Spring is Springing

 

The snow is all gone now, and spring is well underway.  This morning the sky is blue and the sun is shining and it feels good, and not-so-good, all at the same time.

The predicted rain yesterday really didn't show up so we continue to be 'too dry', and the next rain is still at least a week away - if it comes, at all.  We were hoping for a wet spring, but so far...not so much.

I haven't checked the BC wildfire website for a few days, but neither have we had much in the way of thunder storms, so I'm hoping there are no new fires.

Yesterday I got to the loom twice, mailed some books for the guild, and dug into the hemming pile.  More towels are in the pipeline, and if I get this warp off by Saturday there will be more.  Little by little I pick my way through.

As I weave I frequently think about weaving and one of the things I notice about weaving is that it is complex.  You can say quite blithely "I'm going to dress the loom" which actually encompasses several days of work.

Typically, a tea towel warp will take about 3 hours (plus breaks) to set up the tension box and spool rack, then beam 24 sections of warp, then transfer the bouts to a stick I use for the purpose of bringing those bouts up and over the back beam and tape it to the loom so that I can reach them to thread.

Threading will take another 3-4 hours, depending on how many ends (36 epi takes longer than 32 epi) and how complicated the sequence to be threaded is.  The sleying takes maybe another hour, the tying on takes maybe 15 minutes, and then, only then, can I start to weave.  I may need to fix threading or sleying errors, which also takes time.

But before any of that happens, I've already spent an hour, maybe more, generating a threading that I'm willing to invest all that time into weaving.  Sometimes I design something, and park it and never actually weave it.  Or I might re-visit it and tweak it some more...and then may still *not* weave it.

Weaving (the actual shuttle throwing) a tea towel takes around 60 or so minutes.  I only weave for 45 minutes at a time now.  Since my last 'injury' that is as much as I can manage.  A warp of about 24 or so yards produces 19 to 20 towels...if I don't suffer a catastrophe that means I scrap one or two towels.  They might become 'seconds' and be given away; they might get tossed into the rag bag.  Depends on how 'bad' the error is.

After weaving, the towels get cut apart and serged, then around 12 to 20 will get tossed into the washer and dryer, removed while still damp, stored in a plastic tub that I can 'seal' so that the towels 'steep' and the damp evens out before I press them.  For tea towels, Side A then Side B, then hung on a drying rack to finish drying.  Once dry they are hand hemmed (my tv watching handwork), then given a final pressing.

All of this takes weeks from start to completion.

And this is what I mean by saying weaving is labour intensive.

Why do I do this?

Dunno.  All I do know is that the first time I sat at a foot powered loom I felt like I'd found 'home'.

After nearly 50 years of doing it, I now do it for the benefits I derive - the aerobic exercise, the endorphins that help me control chronic pain.  The exercise of thinking through a design challenge.  The intellectual stimulation of trying to figure out how to explain what I'm doing, and why.  

I miss teaching in person, but I'm still not able to do that, for a number of reasons.  So I write.  I've written four books (so far?), at least one of which is considered a 'classic' of the craft.  I write this blog, in some part because I want to help people understand the craft - answer questions, make people think through their problems, come to solutions.  And for as long as people are willing to book me, doing the Zoom presentations.

I have two this month and I think one in May.  My topics are listed on my website.  (Yes, I know Google is warning people it is 'unsecure', there is no httpS, just http...I've had this domain since the 1900s if you can imagine...yes, I'm that old...)

If my web mistress can squeeze me into her extremely busy schedule I will most likely be raising my fees for Zoom presentations sometime this year.  But if you book *before* that happens, I'll honour the current price, even if the presentation happens after the price increase.  

And of course my books are available from blurb and one is on ko-fi   

Sweet Georgia Yarns may still have signed copies of The Intentional Weaver, if anyone wants one of those.

And of course, my classes at School of Sweet Georgia and Long Thread Media.