Staying Flexible

 

I cut the last warp off over the weekend and starting prepping the next one.  I have about 1/4 of the warp threaded, and hope to finish that today and to commence weaving tomorrow.

As I worked with the Swedish Snowflake design some things bothered me about the draft.  Since I had to 'shorten' the threading draft in order to accommodate the lower epi, I decided to edit out the areas of satin weave threading/tie up.  In the end I'm more pleased with this slimmed down threading draft and I will be working with this draft as I sort out the treadling sequences I will be 'testing'.

I used to have a neighbour who was Swedish, then moved to Canada to marry her Canadian sweetheart.  She had a tough time adapting to a different culture - at times - and one day I showed her a design I was playing with - Swedish Snowflake.  She nearly jumped out of her chair saying that the design was the version of snowflake twill that represented her 'province'.  

It was then I learned that there is a whole 'collection' of snowflake twills and I explored designing with them for a while

At any rate, she asked me if I could make her some tablecloths.  Her table was from Sweden, wider than most tables made at the time here, and she had 3 leaves she could use to make the table longer.  She asked from time to time if I would make her a 'set' of tablecloths for her table and I refused because at the time I only had a manual dobby and I couldn't face pegging a double width version.  My 60" wide weaving width AVL could not make a table cloth as wide as she needed without doing it double width.

As the years went by, AVL offered a computer assisted dobby.  I waited a year for them to (hopefully) work the bugs out, then bought one.  I was also taking a bit of a  hiatus from production weaving, so I told my friend that if she bought the yarns, I would make her tablecloths.  The thing was, she would have to wind off some yarn onto spools because I would need 72 yarn packages and I didn't want to purchase 72 tubes of 2/16 cotton.

She agreed, I ordered the yarn and brought her my small electric bobbin/spool winder so she could wind the yarn onto the spools.  

Beaming the warp was a bit...interesting...given my spool rack only held 60 spools and I had to jury-rig for the additional 12 spools, but eventually I got the warp beamed, threaded, and the treadlings designed.

She wanted the table cloths to have a 'border' all around the edge, not to just have the pattern 'fall off' the end, so I had two treadlings - one for the border, and one for the main body of the table cloth.  I had taken copious measurements of the table with each leaf installed to show the 4 sizes she wanted.  And then I had added about 10 yards in case of 'oopsies'.

This warp was probably the most 'technical' I've done, insofar as I needed to make them 'perfect'.  Her Swedish sensibilities would not tolerate the dimensions being 'off'!

It was also the slowest weaving I've ever done.  Instead of 9 yards a day, I could manage 9".  Every single shed had to be checked that it was 'clear' before throwing the shuttle.  I did NOT want the two layers 'stitched' together!

It was a challenge!  And one I won't repeat.

However, I managed to weave the four tablecloths, and handed them over 'loom state' (in part because in Sweden, when you bought linen cloth it was never wet finished for you to prove that you were buying 'new' and she had lots of experience with wet finishing and cleaning linen textiles.)

After that I still had about 10 yards of warp left and I had some somewhat thicker linen weft so I wove myself and a friend each a tablecloth with the blue linen.  Our blue tablecloths were not 'perfect' but I wasn't about to mess around changing the epi to make them more 'perfect'.

Am I glad I did the tablecloths?  Yes.

Would I do this again? Hell, no!

Sometimes you just need to go more slowly to get the results you desire.  The double weave fold is in this photo.  Can you see it?

Touching the Hem of Perfection

 

three piece suit, featured in Magic in the Water - awarded a ribbon at the ANWG conference in Victoria in 1997 for 'technical excellence'

There are times that I have touched the hem of perfection.  Not many.  I might count them on one hand, if I think really hard.

The majority of things I have woven always manage to leave room for improvement!

And that's the thing with making things from 'scratch'.  There is (almost) always room for improvement.

And that is why I keep going to the loom - searching for the perfection that is nearly always 'lacking'.

Every warp teaches me something new.  I've been doing a series of tea towels using a fine linen weft, and one entire warp was...disappointing.  The floats were 'too long' for me to be pleased with them.  And yet?  They will still dry dishes - just not for as long as a different tie-up/treadling.  The entire warp of those towels was given away, rather than selling them.  They were a 'disappointment' - to me.  Not up to my usual standard.  But!  Still useful.

Someone once told me "Don't let perfection kill good" and I try not to beat myself up when something I make doesn't meet my expectations.  Every warp is another chance to try for 'perfect'.  But I remember not to let perfect kill good.

BlueSky is hosting an #artadventcalandar and the time line as of today is flooded with pieces that some of the artists now on that social media site.  I just posted something I made that I feel came close to 'perfect' but didn't use the hashtag because I don't think I'll post every day.

On the other hand it is inspiring to see so many different expressions of creativity.  I follow a few people who use embroidery as their artistic expression, and they are frequently thought provoking.  I think I'm going to find some pleasure for the next 23 days as more people post their work.  And who knows, I might feel like sharing more of mine.

***the Canada Post strike continues with the corporation doing some very sketchy stuff.  This may be a long drawn out strike.  And if the Cons get into power next spring, they may try and dismantle the post office entirely.  If you want to buy some of my towels, I will hold your order until the mail is moving again, but if you are in the US you probably want to purchase sooner rather than later when the tariffs are applied.  Link to my ko-fi shop in the comments.