crossed for the same, this time.

In spite of a constant realization that this will be the 'last' time I do this, or that, my brain simply won't stop and I came up with an idea I am going to pitch while I'm down there.  I don't know if they will be interested, but I'll talk to them and see.

 I am trying to arrange my life to reduce stress and right now, travel is a huge part of the stress of doing these online classes.  

'If' is a really small word that encompasses universes, galaxies.  If wishes were horses, beggers would ride.  I took that admonition to heart as a child and so I have always worked, worked, worked to bring my goals, my dreams, into reality.

My goals and dreams are now much smaller, but it appears that in spite of brain fog, I still have them.  Even as the thought popped into my head, my conscious self said 'wait, WHAT?"  But where ever those dreams are born insisted I approach SOS and so I have collected documentation and samples and will ask.

But honestly?  I am tired of the stress.  The chaos.  The goat trails.  I am going to try and convince the dreaming part of my brain to be less - less ambitious, less enthusiastic, less, I don't know, driven?  Creative?

I have also decided on the direction I want to go with the 2/20 mercerized cotton I still have in my stash.  Given my eyesight and not being able to see that size of thread very well, I am going to invest in some 2/16 natural cotton and use it for warp, with the 2/20 mercerized cotton for weft.  The mat and shiny combination should look good.  And I can still see the 2/16 - at least more easily than the 2/20, so there is that.

I have already generated a draft based on that combination and just need to decide if I only order in natural white, or if I buy some blue to use up the bin of various blues, including the cones from Robin and Russ - you just *know* how old those are - likely nearing 40 years.  Long past time to use it up and being that old, I'm not inclined to try it as warp.

I'm going to take a break from sorting and packing and start threading the warp I just beamed yesterday.  Would be nice if it was at least begun so I didn't have to do it all when I came home.

But man, I am looking forward to getting rid of some stuff and making the goat trails wider, if not fewer.

Doing the Right Thing

 

If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

I continue to work on staying safe from covid.  For me, being immune compromised, getting sick from covid would not be good.  It would not be 'mild'.  It would not be a 'nothing burger'.  It could, in fact, be fatal.

We are 2.5+ years into a pandemic, one that far too many people have decided isn't real, doesn't exist, is all a figment of someone's fevered imagination.  In spite of the daily deaths that would - in any other circumstance - have caused people to pause.  But here we are.

So I advocated, quite loudly, at a recent guild event for all people attending guild events to attend wearing a mask.  

Since then I have seen more and more reports that the majority of people would be fine with mask mandates, they just don't want to buck the majority.

I'm here to tell you, that if you are part of the majority of people who would be fine with a mask - WEAR THE MASK!

Don't wait for government to tell you.  You already know it's the 'right' thing to do.  So do it.  Do it even if it means that you might be the only person in the room doing it.  By your example you will encourage others to ALSO put on a mask.

So please.  If you belong to a weaving guild, protect your fellow guild members and wear a mask.  Be the example.  Be the lone voice if that's what it takes.  Protect our elders, their knowledge and experience.  

There are still too many people getting sick and some of them are dying.  Far too many are dealing with the long term effects of Long Covid.  

Protect them - and yourself - by wearing a mask at guild events, workshops, conferences, exhibits.

Even if you are the only one.  Because it's the 'right' thing to do.

Coming Down to the Wire

 

We make plans.  The universe laughs.

Hope springs eternal.

Even as I despair of meeting my (self-imposed) deadlines, a tiny part of my brain is thinking, thinking, thinking and even as I say "I'm done" that little kernel wonders, what if...?

The taping for the next two classes will soon be history and filed under 'things I have done' instead of the 'things I will do' category.  Vowing they would be my last online classes a few weeks ago, the other night (damn insomnia) I was unprepared for that little part of my brain to send out a teaser 'what if'.

And now, of course, like an ear worm, I can't seem to put it back into the little box it popped out of, like an evil jack-in-the-box, tempting me to consider, to propose, to start thinking about the whole thing more, adding this, adding that, planning warps to exhibit the principles.

Every time it drifts through my conscious awareness, I push it back, push it away, shove it aside.  And yet...here it comes again.

I may yet decide to roll with it.  Or sanity may prevail and I'll let it die of a lack of oxygen, a lack of energy to do All The Things required to make it happen.

After 40+ years of weaving I have a broad base of knowledge.  As the years progressed I focused my attention on certain aspects of the craft that I felt needed to be promoted more (wet finishing, ergonomics) and let go other things about cloth construction that interested me.  

Lately those things have begun to reappear.  They are, in fact, facets of wet finishing, largely the special effects that come about *because* of wet finishing.  How weave structures that depend on the deflection of the threads in the cloth develop to their full potential in the wet finishing and other approaches.  In fact I used to offer a workshop with that very focus.

And now I find myself revisiting it - even as I threw away the workshop notes thinking I would never need them again.

Ironic, right? 

Oh well.  It may all come to nothing.

But the fact that this is happening, right now, tells me I'm not done yet.  Even as I come down to the wire in terms of my health, energy and drive to accomplish things, a part of me wants to do 'more'.

Time will tell if I can scrape up the will to actually *do* more.  Or if I will be content simply weaving down my stash.

In the meantime, there will be two more SOS classes launched in the new year and the lecture series continues.  I have a couple of bookings for guild presentations.  The topics are listed on my (new/refreshed) website

Two garments, woven for my master weaver monograph, exhibiting significant fulling

So Far, So Good

 

Today is day 5 since my covid 'contact' and even though the covid positive person and I were both masked, AND there was a HEPA filter between us, I am being very very careful.

I have worked hard for 2.5+ years to avoid being 'caught' by this virus and the last thing I wanted to do was have an encounter with someone positive for covid just days before we leave for Vancouver.

So this week has been stressful as I wondered if her mask had worked, if my mask had worked, if the room filter had worked and hopefully because all three were there and hopefully working, I would be 'safe'.

It was with a huge sense of relief that I saw the Control turn red and nothing else.

However, rapid tests are famous for false negatives, so I will test again tomorrow.

The thing is, this past week we were also under a cloud of wildfire smoke, and because I'm allergic to smoke, I was having sinus issues and a slightly sore throat.  So I just didn't know - had my luck run out?  Or was it, in fact, 'just' allergies.

Running on hope, I continued to weave, worked on my teaching aids for the class, and hoped so hard I could almost taste it.

People who are not immune compromised seem to have no idea, or if they do, very little concern, for people like me who would not have a 'mild' infection in spite of multiple vaccinations.  Because our immune system just don't work properly.

People who have had a life saving organ donated take immune suppressants so that their immune system doesn't attack the 'foreign' tissue in their bodies.  People with cancer generally have compromised immune systems because of the treatment they require to save their lives.  Personally my cancer is OF the immune system - half of it simply doesn't work.  People with inflammatory diseases have immune systems that don't work, either.  And the list goes on.

We live IN SPITE of our compromised immune system, but catching a virus like covid would be far more deadly for us than for someone with a healthy immune system.

And why it was so irritating (and still is) when covid minimizers whiff away the fact that someone died because 'they were sick anyway'.  As if we weren't living perfectly fine lives until we caught covid.

I am egotistical enough to think that I have worth through the knowledge I hold.   That the weaving community might be 'less' when I'm no longer in it.  And why I am working so hard on these classes for SOS - a repository of some of my knowledge.  

Maybe I'm deluded, but it sure would be nice if the people around me would wear a mask without complaining about how uncomfortable they are and help keep me from getting sick from an airborne virus.

Lemons -> Lemonade

 

After the disappointment of the 'too old' mercerized cotton, I returned to a more robust yarn, and one that I have enjoyed weaving with for a very long time.  It was 'comfort' weaving during a time where there is much to be stressed about.

Still on a mission to weave down my stash, I have a significant amount of 2/8 cotton left and there was plenty to quickly toss 20 tubes onto the spool rack and get a warp beamed with the goal of using up the heavier weight single linen yarn that *also* needs using up.  

And it was on my list of things to do 'next' so it didn't take all that long to get the warp onto the beam.  The added benefit was that it is a lot easier for me to see and this warp actually went on with no mistakes (that I am yet aware of, at any rate!)

The photo doesn't do the cloth justice, being taken from below the breast beam and poor light, but I think you can see that for 'beige' it's interesting in a subtle way.  

The two faces of the cloth are not 'balanced' insofar as you see more warp on one side, more weft on the other.  With the heavier linen weft, these towels will make great 'sauna' towels (they will be lovely as exfoliant towels providing a really good rub down!)

I went with 20 epi even though that is a bit on the open side for density but included plain weave to add stability and contrast.  The open density should provide drape while the plain weave will provide body.  And linen being linen, the more these towels get used, the better they will become.

There will be nine more sleeps before we leave and I have slowly been pulling my teaching aids together, generating more visuals to help explain things.  With an on line class, I have to be extra thorough in my explanations because there won't be the usual feedback from students in the moment.  So I have to cover the bases and anticipate areas where some may need a clearer expression of what is happening and why.

In the meantime, life goes on, summer turns into autumn, and my goals remain the same - weave down my stash and try to share as much as I can about what I know - or at least from my experience.  My hope is that people will take my experience for what it is, and then move forward on their own time, in their own direction, and add to the body of knowledge.

Because I by no means know it 'all'.  No one can.  What we *can* do is pool our knowledge so that we all benefit.

And turn 'lemons' into 'lemonade'.

Autumn

 

Yesterday I grabbed a photo of the mountain ash trees across the street, laden with berries.

When we first moved to this house, the trees were small.  The area had only been 'developed' for a few years and the small trees the city had planted in front of each house were young.

Our lot had a number of coniferous trees in the back yard, all of which are now gone.  A single large pine tree isn't very stable and over the years many in the neighbourhood had fallen over, taking fences, and porches with them.  So we cut ours down.  Doug planted some plum trees in the back yard and has been harvesting plums from them - until this year.  The climate has  changed and we've noticed those changes.  None of them have been for the better.

So these trees across the street, which would in years past be filled with birds feasting on this bounty?  No birds.  We used to have song birds and lately?  None.

We were lucky this year because we didn't have a lot of forest fire smoke  - until this week when we kept getting urgent notices about the really bad air quality.  We have a/c and a filter and haven't noticed much of a problem (except my sinus drainage ramped up, so...)

We are heading into winter.  But winters aren't the same, either.  Too warm.  Freezing rain instead of light fluffy snow.  Driving conditions become treacherous more than ever.  Instead of roads cleared of ice/snow because the temps are cold enough to keep them that way, not this freeze/thaw nonsense of the past few years.

And covid continues.  

I'm not looking forward to the upcoming trip because we'll have to be so careful.  We'll bring our air filter, eat take out, not visit people we had been planning to visit.  Because you just don't know when you'll encounter someone who may not know they are positive for covid and oops!  Immune compromised system can't handle the virus and if that happens to me, it will in all likelihood NOT be mild, in spite of vaccinations.  

Just this week there was a positive person at the guild meeting - because she didn't know she was positive.  Fortunately everyone was wearing a mask, or we could have a dozen guild members potentially sick with covid.

So many people have just given up doing any kind of preventative measures.  They think it's inevitable and everyone should just get it and get it over with.  Problem with that, is that you can catch covid multiple times - just like you can can a cold - and the more times you catch covid, the risk of Long Covid rises.

The Black Death was a mass extinction event.  Covid is going to prove to be a mass disabling event.  Someone gets covid once, were miserable for a few days, but seemingly recover.  What they don't realize is that covid may have left 'easter eggs' in their body which will blow up in the future.  Because covid is not a respiratory illness.  It gets into the blood and can go anywhere (and everywhere) in your body, cause micro clots, which means the risk of stroke rises, inflammation in organs including heart AND BRAIN.  For men it can mean penile disfunction.  

So no, I'm not about to voluntarily get it and get on with my life.  I will continue to avoid covid LIKE THE PLAGUE IT IS.

Once this trip is done, I will be mostly staying home and avoiding people because as winter arrives, more people will be gathering indoors and if someone doesn't know they are positive, any indoor gathering can become a covid event.

So I'm glad I insisted at the guild meeting that we must ALL wear masks.  Or it could be a dozen people sick, not just the one who was positive and didn't yet know it.

We are living in 'interesting' times, and no idea when it will get better.  But I do know one thing - living with covid does not mean ignoring it.

Continuing Saga of the Never Ending Stash

 

Yesterday I finished threading the 2/8 cotton warp, got it sleyed, tied on, generated a treadling and wove the first towel.

The half bleached linen (slightly slubby and hairy) yarn is working quite well on the mixed beige warp and I'm pleased with the results.

It kind of looks like a pastry dusted with icing sugar.  (Maybe I was hungry while I was weaving?)

Since the linen is on average thinner than the cotton, it was a bit 'daring' of me to go with 20 epi, except that the linen is so stiff in relation to the cotton, plus the texture and the hairiness of the linen, that I figured it would not want to beat in anywhere near what a cotton yarn of the same grist would do.  The stiffness of the linen will give the cloth overall body (I'm anticipating, based on previous experience) and while the resulting cloth is too heavy to rightly be called a 'tea' towel, I'm thinking these will make really nice hand towels.  Perhaps, even, a good sauna towel.  

My goal with this is to make something that has flexibility (hence more open density) but that will wear well (hence the plain weave incorporated in the tie up).

In the draft above you can see the body of the towel (the upper part) and then the hem area.  I don't really have anything compatible to use for the hems, so the hem weft will be the same yarn, but woven in a straight progression rather than the advancing progression of the towel body.

Even without changing the tie up, just making this small change will create a cloth that is less bulky for the hem to be turned.  This cloth is definitely heavier than the towels woven with 2/16 or 2/20.  

However, it looks like this one warp might just use up the majority of the linen.  If there is any linen left over, I will put one more 2/8 cotton warp on and do the same thing to use up the linen, plus two tubes of a 2 ply - one ply cotton, one ply linen - plus if there is still warp left on the second warp I have some textured cotton that can be used to finish the warp off entirely.

This week I've been working on the classes for School of Sweet Georgia, and expect to continue on that this afternoon after an errand run, including a clothing store to look for two identical tops to wear for the filming.  The filming crew has suggested that we interleave the filming of the two topics in order to reduce camera set up time - IOW, for the scenes that need an overhead camera angle we film all of those at once for both.  Which means I will have to be able to switch from one topic to another instantly.  But for continuity, both classes will need the same 'wardrobe', so I'll need two tops to make the switching easier.

The problem is, I didn't like the tops I wore for the last class and don't want to wear them again, but neither do I have two tops of the same colour/design that are acceptable so I need to buy some.

Since I really dislike shopping for clothing, send good shopping vibes!

My studio is also being used as a staging area as I begin to pack what I need for the trip and quite frankly I will be more than glad when I'm home again and all of this is in the 'I have done this', not still in the 'I will do this" category.

Quick Pivot

 

The sunlight was washing out the colour so I took the photo with shadow on the warp so you can see more of the colours.

When I realized I could not continue using the 2/20 mercerized cotton in my stash for warp as planned, I had to quickly pivot to something else.

Given my success at weaving down my yarn stash, I was very limited in my choices.  Plus the fact that I'm reserving a bunch of my 2/8 cotton for the sectional beaming class so I couldn't use any of that yarn, I had to work with what was left.

Which was mostly beige.  Not exactly my favourite colour, but needs must.

I was going to add a variegated yarn to spice the warp up some, but I didn't feel like taking the time to wind spools or cones, so instead I just included a pale green and a couple of light peach ends along with about 6 or 7 various shades of 'beige'.  Some were more yellow, some more brown, and two ends are a 'stone' - a dark brownish grey.  

I have several pounds (5?) of a single linen what is a bit slubby and slightly thinner than 2/8 cotton.  Since linen is so stiff I went with 20 epi and will weave it in a 'fancy' twill with some plain weave in the tie up to add some stability with what is a relatively open set.

These towels will be more hand towels than tea towels, but should wear in nicely.  I've had some feedback from people saying that they have been using my part linen towels, and after a while they really develop into a lovely cloth.  Which is my experience as well.  Linen really does need to be used, not stored in the closet for 'good'.

I say I did a 'quick' pivot, but that's not really accurate.  Instead of making the decision immediately, I had to stop and take a break, clear my mind of the disappointment of having threads snap, left right and centre, look at what I had on hand and then finally, some hours later, make a decision.  The brain fog from the pain/pain medications means I have to take time to let my thoughts percolate.  I don't want to rush into a decision about a longish warp before I have had a chance to think things through.

But I will tell you something for free - I do miss my brain working 'properly'!

So I am going to say one more thing about brain fog.  The reports about Long Covid brain fog are truly concerning.  There are now so many people who have been infected with this disease, many of them dealing with fatigue and brain fog, cognitive disfunction, plus so many other health issues and the advice now is to not get it at all, or, if you've had it, do everything in your power to NOT get it again.  The more times you get infected with covid, the risk of developing Long Covid or having other hidden health issues that will manifest in the coming years goes up.

Given my already precarious health, I will be continuing to wear a mask when I go out, advocate for air filtration, and get every covid vaccine because it has been shown that the vaccine will offer protection against severe illness and Long Covid should I be unlucky and catch it.

Stay safe.  Stay well.  Stay covid aware.  Living with covid is NOT ignoring it, but living with mitigations like filtration - personal and general, isolating when sick, getting vaccines.

When Disaster Strikes

 

This is the current state of my studio.  If you read my post yesterday, you may be wondering why my spool rack is empty, and so is my warp beam.

You might remember I had some issues with the black and purple on one of my previous warps - and I speculated that the yarn, which had been stored in ordinary cardboard (acidic) boxes for far too many years, had most likely deteriorated.  The black being the worst was set aside to be used only for weft.

Well this morning I tried beaming the warp with the dark forest green, purple and blue, and immediately had broken threads all over the place.  I made an adjustment, thinking that would solve the problem, but nope.  Multiple broken ends in the forest green and purple in the second section as well.

Needless to say, those two sections got cut off and into the recycle bin.

Now I'm taking a break while I think through my options.  

There aren't enough tubes of any colour, or even combinations of pleasing (to me) colours and I'm stymied.  I had intended to do at least two more warps of this 2/20 mercerized cotton and...I'm stuck.

At this point I'm thinking about what I have in my stash, wondering if I have anything at all that could be used and coming up blank.

Obviously it is time to take a break, have lunch, let the situation simmer in the back of my mind for a while.

My other options are also limited.  I MAY have enough black 2/16 bamboo, but I'm not sure how well that will marry with 2/20 cotton in a towel.

I do have 2/8 cotton so I *could* put a warp of that into the loom and use that thicker singles 12 linen.

But this has kind of knocked me off my rails and I need time to think.

So I will.

Begin Again

 

Weaving, like life, is an endless round of finishing things, then beginning again.

So it was today.

I wove the last two towels and cut the warp off the loom.  When I looked at how much warp was left, it was touch and go if I'd get another towel, so I decided to 'sacrifice' it.  As I stripped it from the loom, one of the sections was 'short' by one turn so there was no way I could have gotten one more towel.  Well, I might have squeaked one more out of the warp but I was in no mood to try.

So off it went!

By dinner time I'd cut/serged the 6 towels, fixed the two that had a broken end, collected *some* of the things for the sectional beaming class, then set up the tension box for the next warp.

This is the warp that is inspired by oil slicks on water - dark blue, purple and a mid-range blue, in 'rough' stripes.  Again I won't pay any mind to whether the yarns stay in their lane or not, which blurs the stripes and makes them look less rigid.

(My story, sticking to it.)

It took a while to get things set up but the spools were already in the spool rack - I'd done that while waiting for a Zoom meeting to start on Wed.

The threading draft is prepared, I'll print that out tonight.  Who knows, maybe I will be able to start threading once the warp is beamed.  It's been taking me about 3 or 3.5 hours (plus a break) to beam these warps once they are ready to go, so if I can get moving early enough there should be time to begin threading before the day is spent.

I've already decided on the warp to follow this one, and then I *may* do another red one and weave it off with red weft.  I'll see how Xmassy I'm feeling once I get to that point.

While my goal was to use up all my linen, I decided to leave the heavier single yarn and use it as weft on 2/8 cotton.  I think it will be a better match than this 2/20 merc. cotton.

Once this warp is up and weaving, I will be spending more time getting ready to head for Vancouver.  I still need something to wear for the taping (not happy with anything in my closet), plus I need to finalize the two warps that I will be demoing on for the two topics.  I'm going to need some time to think and plan.  With just 16 more sleeps before we leave, I need to shift my focus next week.  The warp will wait patiently for me until I get back.

Delayed Gratification

 

As a child, there was frequently a jigsaw puzzle on the coffee table and while watching tv or just wanting something to do (especially in the winter) we were encouraged to sit on the floor and work on the puzzle du jour.

I know a lot of people think making a jigsaw puzzle is a waste of time, and on the surface I can see how they might think that.

But puzzles challenge a child to begin to recognize shapes, analyze a piece, examine what has been built to see if they can find a match, hones their eye to recognize tiny changes in colour/shape, or follow a line, grouping like with like.  There are many reasons building puzzles are good for human development, including developing fine motor skills.

I credit my early (and continuing) building of puzzles for developing an eye for detail, something that has been extremely helpful in my weaving, especially for picking out errors!

I make puzzles because it engages me on a creative level.  I bring order out of chaos - not a bad feeling these days.  I work on a puzzle at my own pace, in my own time, as I feel like doing it.  It doesn't have an end date, or an expiry date and I can take it apart and put it away and make it again a few months/years down the road.  Or trade them with others who also enjoy making them.

It's the perfect activity for an introvert...just saying...

As an adult I put puzzles away because they were a distraction and the only logical place to make one was on the dining room table.  Which was frequently needed for other things.  (No, not eating - fringe twisting, tagging, shipping!)

Then I became friends with the neighbour across the street - who also loved jigsaw puzzles.  Their family made puzzles from Xmas day until the end of Feb or mid-March - a winter activity.  And I began to make puzzles again, with her.  When she died in 2016, I no longer had a coffee/puzzle making buddy, and I decided to start making puzzles by myself.

From time to time I would clear the table off and set out the board Doug made for me, which can be picked up and moved if we should need the table for something else, without my having to take apart the current puzzle.

During the pandemic, and my latest spate of health issues, I've been making puzzles more frequently.  They don't tax me physically, keep me engaged mentally, and when I fiddle with the colourful pieces, I tend to put any worrying thoughts out of my mind.  When I don't feel like I can absorb anything by reading, I can just go zen with a puzzle.

Making puzzles is a lot like weaving.  You know the end result you desire (the photo on the box), you sort through the variables (the pieces) and you begin to match them up until after a while, you have reached the 'end'.   The picture is complete.  You're done.  Move on to the next.

Exactly like weaving, actually.

Clearing the Decks

 

Since I am getting close to finishing the current warp (maybe next Monday?) it was time to work on the next warp.

I've been playing with twills and ratios of point progressions.  Then I was using an advancing progression to weave them.

For this warp, however, I had a slightly different vision in mind - that of an oil slick on water.  How the shimmer and sheen of the oil casts a rainbow effect on the surface and how those colours ebb and flow, especially as the angle of observation changes.  Like iridescence.

Since my goal is to use up what I have and not buy more, I have had to push my comfort zone and work with colours that I might not have chosen if I had a broader range to select from.  As my yarn availability dwindles, I have had to push harder to come up with something I might like.

At this point in time I have too little of any one colour to use as warp (40 epi means 40 yarn packages to beam sectionally) so I've been combining different colours in different ways, beginning with the 2/16.  For that yarn I started making 'stripes' because when you have very different values, trying to blend them altogether can get very 'busy' looking.

The breakthrough for me was realizing that I didn't have to thread the stripes in rigid order, but just encourage the yarns to stay close to their area.  I'm letting the different coloiurs migrate into the adjacent stripe which creates a softer focus, a less rigid appearance.  So far it's been working so I've been continuing with that approach for the 2/20 mercerized cotton.

The next warp will be darker value colours and I'm really trying to get them woven before the days get shorter/darker.  We are heading into winter and our winters have been warmer and more overcast, which means less light.  Since I'm having issues seeing such fine thread, especially in the darker values, I feel a lot of pressure to get this warp into the loom as soon as I can while we still have some brighter days.

OTOH, I also have class prep to do.  The bulk of it is done, now it's fine tuning and details.  And less than 3 weeks to get it all done.

Once this warp is in the loom I will begin packing for the trip because I'm bringing my spool rack and yarn for one class.  I also have to wind a couple of warps, one for each class.  And gather my teaching samples.

So I am feeling a LOT of pressure to finish the current warp and get the next one into the loom.  

I'm hoping to at least begin weaving on it before we leave, but honestly?  If I don't, I won't be terribly upset.  Winter is coming and there will be lots of time to weave when I'm feeling better.

Behind the Scenes

 

This is what you don't see on screen when I do a Zoom lecture.

My work table does multiple jobs, including the 'desk' where I sit to do the lecture.  As you can see there is a lot of light that comes in the windows, and I used to sit with the windows at my back, and then I would have to block them because they would overexpose everything behind me.  When I bought the new laptop, I decided to set up facing the windows instead.  Which means I don't have to fiddle around blocking the windows.

Since the table is more frequently used for other stuff, some of it lives there: the serger on the far right, and the small press which has been shoved to the far back left.  There are a bunch of small items behind the serger as well.

The loom's back beam has been temporarily used as somewhere to stack my woven samples as I finish with them, the small tv table to the right holds the other items I used in the course of the lecture.

There are more things to either side of the laptop, within reach, plus my drink.  Since I talk pretty much non-stop for 2 hours, I need to wet my whistle!

Doing these lectures means thinking through the important part of the topic, having examples handy, be able to demonstrate things (if appropriate) and not be fumbling around looking for stuff.  

Until someone asks a question you didn't prepare for and then I  hop off the stool and grab what I need to answer the question!

The other things in the picture are more to do with what I'm working on than the lecture - the bin of yarns lower right are what's left of the last warp.  While waiting for the meeting to start, I emptied the spool rack and put the yarns into the bin, then loaded the rack with the tubes for the next warp.

The shelving to the left is the yarn I'm currently working with plus some other stuff that needed a home for a while and that seemed the most convenient empty space when I needed some.  For example on the lowest shelf is a stack of 'seconds' that I may or may not finish, may or may not gift to someone in their current state, or wet finish and hem before I gift.  To be determined.  In the meantime they needed a place to live until I made up my mind.  The two other racks further to the left also store yarn and other items that I use - not frequently - but I still want handy just in case.  Or in the case of the yarn, remind myself I still need to use it up.

Now to clear all that clutter up.  I could still weave one towel today but I am running low on energy, so maybe it would just be 'better' if I took another day of rest (or afternoon of rest - the morning was kind of busy!) and started fresh in the morning.  

I do still have a library book that is due back in two days to finish.  Hmmm....

Vadmal

 

Once again I have seen someone state with absolute certainty that 'vadmal' (or vadmel) is made by weaving a very open cloth then fulling it significantly.

Based on my research into wet finishing and fulling, my extensive experiments into fulling a great variety of woolen cloths, same yarn, different densities, creating different qualities of cloth from lightly to heavily fulled I suspect that weaving it open was not done.

Traveling to Sweden and being privy to the research done by a Swedish weaver who found a masters thesis detailing (in the 1940s) how vadmal was made, based on the memories of people still living who had participated in the making of vadmal when it was still a home industry.

Going to Norway to use a vadmalstampp to full cloth I'd woven, then observed how the webs brought by the rest of the group responded to the hammer mill.

So - my experiences with weaving extremely open to very dense woolen yarn than fulling it have given me some insights.  When I wove extremely open, the web was exceptionally unstable and distorted even in the loom.  There simply wasn't enough stability for it to create anything but a hair pulling experience as the threads moved, shifted, gathered too closely together, then slid too far apart in various areas.

However, I had been told that in order to weave this quality of cloth you *had* to weave 'window screening'.

Then in the water, the cloth took forever to full and stabilize - which was not unexpected, but the final nail in that coffin (so to speak) was the extreme dimensional loss.  Massive shrinkage.

For all the headache of trying to weave a consistent unstable cloth only to have most of it disappear in the wet finishing did not seem like something my ancestors would have suffered gladly.  Unless there was good reason.

Then the masters thesis, interviewing elders who remembered how their elders made vadmal - it was anything but window screening - quite the opposite!  The fulling was 'extreme' because such a dense cloth was going to resist fulling.  However, in the end, dimensional loss wasn't huge, but within more acceptable ranges.

Based on this information, I offered to bring a significant length of cloth to full in the hammermill in Norway.  We'd been told to bring 100 meters of cloth to make it worth our while to rent the mill for the weekend.  So I suggested that the other five decide how much each of them would bring and I would bring the rest.  When I left for Sweden, I had two large suitcases filled with 15 meters of cloth each, plus my carryon with my personal items.  

Since there were two 'basins' and I had two pieces of cloth (and because I didn't speak Swedish and didn't realize what was going on) the rest voted and declared me the winner of the first spot.  I think they figured if I was crazy enough to bring 30 meters of cloth, I'd be crazy enough to go first and work out how the mill worked.  :D

I had access to a very nice fairly fine Swedish woolen singles - finer than commonly available in North America - and used that yarn.  I'd woven with it previously, used the 2 ply version in Magic in the Water, in fact, and had experimented with fulling it at a more 'normal' density.  For this experiment I increased the epi and wove it more densely, although not as high as I would have done if I was trying to make actual vadmal.

It was a compromise between the ancient and the modern.  Besides, I'm Canadian, not Swedish or Norwegian, so I figured I could do whatever I wanted.  :D

The cloth was fulled in the mill for 90 minutes.  In the end it would not, to my mind, qualify as vadmal or even wool melton (probably the closest modern cloth equivalent) but it was a nice quality of fabric that could be cut and sewn without it falling apart, was stable and still had a nice drape to it.

Some of the others brought webs woven with thicker 2 ply yarns, one in particular had read the modern literature stating 'window screening' and woven hers in that manner.

As the hammer mill pushed and pummeled her cloth, the threads slipped and slid and the cloth became uneven.  She'd made enough that she could cut around the gaps, but the others were non-plussed (I wasn't - I had a pretty good idea that would happen, but it was already woven, not much point my saying anything.)

One person used a worsted wool, which didn't much want to full but did after a long hard pummeling in the  mill.  The others did less extreme webs and got decent - although much thicker than they expected - cloth.

Because part of the fulling process means that the web will grow thicker as it shrinks warp and weft-wise.  

I decided to check a couple of books in my library.  One is Fabric Science - the textbook that used to be used for the textile school in Syracuse, NY.  Since I know wool melton is the closest modern cloth we have to the quality of cloth made called vadmal, I checked the definition of melton.  Fabric Science says:

Heavyweight, closely woven woolen fabric, completely fulled i.e. felted) with nap.  Used for coats and uniforms.

I checked a much older book - Groziki's Watson's Textile Design and Colour.  I have the 7th edition but the first one was published in 1912.  It goes into more detail saying:

A woollen cloth which is heavily milled, so as to form a firm foundation, and the fibres are drawn on to the surface by raising, but in the cropping process, which follows, the fibres are reduced in length so as to form a short, dense, non-lustrous pile.  Usually woven plain or broken 2-and-2 twill - about 160 to 95 tex warp and weft, 10 to 14 ends and picks per cm in the loom.  Contraction abut 35 per cent in width and 25 per cent in length.

A rough conversion puts this yarn at around the same thickness as a fairly common cotton yarn - around 2/8 or so - with 10-14 epcm or less than 1/2".  (If I've done the conversion incorrectly, let me know and I'll correct it.)  

Not open.  Not even close to open.

I have also had the fortunate happenstance of being able to examine very closely samples of 'standard' woolen cloth from the 1700s.  I wasn't able to do a comprehensive examination, but I would say these fabrics are likely very similar to the cloth described as melton - or vadmal.  

Further reading Else Ostergard's book Woven into the Earth and her extremely detailed study of the textile finds from the permafrost burials in Greenalnd from the 900s to the 1400s - the time when 'vadmal' would have been a very common quality of cloth.  Details of the yarn - how it was spun, and speculation on how it was woven.

I find the specification of dimensional loss of the warp and weft for melton (in my experience it is frequently different warp and weft-wise) of 25 to 35% right in line with the experiments I have done.

So everything I have found suggests that vadmal was NOT woven 'window screening' open, but rather more densely and then heavily fulled using mechanical assistance.  There are many records in England, for example, detailing how many hammermills there were in existence in medieval times and Ken Follett, in his book Pillars of the Earth, details how the hammer mills thumped continuously fulling the cloth being made in the area, then used as trade goods.  England made much of it's money for centuries exporting their woolen cloth, and it would seem that Scandinavians did for many years as well.

As for weaving 'vadmal' now in the 21st century?  I would suggest NOT weaving it 'window screening' open, but choose a more appropriate density based on the thickness of the yarn.  Then weave some samples.  Experiment with density, weave structure and duration of fulling.  

Choose your expert.  Then become knowledgeable enough to be your own expert...

Plugging On

 

draft of single end huck showing the warp and weft floats that will shift out of position to form holes in the cloth - hence lace - one warp and one weft float have been indicated in a different colour to highlight them

After several weeks of 'back of the brain' thinking, last night I began printing out the drafts I will be using in the SOS class on lace weaves.

I've only ever taught the topic 'live' where I can - in real time - get feedback from the students and ensure that they are understanding the theory/concepts.

It has been a challenge to think through all the years of teaching 'live' and remembering the 'sticking' points in the students ability to grasp the information in a meaningful way.

One of the definitions of a lace weave is that it is a cloth with a plain weave foundation having floats arranged such that the floats will move to areas of least resistance.  This shifting causes 'holes' to open in the cloth - hence 'lace'.

After trying a number of options (and using up a fair amount of ink in the process because I had to print the drafts out to see if the selected colours worked - and many of them didn't) I finally found a colour combination that I hope will be enough to stand out on camera.  And there will be a 'back up' on line because I will leave all the drafts for the crew to photograph and post on the SOS website for the reference of the students.

In the end I only got 5 useable drafts printed, but now that I've worked my way through the options and found the ones that seem to be working the best, the rest of the drafts should go without too many challenges.

I've been thinking a lot about learning and how we process information.  For a number of years there was the theory that different people process information in different ways.  Recently I've seen articles debunking this theory.  On the other hand, I have witnessed a classroom wherein some of the people understand concepts from a spoken explanation, some need to see the information in graphic format and some of them need to sit down at a loom and watch the threads move.  That seems to me to be pretty solid evidence that people do learn in different ways.

This theory was introduced to me early in my career and having the experience myself of learning 'better' some days one way, some days another, recognizing that all of the different ways were generally helpful, I have tried to incorporate various ways to show/explain how things work.

Presenting material in a video class presents challenges in how the information is portrayed/offered.  And as I work my way through the information, I try to remember to have different ways of explaining how a weave structure works, how to take someone through the process step by step, making sure that they understand.

And why I'm willing to hang around the SOS forums to answer questions and make sure people are understanding the concepts.

Teaching online isn't for everyone.  Learning online isn't for everyone.  But it is another arrow in our quiver of tools.  

And right now?  I am good with that.

Using the link above in the first paragraph should get you a discount on membership.  When you join SOS you get access to ALL of the offerings, not just mine - so far two video classes and as of Sept 7 four lectures with more to come.

Focus

 

“We choose to go to the Moon,” Kennedy said. “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”

Now I'm not saying that anything *I* do is in the realm of putting a human being on the moon, but I don't let the fact that something is 'hard' stand in the way of my *trying* to do it.

Like the GCW master weaver tests.  Like being a professional weaver in the latter part of the 20th and early years of the 21st centuries.

Like learning as much as I possibly can about how to create textiles of different qualities and designs.  

Or putting what I know into written form - articles, books, developing workshops, filming classes.

None of those were 'easy'.  As they say, if it were easy, everyone would be doing it.

This morning I read a blog (Tien Chiu) and listened to a vlog (Felicia Lo) and they both talked about doing big things.  Sweeping things.  Hard things.  But in different ways.

What really struck me, though, was their laser focus.  Their intent to reach their goals.  To keep doing the hard things and do the best they can.  Maybe even win a record (Tien) or just accomplish a sweeping goal (Felicia).

I thought about my own life and the things I have accomplished - self-publishing Magic in the Water is probably the biggest, and certainly one of the hardest, things I've ever tackled.

Other things simply pale in comparison.  Write articles for magazines?  I'll share a secret - I've written far more articles than ever got published.

Taught at conferences?  I've been 'rejected' more times than I've been accepted.

Given keynote addresses?  At times in front of hundreds of people?  Once you've gotten up in front of a small group of people to express an opinion, doing it for hundreds is just a matter of scale.  

In my last Olds class, I told them that as students in the master weaver program the expectation was that at some point they might find themselves speaking publicly.  I saw cringes happening and told them that there was really nothing to be nervous about.  That mostly they just needed to speak from their passion.  I shared that I'm an introvert but that I always speak from my passion.  Then asked them if they sensed that that is what I do.

And they agreed.  They recognized that I DO speak from my passion.  I encouraged them to 'practice' by doing guild programs.  Writing articles and submitting them for consideration.  And be prepared for rejection every time they did.

If I ever allowed myself to be discouraged because another article had been rejected, I never would have written one book let alone two.  I would never have started this blog.  And frankly?  I'm astonished how many have joined me in my continuing adventures.

Felicia talked about how it is easy to become overwhelmed when she tries to do All The Things.  And how she is trying to stay focused on her current goals.  

And that is essentially what I try to do.  So my current goal of weaving down my stash?  That has been my focus for a number of years.  Am I bored of doing that?  Not at all.  Because I focus on one category of yarns and weave as much of it as possible, until there really isn't enough to do something with.  Then I either give the dribs and drabs away, or I shelve what is left until I decide if I want to keep using that yarn in the future.  Or not.  If I do go back to it, I'll buy more yarn, but in a different way.  Less bulk, more choices.  In other words, instead of ordering 10 tubes each of 5 colours, I might order 4 tubes each of 20 colours.  Because I no longer need to weave in quantities.

Right now I'm working through the 2/20 mercerized cotton and fine linen stash.  I'm satisfied with my progress even though I'm finding it increasingly difficult to *see* the fine threads.  And once I'm done with the 2/20 cotton, I will go back to a more 'comfortable' thickness.  The very fine silk yarns I inherited?  I may begin plying them together so that they are thick enough I can see them to use them.  

Gradually I am seeing empty spaces open up on the yarn shelves.  I'm also having fun stretching my creativity to use up what I have, not buy in more yarn (yet!)  

But mostly?  I credit the years of honing my focus to keep going, even in the midst of a large project, so stay on track, to keep going even when I get tired.  I've learned to take breaks and stop pushing to the brink of exhaustion, especially now that I'm older and it takes longer to recover from injury - I make sure I don't injure myself in the process.

Ultimately we choose.  We choose to do what we do.  Every day we make choices.  Sometimes they are made for us (injury/illness).  And then we have to change our focus from the making to the healing/recovery.  But even after the broken ankle, the chemo, the by-pass surgery, and yes, even now while I wait for pain control assistance, I keep my focus.  Two towels a day is my goal.  Until the warp is done.  Then dress the loom, and begin again.  

Next week I have to focus on the class prep for the two classes I'm doing for SOS.  The time I haven't been actively working on them has not been wasted - instead I've been thinking through what I want to do, say, and need to illustrate the topics.  I have them 'set' in my mind now so it is time to sit at the computer and start generating the drafts to illustrate the lace weave structures.  I may not get to the loom for a couple of days, but the class deadline is now officially 'looming' and my focus will shift to that next week.  That doesn't mean I won't go back to weaving two towels a day once the class prep is done - it just means I'm aware of the time passing, how much time I need to do the class prep and I need to shift my focus to get that done.

Focus.  Especially when something is hard.

Invisible

 

a 'second' in the making - shorter than planned with a crossed thread causing long floats.

In the continuing theme of 'still not perfect' I got the next warp set up and ready to weave.  There is a sleying error in there somewhere.  One dent has 5 ends in it.  

Do you think I can find it?  Nope. Not at all.  And I tried!  For nearly 20 minutes.

Problem is my eyesight isn't great right now.  Not sure if it's the baby cataracts (eye doc says not likely) or the shingles (possible) or just aging eyes, generally, but I'm having a lot of trouble focusing on 'fine' things.  Like this 2/20 mercerized cotton.  Especially in the darker colours.

After trying - and failing - to find the error I decided I would just live with it.  I mean, some cultures will put a 'mistake' in their cloth on purpose to appease the god(s).  (Surely if the error is on 'purpose' it's not a 'mistake'?  But I digress.)

At any rate, at 5 pm I gave up the hunt for the 'missing' end and decided I'd get started weaving and have a wee look this morning.

So I wove the header and nope, still couldn't see it.  So I started weaving.  I'm pleased with the fine linen I'm using for weft.  The bobbins had several days to 'steep' in the humidor and were behaving quite nicely and so I kept going.

Until I was about 3" from the end of the towel when oops.  My eye caught a problem.  Not the dent with 5 ends in it.  Oh my no, nothing so simple.

It was a pair of crossed ends between the heddles and the reed.  After weaving nearly an entire towel, the threads had loosened to the point where they were sagging in the shed.  

Why didn't I see them sooner?  Well, the warp is 960 ends with 4 per dent.  The two ends were white, in the middle of a white area and the weft is white.  And it's only visible on a few of the sheds.  Basically invisible.

So I wove another section of waste yarn, cut the two offending threads, put them in their proper dents and pinned them to the web again.

And wove the second towel.  Still haven't found that mis-sleyed end, though.

The pattern is pretty subtle when I'm sitting at the loom.  It shows the most in the blue stripes due to the high contrast between the blue and white.  But the overall undulation is pretty obscure.  Until the cloth is the 'right' angle - like the front of the breast beam.

I'm pleased enough with this warp.  The current weft looks like it will be enough to weave 4 towels, with a smaller tube of a different linen yarn that will most likely weave two towels.  After that I have two more small tubes of linen that I may use on this warp, then work on the 2/20 bleached merc. cotton stash.  It's wound onto plastic spools and I can use my lazy kate to wind from the spools onto the bobbins.  Be great to use that yarn up, too.

Depending on how much warp is left I may use a dark blue merc cotton for weft as well.  But first I have to see how far I get with the linen and white merc. cotton.