Chaos and Entropy

 

Just finished threading, sleying and tieing on the next warp.  This time the thread and heddle count were identical, and the sleying worked out to the exact number of dents.  It seems I *may* have not made any mistakes.

But that will be determined when I begin to weave...

Earlier today I was reading The End of Everything (astrophysically speaking) by Katie Mack.  She was discussing chaos and entropy.  As such, bringing order out of chaos was in the back of my mind as I tied the last rather satisfying knot.

And I thought about how I have always enjoyed that sweet feeling of 'order' in so many things.  (Not housework, nope, too much entropy there!)

But I've always been very satisfied to make jigsaw puzzles, knitting, embroidery, sewing.  Playing with threads.  Part of what attracted me to weaving was that whole aspect of bringing order to chaos.  All those threads, unruly, with minds of their own, bent to my will.  Or, at least, I tried to bend them to my will.  

I 'discovered' quantum physics in my 20s when I was working at the high school library and one day a book called The Dancing Wu-Li Masters arrived.  At first I thought there was something 'wrong' with the book because every chapter was headed as Chapter 1.  And then I read it.  

Mind blown.

I cannot claim to understand everything Katie Mack is talking about, but we routinely watch tv documentaries, sometimes about physics, space, the universe, et al.  So some of the concepts she discusses I've heard about.  Can't say that I understand them, necessarily, but the whole astrophysics field is a great way to break open one's mind and think beyond (way, way beyond) one's own reality bubble.  

I mean, how much further outside of my reality can I go than into deep deep space???

So, no, I don't understand it, but I think about it.  And I wonder.  I think about the possibilities in this universe, this galaxy.  I think about how tiny and insignificant we all are.  How little we actually matter beyond our own tiny corner of this reality.

And I think about how I can bring something positive to this life I lead, because being positive to me means 'order', nor chaos.  And I far, far prefer order to chaos.

I suppose it is one reason why the loom keeps calling me back.  It challenges me to experiment.  Explore.  Try, and find out.  Sometimes I'm pleased.  Sometimes, I'm not.  

But in the end, I feel my activity has, on the whole, been a positive one, not a negative one.  Even when I make mistakes.  Because mistakes are opportunities to learn.  And knowledge is good, I think.

It is late enough in the day and I'm tired enough that I'm not going to begin weaving today.  Instead I will wind some bobbins.  I'm using up tag ends of spools from one of the last warps I did but some of them are a little bit too heavy to play nicely in the shuttle.  So I'll wind a bobbin and relieve the tube of some weight so that it will weave more co-operatively.  The goal is to use up the last of the peacock tubes on this warp, and what is left will get woven with natural.

I think this will be the 'last' (for now) of this weave structure.  I'm quite pleased with the design I've generated - although the proof will be in the wet finishing.  Right now I'm feeling pretty 'clever', but weaving always serves up a dish of 'humbility' whenever I get feeling confident.  So who knows?  Maybe it will work out, maybe it won't.

But the results will still dry dishes, so there is that.