Community

 

When my samples were returned from WEFT after being photographed, they included a lapel button.

For a moment I had regrets that I am no longer travelling so that I could go to a conference and wear my 'contributor' button.

I've been contributing to magazines for a rather long time, so it's not like seeing my name in a list of contents is 'new'.  But it's a 'new' magazine, and it seems a bit special to be included.

What the button did for me, however, was remind me that weaving is a community.  And while too many forces in our society are, right now, trying to rip people apart from their communities, to take a stand and say 'this is my community' is much more important than to ignore it.

It is through community that we find support, encouragement, find answers to questions.  In this time, standing up for one's community is - in many ways - a political act.  An act of resistance.

I am, frankly, flattered that the editorial staff seem to like what I'm providing.  There are many times I have been chastised - for my focus on efficiency, my equipment choices, my standards.  It took me a few years to understand that we all get to choose.  And to realize that everyone needs to make the choices that are appropriate for *them*.  

Gradually I got to the point that my focus was to provide the information, document the 'spectrums' that are built into the craft, and help people decide which were appropriate for them.

Ultimately the craft of weaving has far fewer unbreakable rules than it does cases of 'it depends'.  

As I have been weaving the samples for WEFT, I have had time to explore many of those 'it depends' issues.  Over and over again I am reminded of how little I truly 'know' and how much I tend to tweak what I am doing to encourage the quality of cloth I want to be brought into reality.

Sometimes it works.  Sometimes, it doesn't.  

But every warp, every project, increases my knowledge.  And if what I know (or suspect) is helpful to someone else, then the time/yarn/money I have spent exploring that particular rabbit warren has been worth every penny.

Because knowledge is never a waste of time.  And community is necessary to help grow the foundation of knowledge of the craft.

The first issue will begin arriving soon.  

Report From the Fell

 

tea towel with cut line woven in for easy cutting/serging

What goes into the creative act?

Things.  Lots and lots of...things.  Lots and lots of thinking.  

Many times the thoughts are barely conscious, hardly noticeable.  Many times I come away from the loom realizing that I'd been thinking about the 'next' warp the whole time, paying only surface attention to the actual, physical act of weaving.

Writing these articles for WEFT has created a great deal of grey cell crunching.  This warp was meant to be the beginning of the weaving for the next article.  Instead I had to make some changes on the 'fly' as things were not turning out the way I wanted them to do.

Somehow I made a threading error - but it only shows when I use weft of a high contrast to the warp.  I'm not a big fan of throwing yet more time down the drain when a simple 'cheat' will make it possible for others to use these tea towels, most of them never spotting the 'mistake'.  These will get designated 'seconds', not sold.  I have a rather large coterie of health care professionals and I like to give them a thank you in the form of a tea towel now and again.  :)

In order to get a colour that was saturated in the more-or-less correct colour, I decided to use one of the huge cones of 16/2 cotton for the weft.  Having just woven a bunch of samples looking at things like density, I had a pretty clear idea of what would happen when I substituted the open end spun yarn for the ring spun - and I was not disappointed when my speculation turned out correct.

Most of the weaving today was me, turning the idea of the differences between the two yarns, ostensibly 'identical' but knowing they were not, showing me that what I expected was what I was getting.

Now that I've sorted that warp out and it appears to be weaving nicely, it is time to turn back to the writing.  I've been worrying away at the article that is *nearly* finished.  Given my judgement is not great right now, it seems even more important that I have someone help make my way through the language.  Someone needs to make sure that I am saying what I *think* I am saying, rather than depend on my brain which still has sinkholes into which words will sink out of sight.

After a few days of 'spring' we now have snow - again.  Spring break up strikes again.  Oh well.  It was a nice day to stay in and get to the loom.  

WEFT

 

honeycomb - loom state

honeycomb - wet finished

Well, here we are - March 25.  As in, *nearly* April - and the debut of the magazine WEFT.

I've just spent the morning reading through 'proofs' (not sure that they are called that anymore - yes I'm *that* old!) and sending them back approved or corrections noted.

I'm excited to have this opportunity to continue to write about weaving and looking forward to this new addition, see how it grows.

In many ways I don't feel like I have much more to 'offer' than what I've been doing since the 1990s and first got onto the internet using a Free-Net portal (yes, including the electronic 'hand shake'!)

However, just writing the first few articles I've learned stuff.  Sometimes it is a sharpening of my focus, sometimes it's realizing I've gotten used to certain 'assumptions' that are sort-of correct, but not the entire picture.

(Amazing how the picture changes when you add a microscope!)

It is part of what continues to fascinate me about textiles.  How many times can a person take the same quality of yarn and make something 'new' and/or 'different'. 

Perhaps even 'original'?

OTOH, with the centuries that humans have been making textiles, the sophistication of the technology, even long before the age of 'computers', I don't know if some ancestor has done what I've done, previously.  So I give a nod to Elizabeth Zimmerman (knitter) who never claimed to have 'invented' anything knitting related, but would say instead that she had *un*vented something - as in she was pretty sure that someone at some time in history had likely done the exact same thing and she had only 'uncovered' it again.

With the fall last August and the slow recovery (it feels like, experts tell me I'm doing *really* well), I have been struggling with the rather huge change in my physical well being.  But it's been almost 7 months since I woke up - rather surprisingly - in Vancouver General Hospital sporting a rad new scar.  It was a pretty radical change on top of everything else I was dealing with, but eventually I had to stop being angry at what I'd lost, and grateful about what I was still able to do.  Much more slowly, much less energy to burn, but - still here.  Still weaving.

And - still learning.  

Textures

 

It's been quite a few years since I've woven this design and I had (sort of) forgotten the tendency of the cloth to develop quite a lot of 'texture' during wet finishing.

I know people tend to say that 'tracking' only happens in plain weave, but the phenomenon of tracking will happen to other weave structures - it just looks different to what happens in plain weave.

I wet finished this load of towels the other day and finished pressing them yesterday.  When I had taken them out of the dryer, I was immediately reminded about the twill blocks tendency to 'fold up' - when I'm working with small sized 'blocks' of twills that change from warp emphasis to weft emphasis.  Especially when using two completely different yarns, warp and weft.  

This morning I did the finishing press on another twill block design, also a small size of twill blocks, and it also tried to develop some texture, similar - sort of - to waffle weave.

Not all, and not woven in all fibres.  But if you do something similar and you wind up with a very 'crumpled' cloth while still damp from wet finishing, don't panic.  Keep the cloth damp until you can give them a good *hard* press.  The above photo is before hemming and will receive a 'finishing' press once they are.  But even so, if you look close you should be able to see the difference between the blocks.  Plus you might just be able to see the 'faux' plain weave design woven into the cloth.

AI and Me

 

Lately it seems more and more of 'life' on line comes with a helping of 'artificial intelligence' - which has less knowledge and more 'thieving' to it.

Again, I'm seeing a wash of authors speaking up, saying that their books have been stolen by LLM companies to 'train' their 'AI'.  

When someone who is *not* a writer tells me (or another author) that they are going to just use AI to write books and make a mint, it is really difficult to say nothing.  

Even my Google email now offers to help me 'summarize' my emails, or gives me writing prompts.

Excuse me, I can write my own thoughts, thankyouverymuch.

Likewise I'm seeing more 'new' weavers popping up, asking for help.  I remind myself that they just don't know - how wide, deep and thick the craft is - and how many centuries humans have been weaving to generate a many lifetimes' worth of knowledge.

Since I am now 'elderly' and crabby with it, I try to scroll on by, unless the question is specific enough I feel I can give a meaningful answer.

But since I've been doing this thing that I do for most of my life, I also feel like I have already said everything that I could (or should?) say.

I'm asking myself again if I should give up, give over, and ignore the pleas for help.  And then I get an email from a publication saying 'please write'.  

And I remind myself that for all that I've published 4 books, written so many articles I'm not even sure how many there have been, and this blog since Aug. 2008, none of those things have given me the audience I might get by appearing in a large audience magazine.

I have been procrastinating about finishing the article that is *almost* done, and I have begun working on the 'next' article.  And now I have a list of topics the magazine is hoping someone will write about.  Do I pull out my 'usual' culprits?  Or do I go further afield from my 'usual' and maybe talk about something else for a change?

Whatever I decide I should let them know I'm interested...

Today's job task:  press 21 towels; begin threading new warp; create chart of samples for nearly-done article and proof read.  And yet, once again I'm dragging my feet getting to the studio...

Brain Cramp

 

This is what I spent several hours the past couple of days doing - mucking about with twill 'lines'.

Then this morning I woke up (I use the term loosely because I hardly slept all night) I panicked and thought I had designed it for 36 epi and I wanted to only use 32.  Because reasons.

The density at which a weaver sets the warp has to take into consideration a number of variables.  There is a reason that density is generally given as a 'range' (e.g. twill 30-36 epi for 2/16 cotton).  While I sat and drank my coffee I decided I had better double check what I designed this warp for - 2/16 cotton at 32 epi.  This is a pretty 'standard' density for 2/16 cotton and I will go up higher depending on the weave structure.

This past year (nearly) I've been using 2/16 cotton and the fine singles linen from Lithuania.  The linen is quite a bit thinner than the 2/16 cotton and will be woven in some kind of 'fancy' twill.  However, the next warp is also meant to be tea towels. It seemed to me that 32 epi  for 2/16 cotton warp/weft with a 2:2 twill was reasonable, so that's what I'm going with.

I cut the other warp off yesterday, but was pretty achy after chiropractor.  I worked on some 'prep' work and in between the 'up/down' periods of insomnia overnight, I went down to the studio and inspected/repaired the cotton/linen towels.  They can now be tossed into the washer/dryer.  The spool rack is all kitted out with the tubes I'll be using to beam the warp.  I might begin beaming when I get home from a therapy session.  Although by then I might actually be tired enough that I will be able to sleep.  

As for the pain meds, I continue to ride the Mad Mouse.  I have no idea what my body is doing right now, but letting me sleep is not one of the things it is willing to do on a regular basis.  

However, I've just reviewed the draft.  There is an 'issue' at the selvedge because it divides unevenly to frame the body of the towel.  However, it will be very difficult to tell at any kind of distance that the selvedges are not identical.  I *could* force it, but it leads to some awkwardness in the threading and honestly?  I donwanna.  I just want something fairly simple but effective at illustrating the topic for the article.

I used to sweat bullets trying to get my warps 'exactly' 'perfect'.  Over the years I began to realize that something I was sweating bullets over were just not that big a deal.  

And why the weaver really has to wait until after wet finishing before making up their minds!  Even though I am used to the transformation - even with fibres that don't full - the last set of samples for the article I'm finishing writing proved once again that you really can't judge your results while the web is still in the loom.   

Seems like the lesson I need to keep learning.  

I see newer weavers worried because they don't have reeds to fit the density they wish to weave.  They want to know what size reeds they should have.  Personally, for most of my weaving, I have used 8, 9, 10, 12, and 15.  I use a 'compound' sleying if I don't have one that exactly divides into the number I need.  You can use more than one end per dent and can even cram more into each dent if you want/need a higher density.  Most of the time the reed marks will come out, but not always when weaving with linen (the special fibre that needs special handling!)  If I have used a 'standard' division of the threads, each with 4 for example, if the reed marks don't come out in the wet finishing, they will be consistent.  

And we all know that if we can't be perfect that we work to be consistent.  

As for what kind of reed?  If you live in a humid climate, stainless steel is 'best' to avoid rust starting.  My reeds are around 40+ years old, most of them.  Over the years I've accumulated other sizes, which I find useful in rough sleying when I beam a warp wound on a warping board.  They are expensive, but they should last a weaver for their entire lifetime if cared for properly.  

Yes, you can weave without a studio full of equipment.  Figure out what appeals to you, why you want to weave.  Then focus on that type of weaving and buying looms/equipment that best suits that type of cloth.  Weaving is full of things that behave a certain way, until something changes and then oopsie.  It is part of why I keep weaving, keep digging, keep weaving samples and experimenting.  This month is 50 years since I made the decision to quit working for someone else and become my own 'boss'.  I have gone through changes, some minor, some massive.  Some I've initiated myself, others have delivered an offer I couldn't refuse.

But always, I am always learning.  And that is why I keep weaving.

Faux Spring?

 

This photo is from a few years ago and shows rather more ground than it does currently - but much later in the season.

Is what we have 'faux' spring?  Dunno.  The forecaster is saying much higher temps are coming, so this could be it - the last 'gasp' of winter?  And how the yard will look in a few days?  Time will tell.

I've been struggling with managing the new pain meds.  The new medication is behaving differently and while things change, I have no idea if it is going to be a good medication for me.  That is yet to be determined.

What is happening is that I've not been sleeping well, and I drag myself through the day knowing that I'm running on short rations for sleep.  And the less sleep I get, the more my brain hiccoughs and swallows whole words, or spits out doubles.  

However, I have managed to make some progress on the article, and will be sending to my alpha reader in a few days (she says, hopefully).  

In the meantime, I've plugged away on the loom and just this afternoon cut the warp off and started cutting/serging the towels.  Tomorrow I will inspect/repair and get them into the washing machine.  I have appointments every day (mostly) this week, so I don't know if I will feel up to actually beaming the next warp soon.  OTOH, I could work on the wet finishing and finish off the article?  Start the next?

I have a short list of warps I want to do and since I'm this close to done the last article, I'm going to work on the next article sample/project.  This afternoon I finished tweaking the draft I've been working on for the last couple of days.  I will likely design several drafts, but only weave one of them.  Readers will need to understand how to 'read' their cloth and the best way to do that is walk people through designing a draft of their own.  

My story, sticking to it.

One of the things that teaching weaving has taught me is that different people process information in different ways.  The more information I can provide so that people can process the way that makes most sense to them, the better they will learn.  If they want to.

But someone has to continue to explore the craft and understand how it works.  Not everyone is comfortable designing their own patterns, and there has to be enough people left who *do* understand how to do that so that people get good information.

And the more people who understand the craft, the more people there will be to keep the craft alive.

Steeping

 

Yesterday I wrote another chunk of text for the current article I'm working on.  I was already beyond the word limit, but I had some other niggling thoughts I felt I should include.  And that's what editors are for - weeding out the 'extra' words.  :)

So, I thought about those 'extra' words while I was weaving, and just now came up and added those 'bullet points' at the end of the article.

I feel awkward because at the end of the experiment, I had little 'hard' data to share, but a whole lot more 'sample, sample, sample'!

But that's the thing about weaving.  

Variables.  Lots and lots of variables.  From the effect the climate and or health of the crop affects the fibre, through how it is processed, then spun, long before the weaver gets their hands on the yarn.  And just because you have woven with the yarn previously, doesn't mean it will be identical.

When I was first writing Magic in the Water, I determined that it was actually cheaper to buy the linen directly from Sweden.  So I gulped - hard - and ordered the yarn and then waited while it wended its way to Canada.

I was going to weave those samples on the Leclerc loom, and when I started winding the warps, the yarn was...well let's say that there were rather a sobering number of knots in the yarn.  Upon examination, the knots were all in the singles.  Since there was almost literally a knot every yard, I knew I could not afford to dump the yarn in the garbage, so I wound the first warp with breath bated.

And the yarn once plyed was fine.  I could still sort of see the tiny knots in the singles, but I also knew that by the time I'd wet finished it, those knots would likely be invisible.  

The following year I visited the dye house in Sweden and my friend and the manager were talking, mostly in Swedish (well, they were *in* Sweden!)  Once in a while they would include me in the conversation and one of those times was the comment by the mill manager that the crop that year had been incredibly good.  

"Oh, not like last year's then?"  He was startled, but looked a bit sheepish and said that the previous crop had been terrible.  

"I know.  The shipment I received was full of knots in the singles, but they behaved ok in the loom.  I was worried until I got that first warp woven and it was ok."

Then we talked about the health of the crops and sometimes you couldn't just compost it but you had to do the best you can to make it work, because our ancestors certainly could not have afforded to throw an entire years production away.

So I am going to let what I wrote steep for a few days, see if anything else occurs to me, and if it sits ok, the file will be handed off to my alpha reader.

Although writing is getting 'easier', when I'm tired or stressed whole words will either not make it from my brain to my finger tips - or words will hiccough and double up.  Sigh.

However the next article in the queue is going to be fun.  Too tired to start working on that today, but maybe tomorrow.

Foundations of Knowledge

 

Winter has snuck back and is currently depositing more snow on the ground.  It's one of those 'spring break up' storms - windy, wet snow, nasty to be out in.

A good day to stay in and try to carry on dealing with some of the rubble in my office.

I have been feeling quite...overwhelmed...of late.  Trying to find something that helps with the pain and winding up with different pain as an adverse effect was beginning to feel pointless.  As if I were meant to carry on for the rest of my days in discomfort and running short on sleep rations.  

It has made every day life more difficult and reinforces the urge to just stay home.  Not connect with anyone unless I am feeling like I have the energy - which has been sadly lacking of late.

However we are now in March, and I am tentatively talking about 'spring break up' as if we aren't still liable to have some more snow storms.  But hopefully no more extreme cold.  

I have been re-thinking my approach to the current WEFT article and have cleared enough clutter out of the way that I can - if I have the mental wherewithal - beginning documenting the samples.  Something that I have listed as a priority for...days...and which I have not yet touched.  

At this point I'm not sure if what I have done is 'enough', or the direction they wanted to go with the topic.  I need to do the analysis and documentation, and then I can more clearly see the results and articulate the conclusions.  Which I readily admit, are currently swirling around in the back of my brain.

I'm just over 6 months since the brain injury, and while things slowly get 'better', I still feel hindered by it, and therefore reluctant to try to write.  However, without the data, there isn't anything to write about, so the next step is going to be critical.  

On a such a dreary day, maybe I will feel inspired to settle and begin?

The first issue of WEFT will be coming out next month.  I have articles in the first 3 issues, and working on the 4th.  And for the 5th I've agreed to do an article that I think will be fun to do.  Time to offer the 'carrot' of the next article to help coax me across the finish line on the current one?

If anyone is interested in my books, they are printed in the US so there are no tariffs involved for USians.  At this point I have no clue about Canadians getting copies.  However Sweet Georgia Yarns recently ordered 20 copies of The Intentional Weaver.  I signed book plates to go into those.  If you want to order one (or more) of my books they are available here... or from the Sweet Georgia website

Rock and a Hard Place (politics)

 

Woke to the 'news' of the latest tantrum - how *dare* Canada retaliate to their punishment?  I suppose we were supposed to curl up in defeat in the face of their displeasure?

So not only are the 'paused' tariffs reinstated (one assumes) amidst the accusations of Canada not *allowed* to put export taxes on certain products, trump has upped the ante and added yet more.  Please note that when a country enacts a 'tariff', that fee is paid by the citizens of said country enacting the tariff.

Their complaint this morning that Canada is an habitual abuser of things like tariffs, we are in fact the *worst*.  As they jack up the tariffs even more.  Plus the brag that all automotive building will be done only in the US going forward.

So, I'm leaving my ko-fi shop active, but advising USians to not buy from me.  Don't give him anymore of your hard earned money than you need to.

While he sits on his golden throne in his 'new' clothes, he will continue to try to destroy our economy (therefore, 'country') *and yours*.  

Because he doesn't care about anyone else.  Ultimately the lists will be drawn up and eventually pretty much everyone will be on one or another.  

Yes, the sanctions Canada is applying will hurt us, but hopefully we can put a damper on his isolationist/expansionist plans and keep our country free of the alt right.

How does that song go - keep kicking at the dark until it bleeds daylight?

Thinking Things Through

 

cover for Stories from the Matrix

Most people seem to assume that creativity bursts upon one in a sudden, perfect thought, no editing or changing allowed.  

We watch a program called Fake or Fortune.  In it an art dealer/expert and a journalist pair up to try and trace the provenance and/or originality of a painting.  Sometimes it gets quite convoluted, but one of the experts on the program will use technology to try to see what's under the surface.  When they use the technology, they can see below the surface paint and see the under drawings, and track the small (or sometimes large) changes the painter made as they were planning the painting.

Creatively isn't so much visual fireworks, but a fair bit of brain cramping, forehead scrunching, changing this, that, and something else, until being finally 'satisfied' enough to begin the actual creation of the item.

At no point am I ever assured of 'success' until I put the warp into the loom, weave it and then wet finish it.  Potters have a trial by fire; weavers a trial by water.

And why I am adamant that it isn't finished until it's wet finished.

In Stories from the Matrix, I tried to talk about the sorts of things that are rarely discussed.  The balancing act of taking the things that need to be done and explain why I used them in a specific way.

And other musings I tend to think about while throwing the shuttle.

I am weaving the next warp, and as of today I will hit the 1/3rd mark.  I'm still struggling with the new pain medication.  There are too many variables and it is time to let my body rest while I use the new medication and see if - as it was explained to me recently - that I do have to choose the pain I will be living with.  I have been on the new medication for 9 days and there have been some improvements, but still some pain.  It's like playing whack-a-mole - I address one thing, but 2 or 3 more pop their heads up and which I hope to keep them down.

Yesterday I finally did 'something' about some of the clutter in my office.  I was trying to write the text for the current article and realized that with so much chaos going on in the world, I needed to clear some of it out of my office.  I can *almost* see the top of the desk now.  But I need more work space, so I'm going to carry the tv trays up and give myself some flat space to work on that isn't cluttered.  

In so many ways I am 'done' with this project, in part because of the transition between meds.  My concentration is shot and my energy levels nearly non-existent.  My goal for the coming week is to keep weaving twice a day, and work on the data for the article.  

And, given the tariff and USPS situations, I am going to go ahead and mail the samples for the previous article and send them by courier.  I hear that the Seattle post office is overwhelmed and any mail that needs to be routed via Seattle are not getting delivered in a timely fashion.  And because I have no idea what will happen with a courier and the tariffs, well, a courier will at least get my parcel back to me if they can't deliver it.  I may have to consider not sending samples to the US but offer to take photos myself?

Still thinking...

International Women's Day

 

I wouldn't call myself a 'public speaker' - mostly I talked to weavers, about weaving.  Nothing like having a sympathetic audience!

But one year, I was contacted by the local organizers for International Women's Day and asked if I would talk to the attendees about being an artist/creativity.

I was pretty desperate for some income and they were offering a $50 fee, and a chance to show my textiles.

Considerably overwhelmed with Life at the time, I then kind of forgot about it until the date came crashing in on my conscious thinking.  The morning of the gathering there were a lot more people than I'd expected, filling the meeting hall at the local hotel.  

As I stood in front of the crowd, I remembered one thing, and only one thing - I was going to end with the phrase "we need our bread, but we need our roses, too".

Then I talked about the creative process, the experience of trying to earn my income by weaving, the benefit of life long learning that weaving provides (as does pretty much any creative endeavour).

I just opened my mind to the experience - as I knew it - to flow from me.

The thing is, mostly my community has rarely glimpsed my lifetime of effort to educate people about weaving.  Once a year I would show up (until 2020) and have a booth at two of the local seasonal sales.  And that was pretty much it for most local people's awareness of me.

But I remember what I did that day.  I don't remember the words, in part because I hadn't written what I was going to say down, nor was it recorded.  I just remember the expressions on the faces of the people, as they thought about how much being creative is part of the human experience.  

Did I change anyone's mind?  No data.  I would assume I'd done a good job if all I did was open a mind or two, here and there.  

And that is 'success' enough for me...

Chaos

When I woke up this morning it was to the 'news' that the US president has - after two days - paused the tariffs.  Again.  Wonder if we claim 'time served' instead of starting the clock over again, every he has a mind to begin again?

No doubt the US automobile industry explained in words of one syllable what was about to come raining down on 'his' economy.

Since I have been pretty regularly continuing to make more tea towels, I have just now posted one of the new ones to my ko-fi shop not knowing when the tariffs will come back.  So I do understand anyone from the US not spending money right now.  As for Canadians, maybe you want to keep your money in Canada?

There are only 11 of these towels and they are rather...special...as in there are going to be very few of these towels made.  I am currently weaving another warp of this combination of yarns, but in a different design.  If there is any linen after that, I may use the rest/left over linen on a 2/16 unmercerized cotton warp.

The world may be wobbling on its axis, but I cannot let that affect me too much.  I have knowledge.  I have skills.  (Both or either can be debated, it depends.)

And I have the stubborn attitude that I need to keep teaching.  And mostly, I need to keep weaving.  With the current president, and all the rest of the alt right, trying to destroy as much of society as it can in the shortest possible time frame (so he can brag he did it in fewer days than his idol) my only 'power' is to keep creating.  Working with words; working with yarns, trying to drip a little creative energy into the universe.

Maybe even light a candle for someone else...and then there will be *two* candles to fend off the dark.

Subtle

still need to vacuum around the loom - the dust buffalo herds are getting quite large!

 It was really hard to get a good photo of the cloth currently on the loom, but I think if you squint you can see that the woven design depicts plain weave.  A visual woven 'pun' so to speak.

This is one of those cloths that you just kind of have to go forward with faith that it will turn out.  I don't usually do a lot of white on white anymore but I still have some of the white linen and the 2/20 merc. cotton, and I really liked the quality of the last warp I did with that combination so, here I am again.

Yesterday I printed out the rough copy of the next article (because it had some data in it I wanted to use) and started over again.  I realized that during the time I was trying to write I was struggling - too much pain, and too much current events.  It seemed better to me to just begin again, with a clearer head.

Does that mean I think I've found the 'correct' pain med for me?  No, not really.  It has been just 5 days and I feel as though things are still settling down.  And I have no idea if it will actually be effective for me, so, onwards.

I've got the contract for the 'next' WEFT article and it looks like it is going to be fun, so I want to finish off this one and get it into the production stream.  Mostly I want to clear the mental 'decks' so that I can jump into the next set of samples.  These will be 'finished' items, not just 'samples'.  

I am grateful that I can still weave and see how my fibre 'dreams' turn out.  Some do as I expect, some do not.  It's all grist for the mill, so to speak.  

Right now we are in spring break up - which is far too early, but winter could re-visit us yet in March.  In the meantime I'm enjoying seeing the sun and how much longer the daylight hours are becoming.

Inadequate

 

I was reminded this morning that I once wove 40 yards (10 yards at a time) of sashes for the local Ukrainian dance troop.

Seems like a good day to think about Ukraine.

In my 20s (in the 70s) I was full of piss and vinegar, but little confidence to join political protests.  My approach to life has generally to break out my words and write my thoughts out.  Which is why this blog seemed like a natural 'fit' when I decided to start it back in Aug. of 2008.

I found science fiction (as it was generally referred to in the 1960s) as a pre-teen and stumbled across I, Robot by Isaac Asimov.  (Leaving aside his personality/character, he did write a good story.  At least good for this 11-12 year old.)

Over the years I read a fair bit of dystopian fiction, until the human population became ever more, I don't know, authoritarian?  I moved away from sf/f and more into mysteries.  The nice thing about murder mysteries is that the baddie generally gets caught.

Now I've reached the 'senior' years, with all that that entails.  I generally don't attend protests in person now, because I'm immune compromised and can't chance catching any virus.  

So, I write.  Even though I feel inadequate to the task, that no one will want to know what I think, something inside of me insists that I do *something*.  What I can do, is write.

Why do I bother?  Because people have thanked me for putting what they are feeling into words.  A few have said that my example of speaking out was necessary for them to begin speaking out.  Just knowing that they weren't alone made it possible for them to become more 'visible'.

But largely I write because if I stay silent, I will have been changed, and not in a way that I want to do.  I can't sit by and not support what I feel is necessary for human beings to live in harmony with each other and their planet.  I cannot stand by while some people march their combat boots all over the rights of others.  Free speech means free speech without the threat of the government silencing you.  For the people who stomp all over my right to speak freely, they do not respect the concept of free speech.  Nor do they understand that they can say what they like...BUT SO CAN I.  

I block people on my social media platforms.  I don't need to be told by (usually a white man) that I am inadequate, stupid, get into the kitchen and shut up.

So when the alt right start making lists of people who are not 'worthy' (in their estimation) I say no.  When they subject people to losing their medical care when they don't even have a clue about how the body works and why some might need to have an abortion, or take medication *for whatever reason*, I want to say "I say no."

When they tell people like me, with a compromised immune system, or with complex health issues that I am actually living with, say 'die already', I say no.

The age of Information has mutated into the age of DISinformation.  Learning how to recognize the alt right talking points, see the fear they are stoking, and their party platforms and recognize the dog whistles, I say no, this isn't good enough.

So I block alt right 'ads' telling me that all my problems are due to (write in the boogie man du jour), I block them.  For the people who tell me I have to let them have their say, I say 'not in my space'.  

If they want to block me, please do.  I am actually well aware of what the alt right are attempting to do, and I know what the alt right think of me - I don't need to face a daily barrage of it.

I forget who said it but "feel the fear and do it anyway".  Or "speak, even if your voice shakes".

Resistance (politics)

 

The photo is the most recent addition to my ko-fi shop, but since the current president of the US has vowed to apply a 25% tariff on all goods coming from Canada to the US, nothing has sold.  In fact I have been encouraging USians to *not* buy from Canada.  That US tariff does not go to Canada, but is a tax on its own citizens and goes into...no one knows really, given the chaos artists currently stomping their way through the US administration, cutting anything that appears to help a citizen facing a crisis.

Since most of my sales come from the US, I am left wondering why I bother having a sales site.  But I just paid the renewal fee in January, right before the president dropped his 'strategy' - which falls squarely in the aggressive end of the spectrum.  

I had one USian chastise me because the president 'only made a suggestion, Canada was free to turn it down'.  Um, tell me you don't understand the term 'annexation' without...

First of all, 'annexation' of a foreign country is never 'benign'.  It is a threat, and from a country with 10 times the population and magnitudes more for their military budget, it is a very distinct threat.

According to my dictionary, to annex is to take possession without right.  This is the word the president himself is using, but as usual, the man who does not understand boundaries is pressing onwards, obviously assuming that he will waltz over the border and take whatever he wants, without regard to natural protections, human protections, and the fact that we are a separate sovereign country, and have no desire to become the 51st 'state'.  Anyone who assumes that Canadians will be able to vote in the US, have not been paying attention.  Or they need to ask what being a protectorate of the US like Puerto Rico is like.  (And just the other day, the president vowed to 'redraw the US/Canada border'.  Um, no.)

I do not 'blame' the ordinary US citizen for this mess.  The alt right has been laying plans since Regan to take over democracy and apply - well there are a number of terms, choose one.  The thing is, the more we 'bow' to the demands of authoritarians, the fewer rights we will have.  To bend to obviously threatening statements, means letting their statements remain in effect.  

So the current prime minister, given that he is already stepping away from the PMO, has been given more freedom to speak clearly and plainly.  And I am 100% supportive of the steps of the Canadian government to not cave in to the bully.  What that means, however, is that the likes of Musk will try even harder to 'break' Canada.  There any number of peoples around the world who understand what it is like to poke the beaver and discover the bear.  

Elbows Up.

State of the Studio

 

March 2, 2025 - prepping to weave

In so many ways New Year seems a year ago.  But actually looking at the calendar and it appears to be just close to spring break up.

I finished the previous warp last week, and spent the past few days getting a few things done.  I inspected and repaired the towels after cutting them from the loom, then ran them through the washer/dryer.  I pressed them over two days and now they are drying on the rack which gets set up behind the loom.  It's a bit of a 'squeeze' to get into and out of the loom room, but I'm pressed (pun) for space and that is where it fits 'best'.  For the time being, at least.  And it gets stored away when not in use, so it's just a couple days of dodging through the goat trail.

I still have a long way to go to weave down my yarn inventory where I would like it to be, but by the same token, there are almost no boxes of yarn packed away out of sight.  I have 'boxes/bins' of yarn as a way to keep them sorted.  Some of the colours I use are very close in hue/value and hard to tell them apart.  So I tend to put them into small boxes so I can more easily see which ones I need.

On the past warp I was able to use up a rather large part of a very big cone for weft, but I still have these giant mill cones I inherited from a friend.  I am trying really really hard to leave less than a tonne of yarn when I shuffle off this mortal coil.  It's great to see some progress happening.

Friday night I started the new pain medication.  I have no idea if it will be a good fit for me, but things are 'changing'.  How?  Not sure how to describe it.  One of the adverse effects is 'trouble sleeping' - and I've had 2 nights in a row that I could not *get* to sleep.  Until it was nearly time to wake up.  So, we'll see how that goes, given I doubled the medication today.  But it appeared that the very lowest possible dose was not going to work very well for me, so now I'm on one capsule morning and night - and we'll just have to wait and see.

The medication is, as far as I can remember, the most expensive one that I've tried - yet.  However, none of the rest were working, and this new one isn't a nerve blocker, so hopefully it will come with a different set of adverse effects.  Time will tell.

Over the weekend I beamed the warp, then started threading, alternating with pressing.  I'm trying to not stress my body too much while I wait to see how it reacts to the new medication.  

My handwork has been slowed way down due to the joint pain, but that finally seems to be easing.  So perhaps the new drug won't cause muscle/joint pain?  (Pretty please????)  But even there I've managed to hem one towel (most) nights.  So the last one will get done tonight, just in time to bring the new 'teal' ones up.

Now that I'm beginning to feel a bit better and my hands don't ache so much, I need to sort through the samples for the article I'm working on.  I did open a file last week and wrote some introductory text.  Now to go through what I did, exactly, and what resulted.  And where someone may want to go to learn more.  Time to wrap this one up.   Because I've agreed to write another article.  :)  That one will be more 'play' than focused look on a topic much much larger than reasonable for a magazine.  Pretty sure I will exceed my word count.  Again.  Fortunately the editor doesn't seem to mind.  :D  And there is no reason why most the aspects of weaving can't be broken down into smaller bites to chew through.

Speaking of which, I still haven't really gotten into Michelle Boyd's book Twist.  I've paged through, and dipped in here and there, but frankly the past few months have been pretty crappy and I just haven't felt like I had the mental wherewithal to really dig deep.  If I can get my sleep sorted out, maybe that will change soon.  In the meantime, I know it's there, I know there's great info in it, I just need to wait until my brain is functioning 'better'.

It is 6 months ago since I woke up in the hospital in Vancouver.  I'm 1/4 through what everyone tells me will be a 24 month recovery period.  And then, whatever I have managed to get back of what I 'lost' in an injured brain, is what I will have to work/live with.

On the other hand, I confess to beginning to feel rather like a cat, watching their 'nine lives' falling into the abyss.  Do I have 9 lives?  I seem to have used up rather more than the one that humans are granted.

Chance 'Discoveries'

 

Yesterday I spent some time messing with the next draft since I cut the warp off the loom and it was time to prep the next.

I've woven this motif multiple times over the years. But I finally(?) noticed that if you combine the straight draw threading with a straight draw treadling, you get a 'windmill' effect.  Hmmm.

Given a windmill is part of the tie-up, you'd have thought I would have noticed this effect a long time ago.  But I didn't!

I'm reminded of someone who was a 'teacher' who would pay their employees to go take classes from other instructors.  At one point, one of their employees returned from such a sponsored workshop, raving about what they learned.  Finally the teacher said, but, I've been telling you that for a long time!  How was this 'new' to you?  The employee said "But this time I heard it."

Or, the other way to put it is that when the student is ready the teacher will appear.

I've gotten past using this adage, because the truth is, the teacher is *always* there, waiting for the student to be 'ready'.

And that includes me, apparently!

When we assume that we already know everything there is to know, is when we stop learning.  We are never too old or too knowledgeable to continue learning new stuff.

Human beings find comfort in familiar things - and we get uncomfortable when challenged by new ideas.  But without continuing to learn, we stagnate.  By challenging our brains, we stay open to new ideas, new techniques.  

Granted, we will also 'fail' at times, but knowing what *doesn't* work is sometimes a lot more valuable than just knowing what does.

In many ways I am incredibly grateful that WEFT continues to engage with me as an author.  They set me 'new' challenges to explore.  Given the brain injury, it is helping me to get back onto my feet, so to speak, and exercise my brain wondering what would happen if...  

And sometimes the lessons are not what they - or *I* - expect!  Because sometimes the results are surprising.  Unexpected.  And then I have to have a wee think (or a huge one) and try to explain what happens, and why I think it turned out the way it did.  And honestly, I think that process of thinking it through is a lot more 'interesting' and in many ways, 'important' than putting a warp into the loom and producing exactly what I expect.

This week I started writing down the process, but since I essentially 'failed' in doing what I expected, and I still haven't fully digested the whole exercise, AND I have a word count I need to be aiming for, it has been a bit of a challenge.  Especially with the adverse effects of the current pain meds.

But I have been thinking it through and once my hands stop hurting so much (pleasepleaseplease) I will finish tagging/labelling the samples and go through them to find what information I can tease out of them.

Part of the difficulty is that threads don't always do what you expect.  When that happens it might be a very tiny and very subtle effect that is at work.  And generally it almost always winds up being the fact that threads have a mind of their own.

Holding On

 

I am close to exhausting the options for pain meds.  Tomorrow I will (hopefully) talk to my doctor about trying something else - something that isn't in the category of 'nerve blocker'.  Every single one I've tried has created muscle and/or joint pain, such that I am finding doing 'simple' things, difficult.

Lately I've been seeing a meme going around with the information that in Norway a common reply to 'how are you' is to say 'Up and not crying'.

Which pretty well sums up where I am, right now.

I had hoped to finish the current warp yesterday but the wheels fell off when once again I could not get to sleep.  The current pain med/nerve blocker seems to also be interfering with my sleep.  I cannot fall asleep, regardless of having pain - or not.  So the drug appears to be helping with blocking the nerve pain, at the cost of muscle/joint pain *and* messing with my serotonin and sleep.  

I would cry, but I don't have the energy.

OTOH, I am now officially registered for the pain management classes being hosted by the local pain clinic *and* they can be attended remotely.  I expressed my gratitude to the person registering explaining that I'm immune compromised.

And tomorrow I hope to get a new drug, one that is not well known, but is showing promise in helping to control nerve pain for fibre neuralgia.  So maybe it will help control mine?  Dunno.

But I'm definitely running out of options, and some people are patting me on the shoulder and telling me I might have to choose my pain.  But since both types of pain 'cripple' me, I'm not sure if I can live with either.  Or at least weave, or do much of anything.

I wet finished the samples for the next WEFT article, and now I have to tag/label them.  But my hands are so painful I can barely write.  I had to put away the spinning wheel because the 'pinch' hurts too much.  So I put some things on 'hold' until I get the next drug and see how things go with it.

Hopefully I can get it tomorrow, so just one more sleep (or not-sleep, such as the case may be).

We finally have some warmer weather, but that just means everything is dirty.  Spring 'break up' has got to be the worst season ever.  Other than fire season, and cold weather season.  

Right now I am channeling The Little Engine Who Could...I think I can, I think I can, I think...

And maybe I can carefully, gingerly, beam the next warp tomorrow and hope the new pills help, not hinder.

Sending gentle hugs virtually, for any who needs them.

The Learning Curve

 

If you are in the US, the books are printed there so no tariffs will apply

One of the challenges teachers face is to provide information in a format that is accessible to interested students.

Over my lifetime, things have changed radically in terms of the technology that we use in our effort to teach.

The down side of that is the technology has changed so radically that older formats are no longer accessible - anyone remember floppy discs?  

Given that most 'modern' technological formats are aging out faster than I can keep up, I have decided to spend the rest of my life working within the tried and true - books, magazines (although digital is a new thing that might last for a while.)

Ultimately, writers/teachers need to be aware of the changes, but the bottom line?  They need to provide materials that a variety of people can access, and explain the craft in a variety of approaches so processing the *information* can be available to as many people as possible.

One student put it this way:  If I don't understand what you are trying to say, just saying the same thing but louder isn't helpful.

While I had always tried to have a number of ways to demonstrate or explain what I was doing, since then I have tried to be aware that different people process information differently and have several ways to demo or explain what I'm trying to convey.

This is actually harder in the written format, in no small part because I'm not there to see when the light goes on in someone's eye and they finally 'get' it.  So, when I write, I work really hard to explain things clearly.

For the past few years I have been helped by a friend who is good at grammar and spotting typos, especially now when my brain is full of sinkholes.  Although it is getting 'better', I find myself typing up a blog post like this, knowing what I want to say, then when I re-read it I find places where I have doubled a word or left one out.  So as I work on the articles for WEFT, my friend says she will alpha read for me and make sure I haven't overlooked an awkward phrase, or lost my words along the way.

I'm seeing a slow but steady growth in new weavers coming into the craft.  All want information, answers, and many expect the information to be 'free'.  As if instructors don't need to eat, or pay for their internet, etc.

I get it.  When I chose to be a weaver I had very little in the way of resources that were 'free'.  And at times I could not buy something I needed, or had to forgo workshops, conferences, etc.  So I try very hard to keep this blog free.  But there are things that I need to be paid for, and my books are a welcome small income, as are the classes I teach on-line.  For people who aren't aware, the websites to host classes are not free, and the staff costs for the people running the cameras, doing the editing, including captions, the generation of the class 'handouts', etc., all mount up.

I have a couple dozen video clips uploaded to You Tube, but the quality isn't great in no small part because I didn't have a camera crew, editors, etc.  They are what they are and I don't charge for them.

For each class I have online, I personally spent at least 60 (or more) hours writing the class plan, sorting out what examples I needed, what I needed to demonstrate, generate the documentation, then spent hours (days) filming the content, which was then edited and published for the students to use to learn more.

The current article for WEFT has taken up about 30 or more hours (I stopped counting) - and I haven't even finished writing the text yet.  Another 10 or so hours to generate the text, then edit, edit, edit, send to my alpha reader, who will likely spend another 3-5 hours going through the article, mark the changes, then I have to clean up the text based on her input and send it all to the 'official' editor.  Then all the work in the production of the magazine, with my article and many others.  Each of which will have about the same amount of preparation, just to bring the weaving community quality (hopefully) information for people to add to their foundation of knowledge.

I had also been hoping that the president of the US would forget about his obsession with tariffs and wanting to invade my country, but apparently he's been reminded of his threat to 'crush' my country economically.  Since I have just last month renewed my ko-fi shop, I will continue to list things for sale there (including a digital book/memoir of my life as a professional/production weaver/teacher), and see what happens with the tariffs.  In the meantime, Canadians don't have to pay anything 'extra'.

Lastly, I have been mulling over what I ought to be doing with all the 'samples' I've been weaving to illustrate the WEFT articles.  Most samples are large enough that I can cut each one into 9 pieces, then mount them on card stock and sell the packets of samples.  If anyone is interested, I will look into doing that once the magazine starts appearing in mailboxes.

And no, they won't be 'free'.

Inspiration

 

Where does inspiration come from?  Dunno.  All I know is that I am nearly always in the planning stages of 3 or 4 warps 'ahead' from what I am actually working on.

Inspiration can be sparked by something I see - the weather, flowers - or by the yarns in my stash that I decide to weave up.  

The types of motifs can be symmetrical, or asymmetrical, but I like to design curves and break free of the 'rigid' grid of the woven format.

Sometimes it is an aspect of weaving that I want to explore - which I then piggyback a project onto the end of the warp so that I get something 'material' out of it, not just the knowledge I gain by exploring the craft further.

Sometimes it will be a magazine article that sparks my curiosity and I'll put a warp on to see if I can work with the thought sparked by another weaver.  Sometimes it will be a teaching 'sample', which could be 'just' a sample (or series of) or sometimes I will make a 'thing' - again so that I can possibly have some income to help cover the 'cost' of making the warp for samples.

The big thing is to always keep my mind open to the possibilities - the 'what if' questions.

The opportunity to go deep into the nuts and bolts of the craft was one thing that appealed to me - and still does.  I love to learn stuff.  And there is So Much to learn about how the way threads interlace and interact in the woven forms.  I know that I will go to my grave still wondering 'what if'...

And no doubt with an unfinished warp on my loom!

On a chat group a few (many?) years ago several of us started talking about this very thing and I said that if there were no looms in heaven, I wouldn't be going there.  Allen Fannin then responded that he would see me in the other place, then.  Well, Allen died far too soon, but I hope he found a loom.  I'll be looking to find him when I go there so that we can keep exploring...

FAFO

 

stacks of samples to be documented and analyzed

In high school, I had a love/hate relationship with Chemistry.  I enjoyed *doing* the experiments, hated writing them up.

And now, here I am - a lifetime (pretty much) of doing the experiments, and in some cases, writing them up.

Turns out it was just a *different* science that I enjoyed exploring!

The piles of samples don't look like much, but they represent days of work.  What is in the bin are the loom state samples and the two piles represent the two different yarns I was exploring.  I'm not going to tell you about them because you will be able to read all about it when (if) the article gets accepted for WEFT.

Today is a 'light' duty day as I have massage at 12:30 and ran out of time to weave this morning.  (Truth be told, I just didn't have the spoons.)

When I get home I'm all set up to start going through the samples.   First I will match the loom state and wet finished samples, then the comparison between the two will be done for each iteration.  This is when I will measure the samples and record the epi/ppi and identify the different yarns used for weft.

Once I have all the stats recorded, I will begin to compare the samples and draw some conclusions - if I can - and perhaps suggest some things that could be done 'next', if anyone wants to take this initial step further.

I don't know that I have enough information to make firm conclusions, but the whole exercise has been quite fascinating.  Some things behaved the way I expected; others, not so much.

The big thing when doing this kind of exploration is to keep one's mind open and not to force forgone conclusions on the results.

I have a couple of my own warps in the queue before I tackle the next WEFT FAFO.  As usual I need to think about it for a while, consider how to most efficiently approach the FA part of the experiment, then take the information and design some 'examples' to show what I mean.  It would be nice to be able to apply what I do to my own weaving (all about the efficiency) so it may take me a while to finish designing the experiments/projects so that I can weave some 'samples' to share in the article.

One thing about advancing age (and health issues that make things difficult) I don't want to waste time!  My time/energy banks are vastly diminished these days.  Not that I ever seemed to have 'extra', I always worked to the limit of my time/energy.  Now I cannot assume that I will have stores of either to draw on so I have to be even smarter about how I do things.

I suppose this is what they mean when they say 'with age comes wisdom'?  Perhaps, it is just exhaustion...

Not Done Yet

 

not very far from my house

Seems winter is not done with us yet.  Honestly mid-February truly is too early for spring, so I am not all that upset with the fine snow coming out of the north this morning.  OTOH, I'm not the one who has to deal with it, so I have the luxury of pretty much ignoring it.

I'm well into the current warp and it's coming along nicely.  Plus I'm using up some of that huge cone of 16/2 cotton I inherited from a friend.  It won't all get used up, but there will be a good dent made in it, so there's that.

I'm still struggling with adverse drug reactions and I'm unsure what to do 'next'.  It seems I am to be crippled by some sort of pain.  I'm not ready to accept that - yet.  I've emailed the pharmacist to see if she has more information on a 'long shot' drug as I'm not finding fact sheets for it being used for nerve pain.  And asked if there is something else that I could try 'next'.  But it seems the nerve blockers all come with muscle pain - for me (spechul snowflake that I am) - and so far none of them have brought relief without the side dish of muscle pain.  

And the shenanigans politically continue.  I need to remember that the people doing these things are banking on people becoming exhausted and giving up.  That it is always much easier to 'burn it all down' than it is to build functioning societal benefits.  Oh well, it's 2025 and here we are, no one knows when it will all come crashing down.

Since I can do very little to prevent any of this, I continue to head to the studio and try to produce something, anything, creative/productive.  With the additional benefit of an increase in endorphins and ability to shut the world out of my thoughts for a couple hours a day.

So far this week I've wet finished the samples for the current article.  Now to 'marry' them to their loom state samples so that the finished woven samples can be compared to the loom state, and see how the wet finishing has transformed the samples.  What I had on the loom was, to put it in one word, disappointing - as cloth goes.  And yet when I took the finished samples off the drying rack after being wet finished, the transformation was remarkable.  :)

For me, at least, the journey of 'finding out' continues.  I've just agreed to write another article, and letting my thoughts percolate on the back burner while I finish up the current warp.  And get the next one set up.  I still have to finish doing the math (number of ends/picks).  Last night I started hemming the tea towels I just wet finished and I continue to be pleased with them.  

As for my ko-fi shop, since no one knows if the tariffs will be applied - or not - or if US mail will accept parcels from Canada (as a further way to 'squeeze' Canadians) I will just leave my shop open and go with the flow.  

What will be, will be.  And we'll all just have to figure things out as the circus continues...

Taking Stock

 

Yesterday I pressed the white linen on natural merc. cotton warp and no, they are not 'perfect' but I'm quite pleased with them.  They have the linen 'stiffness' but the cotton flex, and woven of fine threads they should be really nice tea towels.  I only wound up with 11 of them, but I still have about a pound and a half of the singles linen, so I decided to change directions and the next warp will be wound of the merc. 2/20 cotton at 40 epi and woven in this tried and true draft.

It's a fairly simple threading, just point progressions over 16 shafts with straight twill progression borders and since I'm still playing pain med roulette, keeping things simple is probably a good idea.

I've used this draft many times over the years.  I like the visual 'pun', which actually won't be obvious with the white/natural yarns.  It will look like damask even though it's a block twill.  I usually get around 18 or so towels per warp, but I will make them a bit smaller and may get 20.  

The yarn will last longer than just one warp so there will have to be one more to finish off the linen, then perhaps some of the white 2/20 merc cotton.  During my digging I found not one but two huge cones of the stuff.  Not sure what that will look like, yet.  Maybe the draft I showed the other day.

I've also been asked to do another article for WEFT so I'm mulling over what I will say for that one.  In the meantime I have time to do at least this warp before I start working on the article.  

The US continues to live an 'interesting' life.  Will the tariffs be forgotten about?  Or will he just go full on with plans to annex Canada (and Panama, and Greenland, and, and, and...)?

One thing about weaving so many samples is that I'm not producing so many textiles for sale.  So that's a win-win situation given the state of the world right now.

Doing the Same Thing...

Two yarns, spun to 3360 yards per pound.  Are they the same?  Will they behave exactly the same in the cloth?

One of the definitions of 'insanity' is doing the same thing, over and over and over again, and expecting different results.

Also, that people who do not know history are bound to repeat it (while those of us who *do* know history watch them do it.)

We have been inching towards today's 'reality', while historians have been warning us, and climate scientists have been warning us, and somehow, too few of us were paying attention.

Another post I saw yesterday was someone making the observation that ignoring what we don't like doesn't prevent what we don't like from happening.

All of these things are applicable to present day politics, but also?  Weaving.

I don't think there is another, better, metaphor for life than weaving.  Maybe it is why I find it endlessly fascinating.

As I have explored the craft for 50 years (next month), I have tried various things, read loads of books, taking classes with various instructors.

I learned that all of the 'best' advice was based on very specific circumstances, not necessarily 'true' in every way that can be found when dealing with fibre, string and cloth.

Over the years I became less rigid, more open to other possibilities. allowing for unique specific aims and objectives of the weaver.

And this is what I have found endlessly fascinating about weaving - the width, yes, but also?  The depth.  The information can be interpreted in so many different ways, depending on the aim, or intention, of the weaver.

It was the challenge of writing books.  Pick a set of circumstances, then give as much information and possibilities as I could think of.  As I look at the literature surrounding the craft, I see other authors have made similar conclusions, and moved to address them in the way that made sense to them.

But that's the thing - we all process information in different ways.  We all respond to circumstances according to who we are, our core values, and our level of knowledge and/or understanding of what it is we 'know'.

Because we don't know *what* we don't know until we finally know that we didn't know it.

A new weaver expressed frustration about learning to get consistent results - "Well, it seems like you just faff around and find out!".   Yes, my dear, that's exactly what *I* do.  But I do it based on the layers of knowledge that I have already figured out.  And then, every time I learn something new, that information gets installed into my foundation of knowledge.  So I'm not beginning from square one, now, but much further down the rabbit warren, with 50 years of knowledge, practice and experience, to extrapolate from.  And the 'failures'.  Because finding out what *doesn't* work teaches you where to look next for answers.

There are very few 'clear' answers in weaving (and I suspect in other crafts that rely on natural materials) and my goal now is to try to present as much as I can for anyone who wants to be exposed to my experience.

There is a meme that says a good teacher will tell you where to look, not what to see.  I try to be 'that' teacher.  (so, what is it you 'see' in the above photo????)

Books available at blurb

Classes available at Sweet Georgia and Long Thread Media

My Ko-fi shop - for towels and such

Soon to come - articles in WEFT

A Little 'Simple'

 

The current warp was designed to do the samples I needed for the current article, but I never do just short warps if I can make longer ones and have them do double duty.  So it was with this one.

The 'easiest' way to do the samples I was designing was to do a straight draw, most especially to accommodate doing towels on whatever warp was left once I'd finished weaving the samples.

Of course, once I declared I was 'done' I thought of another approach to trying to figure out what was going on, but the article only has a 1200 word count and I'm going to have a hard time keeping to that - I anticipate heavy editing.  :D

So, instead, I will toss out some ideas for people who may want to take what I've done and go further with it.

In the meantime, did I rethread to weave the left over warp with one of my more usual 'fancy' twills?  Nope.  Sometimes it's just good to go with 'simple'.

The warp is natural white 2/16 cotton threaded in a straight draw at a density appropriate to do a twill so I decided to do a very simple block progression that will create a 'wave' or undulation as the motif.

Yesterday I wove the first towel, found and fixed a sleying error, edited the treadling so that it comes closer to the dimension I want, and started thinking about the next warp.

I have about 700 grams or so of the singles linen, which will do one but not two warps.  In an effort to use up that stash I rummaged through Ars Textrina and decided to return to a 'fancy' twill I've used before but messed around with the tie up.  I'll let it 'sit' for a bit and see if I'm ok with it or if I mess around with it more.

Once I've done the current warp I'll beam the next one and increase the density to 36 instead of the current 32, and weave as much of the linen up.  The warp after that?  Don't know.  Yet.  I will have to set up something to weave off the linen, then get back to using up the fine 20/2 cotton I got from a friend's stash when she died.  I have a few options that I can turn to if the density is off, or I can manipulate the tie up, increasing or decreasing the interlacements.

Plus, they will 'just' be tea towels.  They don't have to be 'perfect', just functional.

In the meantime I've floated another idea to WEFT.  But I already have samples woven for that one so it will be 'just' writing.  Beyond that, I'm not sure.  The list of subjects has been sent in, but I feel like I need a bit of a break.  The saga of the search for pain meds that actually help instead of hurting continues.  I started a new pill on Thursday and right now I'm not sure if I'm having pain because of the med, or because I'm not taking enough of it yet, since I'm only on the introductory dose.

Sigh.

Anyway, if you want a wee peek at what is stewing here 'tis...

To Be Determined if it makes it to the loom in this format or?

Flag Day (politics)

 

One of the big differences I see between Canadians and USians, is that Canadians aren't generally big flag wavers.  

As such, we wound up mounting a smallish Canadian flag over our front door during one Flag Day, when they were being given away to anyone who wanted one.  We mounted it that year, and then left it because it was such a great 'landmark' if anyone was looking to visit - 'white house, flag mounted over the front door'.  At the time we were the only house flying a flag in our neighbourhood. and since then it has faded and been replaced.

We nearly took it down when the 'convoy' folk grabbed the flag for their 'parades' as they coal-rolled down the streets, but we figured we were flying the flag long before they were, so we kept it up.  Now the entire nation appears to be metaphorically flying the flag, and the 'convoy' folk are being out-numbered.  

In point of fact there are still very few private homes that fly the flag, so our direction to strangers is the same 'flag mounted over the front door'...

If the US administration continues the way they are going, I will speculate that once the current cold spell is over, there may be more private homes with flags flying.

And that's the thing that happens all the time - people who are not Canadian tend to underestimate us.

Unless they have benefited from Canadians serving them.  As we have benefited from service from others - most recently the exchange of fire fighters between countries.  We have seen crews from African countries, also battling wildfires during their hot season, usually able to come here during ours.  We have had Australian and Mexican crews, too.  And just last month Canada sent crews to California.  We know that being a good neighbour is to help each other.  Something lost on the current administration, who isn't doing their own citizens any favours.

We are in a time of upheaval, and where it will all end, no one knows.  Let a bully win, they will keep pushing.  Keep punching down.  We are in the fight for our country's survival right now facing huge odds.  Maybe Canada should thank the current president for the unification?  For being a 'bad' example?  

Let's just have a moment to think about Canadian author Margaret Atwood's observation that The Handmaid's Tale was a warning of what could happen, not meant to be a playbook...