Of Libraries and Books

 

When I set out to produce Magic in the Water, my only thought was to try to educate weavers as to the necessity of taking this final, and (imho) essential step.  To *not* gloss it over with 'oh, just wash it'.

Because in my experience, that final step was - in so many cases - magical.

To be told that the book has become a 'classic' in the field is validation that all the effort and expense of making it was worth doing.

In 2011 I finally sold the last copy and no sooner had I done that, requests began arriving - was there any way to get the text, if not the samples?

Since I was distracted by doing chemotherapy (for the cancer I still live with) taking photos of the samples and then having a friend convert the text file and photos into a pdf was a do-able task.  

Then, when I was looking for ways of publishing The Intentional Weaver, we used that pdf to test the blurb website.

Since doing all that, sales of Magic have continued.  Usually just a sale here and there, but every once in a while there will be a little 'spike' of sales and I know that someone, somewhere, has recommended the book.  Or I've just done a guild program on the topic of wet finishing.

This morning I will be wet finishing the towels I cut off the loom on Friday.  It looks a whole lot like 'just washing', but I will be using the hottest water available from the hot water tank, and part of the finishing process will be a good hard press.  The care tags will read 'machine wash in warm water, machine dry, iron if desired'.  

Because I don't iron my tea towels.  They get tossed into the washer and dryer, then folded and put away.  We have very few commercially made tea towels, and most of our hand towels are also hand woven.  

People tell me my towels are 'too nice to use' when in fact the more they get used, the better they work.  And why not have something 'nice' to bring pleasure to mundane tasks?

So use the 'good' towels.  Use the 'nice' china.  Don't keep things for 'special' occasions.  What I have learned, especially over the past few years, is that being alive is enough to justify using the 'good' things.

I'm not sure what will happen to the books I've written after I've left this mortal coil.  I have no idea if any of my books will continue to sell or not.  But if I can help weavers in the here and now, then the time and effort (and expense!) of writing the books I have done will have been worth it.  And the revenue from continued sales will help fund my being able to *continue* to help new weavers - if they want my help - for as long as I am able.

As I look at the shelves of books left when the latest guild member died, I know that one day my library will be in a similar situation.  And I think about the books I have purchased, and used, and in some cases, loved.  Am I ready to get rid of any of them?  I have already purged my library on a couple of occasions, and what I have left are still used.  Maybe not frequently, but valued as the (sometimes rare) resources at my fingertips.

So, getting rid of a few lace books wasn't really a hardship to me.  They were pre-owned by another weaving friend who died about 10 years ago.  Many were duplicates to what I have, or on topics that I know I'll never pursue.  And setting up an auction on eBay was good practice for the coming guild auction.

If you are interested in the lace books (mine) or the weaving books (for the guild) you can 'follow' me on eBay and check out the listings, see if there is something you might want for your library.