Organization

 

repeat photo as I explain my identification process

Yesterday I mentioned I was having to track a large number of samples, and because some needed to be wet finished, it took a while to figure out how to do that.  Someone asked what process I was using.

I'm not supposed to talk about the content of the article, but decided I could share how I am tracking the samples as that is outside of the article content.

Most of the samples are either plain weave or twill.  Most are done with the 'same' warp yarns, but different weft yarns.  Some are done at different densities.  And I knew that a lot of the samples would only show subtle changes after wet finishing so I had to come up with a way to easily and accurately identify each sample.

I grouped the samples according to their shared features and chose a colour to indicate that group.  Then I used different numbers of 'tags' of yarn in that colour for the variations.

For example, the samples woven at 18 epi in plain weave with two different yarns were all marked with colour A.  The loom state for the first variation was marked with one tag; the wet finished for that variation had two tags; the loom state for the alternate weft was given 3 tags, and the wet finished 4 tags.  A similar set of samples woven with the same yarns at 20 epi were given a different colour.

Mostly I can tell the difference between 18 and 20 epi, but I'm sending these away to be photographed, and the person processing the samples to be photographed needs to be able to accurately identify them, too.  I will include a 'legend' for them to consult to make sure of what it is they are photographing.  I don't know what all they will use for the article, so I'm sending everything I wove for them to choose from.

I wove one more variation for the article on the tag end of the last warp yesterday, then wet finished that and the other two I'd overlooked when I did the rest.  When I'm working with So Many samples, I'm not surprised that at some point I got 'confused' and put the samples into the wrong pile.  The good news is that the samples to be wet finished were put into the loom state pile, which meant all I had to do was double (triple!) check and then ensure the samples to be wet finished got tossed into the load of towels I was doing as well.  Much worse if I'd wet finished the loom state samples!!!

Today I will finish beaming the blue warp, then start pressing the stuff I wet finished yesterday.  If I have enough spoons left after that I might start threading.  It's a fairly 'simple' threading so I'm hoping I can get it done quickly.

Once I have the last samples pressed, I will begin analyzing them, and begin to draw conclusions - if I can.  The thing with weaving is that sometimes the 'obvious' conclusions are...less than complete.  I have the magazine articles I'd been looking for thanks to my guild library and the guild library of a friend who scanned the pages and sent them to me.  :)  Yes, of course they will be listed as resources.

This article is the second one for issue 1.  I am honoured to be included in the inaugural issue.  I've also stuck my hand up for issue 2 and 3.  TBD if they are interested.  

For anyone interested in articles I've written previously, the back of Stories from the Matrix has a list of everything my editor could find.  The reason she had to go digging was because I stopped keeping my resume up-to-date back in the 1990s.  It was becoming...overwhelming, trying to list everything I'd written and I was writing Magic in the Water with zero time to do that kind of record keeping.  Once I'd stopped keeping it up-to-date, it was too much work to go back and add in all of the things and keep it current.

In 2008 I started writing this blog, and if you use the labels, you can search for posts I've written on those topics.  Those posts are all available for free.  Articles for Handwoven can be acquired from their back catalogue (digital copies only, now, I think).  Other magazines I've written for have ceased publication and don't likely have archives.

In September my high school reunion is coming up.  I won't be going (still immune compromised, avoiding large groups in buildings with no filtration, or groups who won't be masking, all while covid continues - no it's not gone, people are just trying to ignore it - that's not going very well, so I'm staying home.)  Anyway, I've been thinking about the high school experience and my Office Practice teacher giving me a C with the comment that I needed to learn to organize my desk better and not be so messy.

Well, that lesson never really 'took'.  I still have a messy desk.  But I still also get a lot of stuff done.  Pretty sure she's right - a neater desk would likely be easier to deal with than stacks of books and paper on every surface.  But I'm too old to bother about that now.  So, I guess I will keep on, keeping on...