Deep Freeze

 

These are some of the yarns I bought from a 'retiring' weaver.  Mostly rayon, I thought I would use them to make shawls and scarves.

I did actually make quite a few of those, but still have way too much left. Plus some of the cones were getting too low to use in weaving and since I am not replacing my rayon inventory I started using them bundled up with other yarns in similar circumstances and knitting with it.

But weaving uses up a whole lot more yarn than knitting, so it's been slow going and I *still* have way too much yarn.  All yarns.

But never mind.  I will continue to use up as much of my yarn as I can.

I've been slowly making my way through a book:  Textile Design Theory in the Making by Elaine Igoe.  I'll do a 'proper' book review when I am further into it but it is really making me think.  Think about how I *think* about designing.  Creativity.  The connectedness of it all.

I have often thought of my life as a series of spirals as I slowly make my way through the days, weeks, months, years - and find myself in much the same place as I was a while ago, but with more experience, knowledge, understanding, as I contemplate the road forward.

Since my path has been a spiral, I only ever get to see a small chunk of the way forward as the path bends off into the distance, hidden by time and the fog of future which is fluid and can change - suddenly and unexpectedly or in a slow and predictable way.

Sometimes I can predict what will happen.  Sometimes I set a goal and *make* it happen, by shear dogged determination.  Sometimes opportunities come knocking on my door and I let them in.

Right now we are experiencing extreme cold weather (not all *that* extreme - it's 'only' -21C.  It could get a lot worse and is supposed to as the week goes on.)

For us, we are safe and secure in our home.  Right now we have heat, lights, food and shelter from the weather.  But the warnings of climate change are showing to be all too true and it is hard to know if humanity is going to weather this storm.  This slow moving but inexorable 'storm' of more and more extreme weather events, happening all around the globe.

In the past 18 months the province I live in has had catastrophic wildfires throughout the lower half of the province, a heat dome that killed hundreds of people unable to get out of the heat, a massive atmospheric river that literally cut the lower part of the province off from the rest of the country as flood and slides destroyed the highways, covered hundreds of acres of farmland, which is still not recovered, another heat dome this summer, another atmospheric river and now a 'cold snap' that looks like it will reach as far as Mississippi.

Not to mention the pandemic that has now turned into a multi-demic as flu and RSV roar back along with other supposedly suppressed viral and bacterial infections riding the immune destruction of all the other infections.  Right now the covid death toll in Canada for 2022 is higher than ever - and we don't even know the extent of it because provinces are not accurately counting infections and therefore not reporting them.

As an immune compromised person I feel 'frozen' out of larger society because hardly anyone is wearing a mask.  I don't go out.  I don't go to the mall to shop, movies, theatre, parties.  I don't go where there are crowds.  If I *do* go shopping I make sure my N95 rated mask is on my face before I leave my vehicle and it stays on until I'm back into it.  

And it is why the Beginning Weaving class is mask required.  This requirement was announced up front and none of the people who have registered have objected or questioned it, thankfully.  I will come home to eat my lunch, the guild room has a hepa filter, and I will teach a small group because the risk is a lot lower than having more in the class.

As for the people in this town with no shelter, well I can't do much to fix the problem for everyone, but I *can* help.  So I've wet finished 5 more shawls/scarves.  There are still a bunch in the boxes under my work table.  They are knitted from yarns like those in the photo, plus whatever else I had to use up.  Most of them have some % of wool in them and they are a generous size.  I can't solve the problem for everyone, but I *can* contribute to helping a few individuals.

If we all helped a little, life for more could become a little bit less of a struggle.