Sunny Day

 

Yesterday a parcel arrived in the mail.  When I got home from the dentist, it was waiting in the mailbox and I sat down to open it and discovered this lovely bit of sunshine in the form of two tatted doilies.

Now, I never did grasp the 'secret' of tatting - I could never get the knots to set properly - but I am familiar enough with the technique to appreciate the delicacy and consistency of these lovely textiles.

There was also a note with them.  A note that definitely warmed the cockles of my heart.

In many ways, sitting down here at the desktop letting my thoughts ramble around feels, well, I don't know how to explain how it feels when I write my blog posts.

I know that there are people 'out there' who read what I write, some of them regularly, some less so.  Some let me know that my technical posts are useful, helpful, and honestly that was what I was hoping for when I started this 'conversation' in 2008.  

I've been on the 'net since 1994, long before Facebook or other social media sites.  I enjoy helping people.  But I soon learned that unsolicited advice wasn't always welcome.  Rather than horn in on a conversation in groups, I decided to put what I had to say here - my site, my opinions - as someone put it.  

I'm the first to admit that not everyone agrees with me on everything.  And that's fine.  I just don't need to get into slanging matches with others.  Either they agree with me or they don't, no need to get petty about it.  Besides, change one thing, everything can change.

Someone commented recently about the 'discussions' I would have on a group we both belonged to.  There were times that I would offer my advice/opinion and would immediately get shut down (or so they thought) by someone vehemently disagreeing with me.

One instance was someone asking how to adjust their AVL in order to achieve greater tension on the warp.  I hesitated to answer because while I did just what they wanted to do, I knew it was NOT recommended by AVL.  After waiting for someone else to answer the question, but no one really addressing what the original poster asked, I finally chimed in and told him what I did in order to do what he wanted.

About 5 or 6 guys (yes, they were all guys) immediately lambasted me saying I didn't know what I was talking about and even suggested, very forcefully, that before I damaged my loom I needed to go, post haste, to the AVL school and find out how to use my loom 'properly'.

By this point in time I had been weaving on my AVL for nearly 20 years, in exactly the way I had explained.  While I'm sure these 'johnny com lately' weavers had been weaving on an AVL for a few years, I'm also quite sure none of them could match my output (at the time).  And I was doing it in exactly the fashion I had outlined.

I read through their admonishments and shrugged and went back to the loom.

When I came back I discovered that Allen  Fannin (who I agreed to disagree with him on several fronts, but never felt that he talked down to me like the dude bros had been doing) said that while we did agree to disagree on a number of things, when I answered a question people should pay attention because "Laura knows what she is talking about".

The lovely person who sent these doilies has been very encouraging and supportive, even though they are not a weaver, but does other textiles arts.  They thanked me for my writing, saying that they frequently learn 'something' even though I mostly discuss weaving.

But that's the thing.  The principles that apply to weaving also, in large part, apply to other textile crafts.  Because we are all working with 'string'.  And that 'string' is made from fibres, and those fibres have been spun into yarn.  

So a lot of the things I say about weaving can also be said about, for example, tatting - if you can't be perfect, be consistent.  A thread under tension is a thread under control.  

And as a person working in the creative field, others in different creative fields may also find lessons that apply to them, too.

I'm just finishing reading The Real Work; the mystery of mastery by Adam Gopnik.  And even though he doesn't talk about weaving, he talks about learning.  About paying attention.  About 'flow'.  And I think about how all of those lessons he is talking about are applicable to any process that requires skill - and that pretty much means anything human beings do.

I haven't decided where to use these doilies.  They are so pretty I'm tempted to frame them.  But I'm also a huge believer in *using* useable things, not 'saving' them for 'good'.

Lately I've been posting nearly daily, and like a pebble I toss my thoughts out 'there', never knowing where the ripples will end up.  And sometimes, those wavelets come back to me and I know that someone, somewhere, has read what I said and taken something of value for themselves. 

And I feel like I have 'permission' to keep tossing thought pebbles out there, never knowing where they will go, and how they will return...