Sunny Day

 

These white roses grew on a series of rose bushes along part of the path I used to walk and I always loved them when they bloomed.  Unfortunately, someone cut them all down a few years ago, which I think was a shame, but my walk became less soothing with their disappearance.  Eventually I had to give up walking due to health issues, but I still have this photo to remember them.

Today is quite a lovely day - a little bit 'chilly' with a light breeze.  But the sky is blue (mostly) and the sun is shining.  Best of all, I got some good news this morning.

Today was my 6 month check up at the cancer clinic.  Not only am I still in remission, the level of leukocytes is actually lower than they were in November.  It was a very nice thing to hear.  

There was a Nurse Practitioner student helping out, and I happily allowed the student to interview and then examine me.  Since my father was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, he set the standard (as far I was concerned) about letting students 'practice' on him.  

As far as the chronic pain is concerned, it would appear the new drug is - maybe - hopefully - showing signs of working.  

I am hoping that I will have less pain and more sleep going forward.

I have some things I am looking forward to doing - mostly writing - and will try to continue to get to the loom twice a day.  Right now I'm weaving a 'sample' for the next WEFT article I'm working on, and should begin generating the text in the next couple of weeks.  I may - or may not - do another 'sample'.  Or, I may just include some draft examples, to clarify the point of the article.  

In the run up to my six month check ups I get a bit anxious, but now I can calm down and look forward with more anticipation.  The roller coaster of life has way more elevation changes than I would like, but never mind, I'm still riding it.

For everyone struggling with challenges, I send love and light and virtual hugs if you want one.  For now it is lunch time, and then...to the loom!  And maybe the desktop to do the submission for the Zoom presentation in July.  I'm running out of week, and they have deadlines to meet, too.

Loom Abuse

 

Wear and tear?  Or Abuse?

I weave.  A lot.  I have worn out a lot of loom parts over the years, first on the AVL, and now?  The Megado.

One time I posted to a group online asking about a 'wear' issue on my fairly new (at the time) Megado, and speculated if the TexSolv cord had stretched.  One person adamantly insisted that TexSolv cord doesn't 'stretch'.  Something about 'everyone knows' - except me, apparently.

In my experience, I knew that it can - and will.  But not, apparently, in their experience.  So I ignored them and finally managed to get through to Louet, who promptly told me how to shorten a stretched cord.  

Well, not only does TexSolv cord stretch, it can wear out.

I had been noticing something 'off' about the loom for a while, but given my current health issues, I blamed myself for poor shuttle handling, and just concentrated on doing 'better'.  But yesterday I finally 'saw' something very odd - one shaft was not lifting as high as the neighbouring shafts.

I made a note to check it more closely next time I went to the loom (I was just stopping for a break), and then checked the shafts and the cords.  Had a cord slipped off a pulley?  Had that happen previously, so expected that was the issue.  But no.

It took a while to notice the problem because it looked almost 'normal' just looking at it.  It was only when I moved the shaft around a bit and poked at the cords to see if they were out of alignment that the last few 'threads' making the 'hole' separated and oops.  At this point, it would be rather 'dangerous' to keep weaving, so I've asked Doug to repair the cable.  I have 'extra' cord, and the fasteners to join pieces of the TexSolv cord.  I could do it myself, if my back weren't hurting so much, and the bending and poking around and the strength to fasten the repair and original cord back together is a bit 'much' for me, right now.  Otherwise I would do it myself.

But I have the documentation for the Zoom presentation in July to put together for the host, and it's lunch time, plus he's in the middle of fixing something else, so I'm going to stop gnashing my teeth and be calm/patient (a hard ask on a good day), and let him do it.  

New weavers should be aware that sometimes it really *is* the loom!  But if you don't understand the mechanics, you might not be able to target the problem, or how to fix it when you do.  And then you ask to see if anyone else has experienced the issue and what they did to fix it.

The person who chastised me about the other problem didn't know me.  Didn't know my decades of experience weaving on 'complex' looms.  My understanding of the physics of weaving.  Their comment about 'everyone knows TexSolv doesn't stretch' was not the least bit helpful, (nor accurate) so I try very hard not to be condescending when answering such questions posed by others.  But neither have I asked a question on that particular group again.

Because I can forgive, but I don't forget.

Spring! Sun!

 

traditional motif of Snails Trails and Cats Paws - in twill blocks, not overshot

We are well into spring, now.  The plum trees are almost finished blooming, the grass is growing, temps rising.  

Spring is such a time of hope.  It is the time to plant things - and watch them grow.

Kind of like weaving.

Some cultures tended to weave in the winter.  People generally lived in small spaces, and rather than set the loom up all year round, weaving for domestic necessaries tended to be done in the winter.  Summer was for growing your food and preserving it for the coming cold months.

But not always, of course.  Sometimes weaving happened in the summer, too.  If you were a 'professional' weaver, you wove every day you could.

In fact. Sunday was declared a day of rest by the church in no small part because weavers would not make the deadline to finish weaving their warp by Monday, so instead of going to church of a Sunday morning, they would stay home...and weave.

People who wove for their income were one of the first professional groups who recognized that 'industrialization' would destroy the jobs and income of the weavers.  They were called "Luddites" and rather than being 'only' against technological improvements (define 'improvement'?) they protested against the loss of jobs.  They were not wanton destroyers of their looms, but the new-fangled mechanized looms that were putting skilled tradespeople out of work.

Sound familiar?

Kind of like, oh, I don't know, 'artificial intelligence'?

We, as a society, a species, are at a turning point.  And quite frankly I cannot see where we will come out of this time of turmoil.  I'm too old to worry over much about it.  But I have been in touch with a young person who really would like to make weaving their, if not profession, at least an income generator.  

I suggested my memoir, where I talk about my experiences, but also warned them that with the drastic changes to society, they will have to chart their own path.  My experiences are now...stale.  However, the lessons I learned along the way might prove useful to someone just setting their feet on the path.  If you are in the US, there are no tariffs because it's just a PDF download.  

Yesterday I finished setting up the warp and began weaving.  Today I have massage, so I probably won't get to the loom today.  OTOH, I have 'light duties' to do - like the info for the Zoom presentation in July.  More info when it becomes available.  I need to send them a headshot, bio and 5 photos of my work.  Which has lead me down the path of remembering.  I don't have 50 years worth of photos, but my photo file is...cumbersome.  I should likely delete a bunch of the photos, and yet...the one above, which I am particularly fond of, and which I tend to use - here, if nothing else - still come in handy.

It is getting 'too late' to squeeze a session at the loom in before my appointment.  I might take some time to read WEFT.  Or Twist.  Or fiddle with jigsaw pieces.  The latest puzzle is of Hagia Sophia.  I would love to get a puzzle of the interior, but this one shows the 'church/mosque/museum/mosque' at sunset.  And I can remember the trip we did in 1995.  I can think about the skills of our ancestors, creating a 'monument' of such beauty that it still stands.  And hope that we manage to come through this 'interesting' times to survive, maybe even thrive.

(My other books are printed in the US, therefore can be purchased without tariffs, via blurb.com)

Deep Dive

 

One of the things that fascinates me is the materials that are available to weave with.  I fell into a little 'extra' money and had a gift card to Amazon, and found their listings for electronic microscopes.  Then I had some fun burrowing down the rabbit hole, looking at threads up close and personal.

The above threads are a case in point.  They both have the same 'count', but that doesn't make them 'identical'!

The accepted wisdom is that if a, for example, cotton yarn has the same 'count' as another yarn, they are interchangeable.  They will behave the same, and create exactly the same quality of cloth.

About that...

I'm still dealing with the brain injury and other ailments, so I have not felt able to read Michelle Boyd's book Twist - but I do pick it up and page through it.  But the other thing that arrived is the first issue of WEFT.  A magazine article is more manageable for me right now.  I can focus for several pages and read an article, now and then, where an entire book still feels like too much to cope with.

But I really want to read Michelle's book - thoroughly! - because if we do not understand the materials we are working with, we can't properly manage them.

I saw a request from a new weaver who just bought some really lovely yarn and wanted to know how to set up her loom to show it off.

The yarn was pretty - lots of colour changes - and if used as warp it would make an interesting scarf (the intended finished item).

But what did I notice about that yarn?  It was not 'smooth'.  It was described as a blend of two yarns, but all I could focus on was the texture.  One of the yarns appeared to be creating a lot of loose 'ends', which in a knitted sweater (likely its intended use), would be interesting, but would be verging on a nightmare if used as warp in the loom.

Those loose fibres would tend to start popping out of the structure of the yarn, then it would begin to snag on neighbouring yarns creating snarls and 'knots' which could affect the shed.  

I'm pretty sure it was quite expensive so I very much doubt the person would be willing to 'waste' some of it making a sample.

New to the craft folk are anxious to make something 'successful'.  Some of them don't see the value of 'sampling'.  They consider weaving a sample a 'waste of time/money'.  

But there is a treasure trove of choices, especially if you look at knitting/crocheting yarn.  And yes, you *can* weave with them - *if you understand their nature*.  And how do you find that out?  You weave with it.

Now sometimes a 'scarf' can be a 'sample'.  Or a 'place mat'.  Mug rug.  A sample doesn't have to just be a sample!  

But learning something is never (in my opinion) a 'waste of time/money'.  It is how we learn.  

I wish I'd bought the next microscope 'up' in terms of magnification.  While this one is good, sometimes I'd like to see individual fibres.  But this one wasn't terribly expensive, and it allows me to 'see' the yarns much 'closer'.

So don't be afraid to explore.  To find out.  To *learn*.  

To the new weavers, I hope you find as much satisfaction in weaving as I do from the craft.

The craft so long, the life too short to learn.

Subtle

 

I see so many suggestions about how to create 'perfect' selvedges.  Many of them rely on this 'trick' or that 'secret tip'.

I've been weaving for 50 years, now, and I can assure you I agonized over my selvedges.  I, too, looked for the 'magic' solution, fussed over creating 'perfect' selvedges.

But here's the thing - like everything else about weaving, selvedges are complex.  Not complicated - complex.

There are two 'sets' of threads (usually) - the warp and the weft.  And the way they weave together can change.  It can vary, even within the textile.  There are unseen forces at work that can be quiet during weaving, and suddenly - and rather dramatically - change during wet finishing.

I see people insisting that a selvedge *must* have a plain weave structure.  (No, it doesn't.)

I see people frustrated because they have loops at the selvedge, which they then pluck at and tug, which doesn't actually solve most of the problem.  It, in fact, can cause more.  It depends.  Literally.

In the above photo, you can see the selvedge.  The weave structure is in the twill family.  What may be more difficult to see is that the weave structure builds a 'wave' into the edge of the cloth so it's not exactly 'ruler' straight.  

The twill line changes direction:  /\/\/\/\

As it changes direction, the weave pulls the selvedge 'into' the cloth, or pushes it outwards.

There are 'floats' at the selvedge, but after wet finishing, they resolve and - using a fine enough thread - the length of the floats do not materially affect the cloth.

This structure also causes the selvedge to roll.  In areas where the tie up is 1:3 the cloth will roll upwards, while the areas that are 3;1 will roll downwards.

These are subtle effects that most people don't even notice when they are weaving, or if they do, they want to 'fix' them.

If you are a new weaver, I urge you to watch how experienced and proficient weavers hold and throw their shuttle.  Consider the way I do - and if you don't do it the way I do, you might want to consider changing how you hold and throw the shuttle.

You might want to pay attention to your posture and position at the loom - making sure that your loom bench is tall enough, that you are sitting (perching) on the edge of the loom bench.  I strongly suggest you do NOT sit on an ordinary chair.  Sit upright - back straight, shoulders in 'neutral', not hunched or shrugged.

Hold the shuttle in the cradle of your fingers, pushing shuttle using your index finger and catching it in the cradle of your fingers, give the weft a very slight 'tug', and make sure that the leading edge of the weft is not trapped into the shed without sufficient slack in the weft to begin the curving path through the cloth.

Still having problems?  Check your warp.  Have you beamed using tension?  Have you used a firm warp packing?  Have you tied on using about 1" worth of warp (give or take), not tied tiny bouts, or massive ones?

There are so many more things I could say about selvedges, but honestly?  I've said them over and over again.  But every day I see new weavers asking questions.  I hesitate to answer in groups because everyone gets to practice their weaving the way they want.  But if you are interested, or are trying to help someone else, I have (free) video clips on You Tube

If you are interested in this sort of information in print I tried really hard to think of all of the 'it depends' aspects of weaving in The Intentional Weaver

My online classes continue at School of Sweet Georgia  And at Handwoven/Long Thread Media

And of course I've got all sorts of articles for various magazines, including for the latest magazine, WEFT.

And of course, this blog, where I try to label each one as to content.  All you need to do is scroll down and click on the label to find the posts I've tagged on a topic.

Welcome to the wonderful world of weaving.  :)

'Interesting' Times

 

As I scroll through the online groups I belong to, it is easy to become depressed at the state of the world right now.

Can't help but think about a half remembered poem 'This is how the world ends - not with a bang but a whimper.'

The world seems to be falling apart right now.  Little 'liberal' victories are happening here and there, but other places?  Not so much.

What do I do about it?  What *can* I do about it?

In reality, not much.

In the end, our country counted as one of those tiny 'liberal' victories, although the bad actors have not gone away - and won't.  They were so close to victory they could taste it, as they say.  And we have the added 'bonus' of media promoting the 'both sides' doctrine instead of trying to report the facts.  

How do I find meaning in my life?  A way to continue?

I come back to what I *can* do as a way to fight off the worry/anxiety about what I cannot change.

I can share hope and love.  I can stay as positive as possible, and encourage others to do what they can.  Not everyone can do much, and it is wise to remember that, when we ask 'why isn't someone doing something to fix this?'

The only person we can 'control' is our own selves, so I suggest that people take a long hard look at what is happening, and what they can actually do.

So, here is my approach:

Stand up and tell people what you believe in.  Stay positive, as best you can.  For every election, find out as much as you can about who is running - what they actually stand for, not mealy-mouthed platitudes which can be interpreted in various ways - what do they *actually* mean?  

If you know something about history or politics, cast a wary eye over anyone who promises that everything is broken and only they will fix it - without actually saying anything of substance.  Slogans are not platforms.  A document like Project 2025 is a platform.  And our Canadian Conservatives have adopted it for their platform, too.

I do NOT want to be 'annexed' - which is a weasel word for 'I want your resources and I'm going to come and grab them'.  I am not USian, I am Canadian, and I have zero desire to be 'forced' to join the US as a 'state' - no doubt without voting rights.  For all the USian 'liberals' saying that Canadians will force the US to become more 'liberal'?   That means we would have to be given the vote - and I rather doubt the anti-liberal president would chance that happening.

A few minutes ago I saw an interview with a self described Trump supporter, who is now shocked that ICE isn't looking to deport 'criminals', but anyone who looks Mexican.  And he was appalled.  What 'woke' him?  Trump and his minions, doing what they promised to do all along.

I refuse to watch the alt right media.  I don't need to, I'm well familiar with their message of hate and aggrievance.  I need to focus on the messages of hope and positivity.  And prepare myself to make sure I vote in a way that mostly helps, rather than hurts.  If someone offers a simple answer to the world's problems, I will be extremely skeptical - because humans are complicated and very seldom do 'simple' answers work for every person.

In my daily life, I will continue trying to teach about textiles, and weaving.  Never mind the piles of tea towels etc. I already have on my shelves.  At some point this chaos will resolve, one way or another and perhaps I can sell more of my stuff.  But if not, I can keep writing (for so long as someone wants me to write for them), and weaving 'samples' to illustrate what I'm writing about.

Counting my blessings sounds trite, but sometimes it is A Good Thing to remember the things that are meaningful and pleasing in our lives.

And when I get tired, I am allowed to take a break and try to rest.

Sending hope and love to everyone who wants it.  If you need a cup of kindness, I will offer what I can.  A positive word.  A virtual hug.  Will continue to tie a knot in the end of my rope and hang on...but don't give up.  Keep 'fighting'.  #elbowsUp

Say Their Name

 

two different colour ways of kitchen towels, 2/8 cotton warp, cotton flake weft

In the past two weeks (give or take a day or two), 3 of my weaving 'friends' have died.  The latest was someone I knew, not well, but respected.  I took a class from her, and took a class along with her at Banff Centre of Fine Arts.  We respected each other, although we agreed to differ in the details.  But we agreed on one thing - we loved weaving.

We didn't get together very often as she lived 500 miles away, then moved to Salt Spring Island.  But we stayed in touch.  The last time I saw her was 2019 when we did a trip over to Salt Spring Island so I could pick up another friend's silk stash.  

The other two I knew for less time, but was no less interested in them and their journeys.

As my social interactions grow fewer and fewer, I often think about the people I've met along my journey.  When I do presentations, I try to remember to mention people from whom I've learned, because I know I have not 'figured things out all by myself'.  And I feel that - as a community - we are richer for those have gone before - or beside - us, (ultimately *beyond* us) in our explorations of the endlessly (to me!) fascinating craft.

When I started weaving I was 25 years old.  At the time, the perception of weavers was 'little old ladies in running shoes'.  I chaffed at that generalization.  And now I am one of those 'little old ladies'...

My life was filled with challenges, some of which I wish I could have avoided.  But nevertheless, the obstacles appeared on my life's journey, and as my life cycle begins to wind down (not dead yet, but) there is less energy to do stuff, but no shortage of *wanting* to do more.  

Just one sample!  Just trying to figure 'this' out!  What happens if, when...?

And the people who came along with me generally tossed more questions into the mix.  Invited me to broaden my horizons.  Find things out.  Test our conclusions.  Change our minds!  

So today I have been thinking - a lot - about the people who travelled with me.  And because the time seems appropriate, I will remember the latest names.  Because somewhere I read that for so long as your name is remembered, you are not 'gone'.  

So, Carol, Pat and Diane - save a chair/bench/loom for me.  And I will think about you as I head back to the loom.  I got the warp beamed, and made a small dent in threading.  Today's goal is to see if I can finish threading (preferably without threading errors, pleaseandthankyou)

In the meantime, I have been invited to participate in an event (remotely) and after some consideration, I have decided to accept.  Once the details are confirmed I will let people know where and when, etc.  It will be a test of my ability to speak coherently, or how much I 'fail' at 'public' speaking.  :(   If it goes well, I will consider beginning to do my one or two hour remote presentations.  The surgeon said the biggest recovery from the brain bleed would happen in the first 12 months after the injury, then slower progress over the following 12 months.

It's beginning to feel very much as though if I'm going to go back to 'teaching' (remotely), I need to be doing that 'now', not wait two years after the injury to see how well I can do it.  I hope people will be kind, and understand that I do, in fact, have a brain injury, and make allowances for that.

Am I nervous?  Hell yes!  But I never did what I did in my life by letting my fear get in the way.  This event was a gift, really, because it is 'just' one hour, they will 'feed' me questions ahead of time, and IF this new medication turns out to be good, hopefully I will have more energy to do things outside of my comfort zone.

A community is not that different from a woven cloth.  It is made up of a variety of people, each bringing their unique self to the whole.  And we are all richer for it.

Following the Threads

 

This is one repeat of the design we call Swedish Snowflake.  It is usually threaded over 8 shafts although it *can* be done on 4 - but with less definition.  Since I've had 16 shafts since, I dunno, sometime in the 1980s, I tend to thread warps over all 16.  It allows me to have fewer heddles per shaft and threading a motif over the first 8 shafts and the second set of 8 shafts, I can be more...playful...with how I interpret a draft.

This kind of messing about with a threading draft was what really excited me about weaving.  Learning how the weave structure works, then being able to set up the design to meet my requirement, was a learning curve and kept me coming back to the graph paper (to begin with), then to purchase and learn how to use a computer with weaving software.

I purchased my first computer system by taking the requirements for Fiberworks into the local computer shop, and pretty much made the two guys day by buying the cpu, keyboard, (no mouse, yet) tv monitor/screen with *colour*, and a daisy wheel printer.  Which pretty much ate up about $3000.  In 1987 or early 88.  I needed to wait until the holiday sales were done so that I could see how much money I could budget for such a system.

In the 1990s I purchased the computer assist (or Compu-Dobby as AVL called their system).  I waited until their equipment had done some beta testing, and generally, with the help of a couple of friends more savvy than me, I got it working.  Then in the late 1990s, I bought the air assist system.  I was getting it primarily for the fly shuttle (which AVL assured me would NOT work on my loom, but never mind, Doug knew it should), and while I was at it, for the treadle.  For which my knee thanked me!

I continued to weave on the AVL until 2019, when I decided to retire and downsize looms and purchased the Louet Megado.  I was sorely tempted to get 32 shafts, but thought about the physical requirements needed to thread that many shafts and gave my head a shake.

It is part of what keeps me getting out of bed and down to the studio - trying to work out the why as well as the how.

In the meantime, I keep committing to write more articles.  There will be another article for School of Sweet Georgia, later this month.  They are now offering content even if you are not currently a 'member' as a 'taster'.  And yesterday we shipped the next article to WEFT and I've been beginning to work on the next.  Plus I committed to doing two articles for an upcoming issue.

In the meantime I continue to wrestle with pain meds.  We got our Covid vaccines on Monday which kind of trashed my body above and beyond the 'usual' pain levels.  But I'm feeling 'better' this morning and will go down to begin beaming the next warp.

It will be another 2/20 merc. cotton warp - I am still working on stash reduction.  There should be plenty of the merc. cotton to wind a 'standard' length warp (about 24 yards) and have some left over to use as weft on 2/16 unmerc. cotton.

One of the things I did was buy the entire "Master Weaver" booklets that were edited by Robert Leclerc, using Mr. Zielinski's newsletter that he wrote a few decades ago.  If you remember Gestetner stencils, he used them to write his newsletters, then mailed them out to his subscribers.  But they were difficult to read and the illustrations were...typical of the day.  Mr. Leclerc went through the newsletters, collected all the information for particular topics, then compiled small booklets focused on a theme.  I learned a ton of stuff reading through the booklets, and they remain a steadfast reference in my library.

So, a friendly reminder about *my* books.  Given the tariffs, US folk will be getting the books shipped within the US and no tariff applies.  For my memoir, currently available on my ko-fi shop, digital only, again, no tariff.  If you want a copy of Kerstin Fröberg's book Weave A V, I can mail that via USPS if anyone is interested.  Although frankly, I'm not confident that the current regime won't try to dismantle the USPS and then who knows?

The parcel we shipped to WEFT yesterday was via courier, and the box was $40 to ship by ground.  I am hoping that the president will leave couriers alone, even though that means doubling the expense of shipping anything across the border.  

I was warned about the curse "May you live in interesting times" and here I am.  One of the most difficult times about these 'interesting' times is that there is very little stability, with at least one head of state who seems to be trying to kill off a bunch of his citizens.  

The only way to cope I think is to expect the unexpected, and be as flexible as you can be.  

Books are available here

Classes are available here and here

And of course I have some free content here and video clips on You Tube

It Takes Two

 

Ever danced?  Ever danced with someone who didn't want to?  Or wasn't very good at it?  Sometimes it is just 'easier' to walk away and find a new partner...

Right now I see multiple people advising the 'left' to find a way to 'work with' the alt right.  Except, how do you manage to 'dance' with someone who doesn't want to be an equal partner?

How do you convince someone to set aside their demands, rational or not, and be flexible?  How do you dance a tango when they want to, I dunno, 'break' dance?  The only 'victory' is a zero sum game of 'you' gaining everything you want and letting the other person not 'gain' (or win) anything at all?

How do you build a relationship when they don't want a relationship with 'you' (insert 'reasons') and would rather see you dead?  When they call whole classes of fellow human beings 'useless eaters'?  Who want to take away, in the case of the Canadian alt right, universal health care and social safety nets (which are already too flimsy, in my opinion.)

The paradox of tolerance is a look at what happens when someone who will not tolerate another and keeps demanding you meet them in the centre - but every time you try to, they move the 'centre' further 'right'?  Eventually dragging *you* into the realm of the 'right'?  So there comes a point when you have to stand up and say, I'm not tolerating your voice of hate and vindictiveness...

I *know* not all USians are alt right.  Not all Canadians are alt right.  And yet, somehow their angry voices, demanding 'justice' because something something gazpacho, seem to get all sorts of media coverage, lies get repeated ad nauseum until people who are primed to believe those lies accept them as truth.

Some of the alt right in Canada are already throwing shade at PMMC, saying that the whole problem with Canada is NAFTA, and blaming Justin Trudeau - and the Liberals - for NAFTA.

Which is a bit hysterically hilarious, given NAFTA was Brian Mulroney's 'baby', along with Ronald Reagan.  And the two of them famously singing When Irish Eyes are Smiling (yes, there is video.)

Whatever transpires today at the White House, I am relieved that our PM is willing to talk, but not mess around.  The president has constantly accused Canadians of 'ripping' the US off and the way he's 'punishing' us is to destroy our economy - or try to.   But PMMC actually knows how the economy works and he is willing to protect Canada and Canadians, and is already making deals with countries other than with the currently bad faith president, who has bankrupted 6 (or is it 7) businesses, and seems determined to bankrupt the US and destroy hundreds, nay thousands, of small businesses of *his own citizens* in order to trash Canada's democracy, too.

The effects of the tariffs are already being felt in the US marketplace.  Instead of dozens of container ships docking in the US, many are re-directing to Vancouver, BC.  The evidence will soon show up in the stores, with empty shelves because no one wants to, and many more cannot *afford* to pay tariffs in the triple digits.

So if Mr. Carney walks away from Washington, DC today and turns his (our?) back on the US?  Pretty sure the majority of Canadians are going to be just fine looking elsewhere.  No doubt he'll have Down With Webster on his playlist...

May 5

 

I have very few photos of my dad.  This was one that mom had in a double frame - one with her at 16 years of age, this of dad in his Canadian army uniform, no doubt early in the war.  The smaller photo is of dad at age 10, around when his mother died of breast cancer.

He was the youngest child in the family, and as such considered a 'mammy's boy'.  I suspect dad was a menopause baby, and perhaps was treated differently from the rest of the kids.  I will never know because anyone who can tell me is gone, now.

At any rate, he was conscripted, and nearly turned down (according to my mother, but her 'stories' were frequently suspect) because he didn't express enthusiasm about going to Germany to kill the 'Hun'.  (What I did find out was that the recruiting soldier marked down on his file that dad was 'thick' - because dad had no schooling and could not read or write well.  'Thick' he was not.)

Dad's family identified as 'German', although they immigrated from Belarus prior to the first World War.  The story about the family arriving in N. America varied, especially as mom 'dressed' the story up.  Eventually I just stopped believing her about a lot of things, especially when they seemed improbable.

But the fact remains - dad served in the Canadian Army, posted first to the Aleutians, then, when they were scraping the 'bottom of the barrel', he was sent over to England and found himself on Juno Beach.

The only time he ever talked about the war was when the Winston Churchill 'series' The World at War aired, which was yearly for a while.  Dad would park himself in front of the tv and both of us kids were warned that dad was watching 'his' show and we were to be quiet.

We learned early that dad did not answer questions about the war, so stop asking.  But when the film showed the landing on the beaches that day, dad would sit quietly, elbows on the arms of his Lazy-boy recliner with his hands gripped together, fingers 'tented', and leaning his chin on his clasped hands.  As the footage of the Canadians landing on Juno beach played, he would lift his head from his hands, point to the tv and quietly say 'I was there'.  Three words.  With such power.

I honestly don't know if dad would have swallowed the current fascist propaganda.  All I know is that he 'hated' war, but did his duty anyway.  Plus he survived, which was the 'important' part - for *me*.

Whatever the truth of his opinions about what is going on now, I'm actually glad I don't have either parent to deal with right now.  They wouldn't 'get' computers.  Dad barely used the telephone, never mind a computer!  Mom did have a computer, but we made sure she never went online.  

People ask 'when did you become politically active' - and I hardly know what to answer.  Politically, my parents were not party members, but voted according to their conscious on the day.  But my mother (who was willing to discuss such things - dad wouldn't) believed some things I could not.  When did I 'wake' up?  I think I came out of the womb thinking, questioning, deciding some things simply did not make sense (considering I went to Sunday School every Sunday, and attended Bible classes to be confirmed into the church).  Plus I read.  Non-stop, mostly.  Anything.  Fact.  Fiction.  Didn't matter.

Now we have a group of full blown fascists in our neighbouring country, threatening to 'annex' us by 'breaking' us financially/economically.  Today we learned about the tariffs on the movie industry - targeted primarily against all Canadian 'production'.  Given how many Canadians actually 'grew' Hollywood, it's just a tad ironic - but not shocking, if you've been paying attention.

Anyway, we now have 'new' (American) labels for various significant dates.   Like today.  My 'resistance' will remain low key due to my age/health restrictions.  But I will not follow the current president of the US, AND I will continue to use my 'British' spellings (eg 'neighbour' never 'neighbor').  I will continue to boycott US products - as best I can - and support Canadian businesses.  At this point I can see no possibility of crossing the border with the double jeopardy of Covid and fascism...

#elbowsUp

Sampling

 

There are actually two samples in the photo - one was woven with 20/2 unmercerized white, the other was woven with 2/20 mercerized 'natural'.

But what I want to point out today is the selvedge.

There are so many people who insist that a selvedge *must* be plain weave.  

But here's the thing - if you are weaving something *other* than plain weave in the rest of the cloth, that plain weave selvedge will take up at a different rate than the other structure and the selvedge ends will get tighter and tighter.

Not a big deal if the weaver cuts off and re-ties, but...more work, overall, than just weaving a more appropriate structure - like the same take up as the rest of the cloth.

Now, I also deal with 'fine' threads by doubling the outside 4 ends at the selvedge *BUT* keeping the density of the cloth the same.  

And no, I so rarely use a floating selvedge that I would say 'never' but there may come a time when a floating selvedge is 'best practice'.

The samples in the photo have been wet finished, including a good hard press.  The weave structure creates 'floats' along the selvedge.  Given the 'fancy' twill weave structure, there are (if I remember correctly) 5 pick floats in the selvedge.

But!  After wet finishing, including that hard press, the 'loops' tuck into the edge of the cloth and they are fine.  

The selvedge is not 'ruler' straight.   The nature of the weave structure that contrasts 1:3 and 3:1 areas to create the motif, means that the selvedge gently curves.  

Another variable is if the weft yarn is smooth or textured.  The singles linen I've been using is *very* fine (for most people) and it has gentle 'slubs' in it.  So, again, the selvedge is affected when one of those 'slubs' is at the edge of the cloth.

In my studio I do the best I can to be a) consistent and b) as efficient as I can be.  Perfect?  Well, when *that* happens, it's lovely, but truly a Gift from the Loom Goddess.

There are many reasons for sampling.  Since I'm trying to weave down my yarn stash, sometimes it's a good idea to see how exactly the yarn is going to behave - right through to the wet finishing.

This year marks 50 years of being a weaver.  Yes, I still make 'mistakes'.  Yes, I still sample.

Today one of my 'jobs' is to explore designing a twill progression and figure out how to best illustrate how I do that for anyone who is interested.  The sample above is a variation on the Swedish Snowflake motif.  I may - or may not - submit the table runner(s) I've been weaving for the past couple of weeks.  Or I have enough of the 2/20 merc. cotton for warp and the unmerc. 20/2 to weave off one more warp.  But then there will be some 2/20 merc. cotton to use as weft on an unmerc. cotton warp.  

The current warp will be coming off the loom in the next few days.  So I'm going to have to spent some time at the desktop exploring some twill progression motifs.

Always something new to explore, more to learn.  

Of Tariffs

 One brave person ordered a towel as a gift, which I got into the mail last Friday.  It was too late for the truck to Vancouver, so it didn't get there until Monday, and when the post office attempted to transfer it to the custody of  US Customs/USPS, welp, I don't know what happened, but it still shows this message as of 5 pm April 30:

Delivery may be delayed due to public authority

I have never seen such a message in the years I've made stuff and shipped it across the border.  What does it mean, actually?  Dunno.  All I can hope is that Canada Post will return the parcel to me so that I'm not out the towel as well as the postage, packaging, etc.  If it comes back to me, of course I will refund the person's money.

Given the current situation, one wonders what is happening with Canada/US customs processing, and the USPS.

Over the past few weeks of political shenanigans, I have hesitated about keeping my ko-fi shop.  I'll be honest - the US was my 'biggest' online market and it's been a hit to tell my customers to *not* buy anything right now.  The continued uncertainty about international trade with our southern neighbour has left not just me, but hundreds of others in the lurch.

While the election turned out 'ok' (I was hoping for a Liberal landslide but the alt right has gotten a deep hold on a much larger chunk of our population than I expected - or hoped) and while the Liberals took the government, it is a 'minority' government.  Which is not necessarily a 'bad' thing - it means the Liberals will have to make any governance palatable to a smaller party and convince them to come on board.  In times past, we have seen some excellent concessions made that have made Canada a 'better' place than if they had a full majority.

But we are staring down a great divide and I don't know how to reconcile with the 'other' side, which shows zero interest in working together.  :(

I'm unsure what the future holds, if it is even a good idea to keep the ko-fi presence.  I do have a few monthly subscribers, but I don't feel like I'm giving those supporters much value - beyond writing this blog.  

Anyway, push comes to shove, I won't be losing my house if I do shut it down, but it is forcing me to keep picking away at the writing.  Not because it brings in a lot of income, but because I can 'teach' and get paid 'something' for my time, effort and knowledge.

So when they asked me to contribute two articles for a 2026 issue, it took a heartbeat for me to decide 'yes, I will'.

I still have not received my print copy of the first issue of WEFT, but I've booked the guild room for May 25.  If it still hasn't arrived, I do have the copy loaded onto my iPad, and I will bring the two sets of samples from the first issue that I wove and let people take a gander.  If it seems like people want to have that kind of 'hands on' experience for the following issues, I'm hoping that my new drug will reduce my pain levels and that I will be able to speak 'better' by then.  Now that I'm getting more than 2 or 3 hours of sleep a night, my brain injury seems to be improving.

I am trying really hard to look for the good things in this world, and change what is 'bad' if I can.  

I am really hoping to get back to my 'usual' content - weaving.  

To those of you still here, I thank you.  From the bottom of my heart.  

Canada

 

I remember how controversial the idea was, to create a 'new' Canadian flag.  How many poo-poo'd the idea, some complained about the expense, etc.  

Some people objected because 'you can't just *change* the flag'!

I never saw the controversy, myself.  I thought the idea of using the maple leaf as a symbol was, well, symbolic, even though it was rare to see a maple tree where I live.  

In the end, the country chose to change and the rest were dragged along, some of them kicking and screaming.

We had never been a country to fly the flag, much.  When I started going down to the US, it was a bit of a 'shock' to me how many places had US flags, proudly flying - not just over government buildings, but homes.  

We would roll out flags for Canada Day, sometimes during playoff season, especially for hockey.  But mostly?  Canadians weren't prone to waving the flag much.

One year the federal government gave free flags for anyone who wanted one.  We got one and Doug arranged to hang it above the front door.  Once it was up, we realized our house was the only house in the neighbourhood that was flying a flag, and it became a marker for anyone coming to our house.

There were a few years when a new neighbour started flying a flag, about 3 times the size of ours.  It was so huge they had to mount a pole to the house to fly it.  All through that time we continued to let our flag fly, even when the alt right appropriated the flag - frequently upside down or with comments about the PM.

We are 'liberals' in 'conservative' country.  I don't think I have ever sent a representative to Ottawa, and right now, the current Con MP certainly does not speak for me.  

I have little faith that a Liberal candidate will take our riding.  All the polls say it is a 99% certainty that the Con MP will go to Ottawa again.

So, I'd like to remind people that just because a Con gets elected doesn't mean that there are no 'liberals' who live here.

I will continue to advocate for others who need it.  I will continue to fly the Canadian flag - I do not 'reclaim' the flag because I never stopped believing that Canada - as a country - can be more inclusive, more supportive of those who need help, can continue to do the work of truth and reconciliation.  

We have issues that need addressing.  But I do not believe that anyone part of the alt-right will be much concerned about anyone but themselves.  So, call me 'woke' if you like.  I'd rather be awake than tuning in to some person's fever dreams.  I'd rather be supportive of people who may need some help - people burned out due to wildfires due to climate change, for example.  I prefer to have a functioning government that sees need and tries to address it, rather than destroying government services.

Being a 'good' country is a process.  I hope that my country will at least *try* to help its citizens, not create chaos and uncertainty.

But maybe it's just because I'm a dreamer...

Imagine....

Welcoming Change

 

I recently became aware of James Fell and thought I would pick up one of his books.  It wasn't what I expected from a 'sweary' historian.  Instead it was - how shall I put it - self-help?  Self-improvement?

But I started reading it in part because I'm always interested in people's 'story' and the book has lots of them as 'examples' of epiphany.

Partly I was interested in the topic because I had a epiphany of sorts.  Actually I had *exactly* one of the types of epiphany that Fell writes about.  I spent years, feeling 'lost', directionless, working one dead end office job after another.

Little did I know, but the 'universe'/guardian angel, whatever you want to call it, worked for years to shove me into the direction I finally wound up taking.  As more 'hints' dropped into my conscious thought, the more restless/directionless I felt.

Most of this 'hinting' kept hammering home the fact that I needed to do something different.  I finally asked myself the crucial question - if not this, then what?  And I did a list of things I wanted for my life and then left myself 'open' in a way I had not done before.  I even found a job that had many of the things I said I had been looking for, but the other thing that had been happening was the not-to-be-denied fact that my father was dying.

As Fell outlines in his book, one of the ways an epiphany will happen is that the person needs to change, *wants* to change, will even begin to make changes until one day the thought breaks through to the conscious mind and suddenly things begin to make sense to make the changes that you want/need to make.

So it was with me.  After literally years of nudging me towards the fibre arts, significant hints of the world that waited for me, I finally put all those hints together and after thinking about it for a couple of weeks, weeks during which I thought about the logistics of tossing everything and learning how to weave - with the express purpose of earning some money *by* weaving...

Well, a number of preparations needed to be put into place, which took time.  Time during which my father got sicker and sicker, and the guardian angel/universe became quite insistent that I needed to do this thing.

We put our house up for sale - and because I was making a really good wage for a woman it actually allowed us to buy a larger house with room for a loom.  Which job I quit as soon as the mortgage was approved and started the weaving class a week late (I had to work out my two week notice.)

After years of being nudged in that direction, then months of fevered preparation, moving house, I finally found myself in the weaving room, sitting in front of a Cherryville counter balanced loom.

After getting directions about what to do, I sat on the bench, looking at the rags I had prepared, and really looked at the warp and loom.  As I sat there at the loom, I had a wash of awareness that I had 'come home'.

I was - finally - where I was meant to be.

Two weeks later my dad finally died and while I very much doubt he would have understood what I had just done while he was alive, I sensed that he now understood.  

I treated that class (all day Tuesdays) like a full time job.  I spent every day in the loom room, either reading, or weaving.  I was 'already' a weaver - I just needed to acquire the actual skills.  My physical body need to catch up to my 'heart'.  

So I would say that I had exactly the sort of epiphany that Fell was talking about, although he talks about other ways people reach that state.

But I will never, ever, forget the feeling as I sat, shuttle in hand, figuring out which treadles I was supposed to use, knowing that I was 'home'.  This was the 'right' path.  And I would do everything I needed to do in order to stay on it.

At times that meant taking part-time jobs to bring in enough money to buy yarn, etc.  I started getting requests to teach weaving, which I felt woefully inadequate to do, but I did know more than those wanting to learn, and I did my best to acquire teaching skills as well as weaving skills.

And then I had another epiphany - I needed to write a book.  Why?  Because so many people kept urging me to write it.

I'm now 'retired' - from production weaving/selling.  I still produce more than most people who weave as a hobby, so I still try to sell textiles (and maybe will again once the election is over and we see who 'blinks' about tariffs.)  I still teach through writing, currently focused on WEFT (who just asked me to submit a couple more articles - yay!)

But I'm now reaching the age where other family members tended to fall off their perch, with my mother being a bit of an outlier because she made it to 90.  Odds are that I could leave this mortal coil any day - nearly did on Aug. 28, 2024.

But I didn't die.  And my brain injury is coming along so that I can write, although with loads more editing because words fall into sinkholes, or I discover I have repeated words.  With the help of a friend willing to alpha read my text, I feel capable of continuing to write.  And hopefully, weave.

Tomorrow is election day in Canada.  I have been on tenterhooks about the result of the election - what it will mean to me, my country.  So I'm going to head to the loom and weave.  And hope for the 'peace' that we all look for as we walk our life path.

A friend says 'gold dust' to people as a way of wishing them 'luck'.  Besides, gold dust is better than tossing 'glitter' around, so I wish to all who need something - Gold Dust.

Making Plans

 

I ordered Michelle Boyd's book weeks ago - just about the time my health roller coaster took off on another loop around the course.  And then, the election, which manages to take up whatever brain power I had left.  And won't be over until next week when the final voting day happens and the votes get counted.

Once we are beyond the uncertainty of what is about to happen, I will make plans for how to move 'forward'.  

I've been telling friends I could easily turn my studio into a 'hermitage'.  I rarely go out, unless it is for some sort of health care.

OTOH, if the new drug actually helps (without also harming - Schrödinger's medication?) I may feel more energy and be more inclined to get out and about more.

I have been 'practicing' driving because after 7 months of *not* driving I'm rusty.  Considering that spring is arriving here, I feel as though I'm able to maybe(?) come out of hibernation.

Hoping that I will soon be feeling 'better' I've offered to host a gathering for anyone who wants to take a look at the first issue of WEFT, and the samples I wove for the two articles I have in the magazine.  

For today, I will head to the loom.  In spite of everything I've managed to get to the loom and weave, and the current warp is just past the 1/3 mark.  I'm mulling over another warp, potentially for the article I'm working on now.  

And maybe, just maybe, this new drug will work for me and I'll be more functional.

Spring Weather

 

The photo isn't a very good one but it is a silk jacket I wove the fabric for (and had a friend sew it).  I wove it for the ANWG conference here in 1995.  I took the conference logo and messed around with it.  The warp was hand dyed (by moi) in a spectrum from blue-purple to pink-purple.  (It also made in appearance in Weavers Magazine.  Much nicer photo in the magazine!!!)

I think the last time I wore it was to a NEWS (?) conference.  I can't remember.

I miss going to conferences - the seminars, exhibits, sitting down to visit with other like minded folk.  Between Covid and my current health issues, I doubt I'll leave my town - unless I have another medical issue that requires me to go to Vancouver.

Today I went out without a jacket - for the first time in a long time.  It truly feels like spring and I'm enjoying the longer daylight hours.  The winter seemed very long - very dark.  We didn't have a lot of 'cold' weather, which generally means the skies are clear and the days brilliant, with sunshine bouncing off the snow.  There wasn't a lot of snow, and very few 'cold' days.  It was very dreary. 

Now the warmer weather is coming, I hear, but we are still in drought conditions and I hope that we get some more rain to help wet down the bush.

We voted on Friday, and now I'm on tenterhooks waiting to see what will happen once the votes are all counted.  April 29 we should know...

I also heard today that my new drug - the last one left to try, unless something else comes along - will be ready next week.  I have been holding on to the last thread in the rope I'm hanging on, for so long I wasn't sure if I could last until it was.  But now I know it is coming, really, truly, I can try to tie a knot into the end of my fraying rope and make it for a few more days.  (I think I can, I think I can...)

I've been warned that not everyone gets good results with it, but the only way to know if it will work for me is to try it and see.  My pain doc will check in with me in about a month or so and to see how I'm doing on it.  The main goal is to take it and not have it cause adverse effects, so I'm being a 'special snowflake'.  And my pharmacist has worked hard to find out as much as possible about it, and then worked with my family doctor, too.  If the new drug doesn't work, I will have to go back to the one I'm currently on, but try to address the adverse effects.  :(  Take another drug to make the drug work without harming?  Sigh.

However, I'm pleased enough with the current warp.  It's weaving nicely (now that the threading mistake is corrected), and I'm using up another cone in the seemingly endless stash.  I am hoping that the new drug will let me feel more energetic (less fatigue and brain fog, with luck) and that I can begin marshalling my thoughts for the next article.  I'm pleased enough with what I'm seeing on the loom that I will be using that one as one example for the article.  I may do the next warp to use for the article, as well.  Depends on how things turn out.

In the meantime, I continue to weave as much as I can.  Massage therapist asked today if I was managing at the loom okay and I said yes.  I'm about 1/3 done the warp, so I will press on and get it off and ready to be wet finished.  In the meantime I've made good progress on the current heap of hemming, and using up more of my seemingly never ending stash.  However, with the tariffs/trade 'war' I'm wondering if I should stock up on yarn because cotton could become quite expensive, depending on what happens over the next few months.  

In the meantime, it's been great to see my stash diminishing (although not my inventory of textiles!)

It's Thursday.  I'm hoping to get the new drug by Tuesday, although that might be optimistic.  Time will tell!  (About a lot of things...)

Oopsie!

 

This warp is fairly complex and I wasn't feeling 'well' while I set up the loom and in spite of my being so very careful, I realized that I had made a threading error.  

Sigh.

The mistake wasn't all that obvious until I changed wefts and the contrast became enough that I was able to spot the issue, so when I finished the towel I was working on, I wove a much longer 'waste' area at the end of the one towel.  I had 'marked' the threading error with a coloured thread at the beginning so that it would be easier to find the errant threads to cut them, pull them out of the web, then re-thread them properly.

The sequence was supposed to be shaft 2-7, when I had done 7-2.  It didn't look horribly wrong, but once seen cannot be unseen, so I fixed it the most 'efficient' and least irritating way I could think of.

Once the 6 ends were corrected, I sleyed the reed, then pinned them to the web, adjusted the dobby chain to begin at the beginning again, and carried on with the next towel.

Yes, I 'wasted' a bit of warp, but by doing so, I 'saved' a lot more of my time - time which is precious to me.

Once they come off the loom I will use the large green weft area as a 'cut' line (normally all I do is 2 picks), and then when I serge them, I will remove the green weft part and toss it away.

We can choose what we 'waste'.  By 'wasting' a bit of 'free' (from a friend's weaving stash) I saved myself at least 15 or 20 minutes, and did not have to cut/re-tie the entire warp.  

It doesn't always turn out this way, but today it did, and I'm grateful.

Edited to add a close up photo of the web because someone wondered where the 'missing' threads went.  

The original warp threads are still there.  I cut them out in the green weft area, then, once they there threaded *properly* and sleyed, they were pinned to the web.  The 'hole' is only in the 'waste' area of green weft.

Being Heard

 

One of the reasons I started this blog was that I hadn't died in 2008.  It was, in part, a celebration of the fact that I was still here, still weaving.  But it was a struggle between this body and me, and since I 'process' much of what I am going through by writing about it, I shared what was happening here.

Now, my mother was a very 'proper' lady.  In her world you never, ever, talked about your troubles.  You just combed your hair, put your lipstick on, and you went out into the world with a smile on your face.

I was a different person, and took a different approach.

She would hate how much I've shared on here about my struggles.  If you are struggling, in her world view, you pulled yourself up by the bootstraps and never, ever, admitted to 'weakness'.  

But I learned early that everyone has struggles.  Some may be more immediate or difficult than someone else's, but we all have them.

And sometimes you just need to be 'heard' as you fight your way through the hills and valleys, the rough patches in the road, the challenging climb up the mountain sides.

I learned that we all get tired, that we need to rest - at times - and that sometimes you just need to ask a friend for support.  Mostly, by sharing what I was dealing with (rarely the full extent, just the broad outlines), it let people that were in similar difficulties know that they were not alone.

Usually I wait until I have solved a problem that I will share what was going on, in part to let people know that yes, while Life can be Difficult, you can usually find a way through.

By speaking out I feel that others, who might be similarly dealing with rocky roads, will see that I have also trodden those rocky roads, and I'm still here, still surviving.  And maybe, they think that they can, too.

So I share.  I don't expect solutions, but sometimes someone will say something that sparks a new thought, a new direction for me.  And sometimes it helps.  Generally, though, I've already tried nearly everything that I can think of, but sometimes someone suggests something new.

With that thought of learning more about how bodies 'work' (or don't), I have registered for a pain management class.  Every Thursday morning from 10-12 I will attend (remotely, thankfully) and see what I can learn.

I have tried for years to figure out what is going on with this body so I have some broad knowledge, but I'm not an 'expert' - not by any means.

This coming week I will be trying a 'new' drug - a 'hail Mary' attempt to find something that will help reduce my pain without causing other problems because of 'adverse effects'.  If it doesn't work I will likely return to the one I'm currently taking, but I will need to take other drugs to reduce the adverse effects it brings.  So, I am really hoping hard that this new drug will work for me.  As one health professional said, when it works it works well, but it doesn't always work for everyone - and you won't know until you try.

So, I am going to try.

And I will continue to share via this blog.  I don't expect everyone to be interested, but some are.  And sometimes people will contact me to share what they are going through.  I am happy to listen, and commiserate at how challenging Life can be, at times.  And I will send them positive/healing thoughts.  As I have been listened to, I will listen to others.  

This liminal time between casting my vote and finding out the results is stressful.  One political party offers support to Canadian citizens, while the other...well they only want to support people like themselves, and if you need help - like me - you should just go away.

To get through the next few days, I will proceed as 'usual' - weaving.  Starting the next article for WEFT.  Because the world will not be destroyed in an instant, but slowly.  One 'right' at a time, for one 'group' after another.

Unless.  Unless we stand up to be counted.  And in our society, we are counted by our votes.  So if you haven't yet - plan on voting.  Plan on long lines - with record setting numbers voting on day one of advance polling.  Bring a folding chair and a bottle of water and maybe a book to while away the time.  But this is *your* time to be heard.  Vote.  Bring a friend.  (We brought our neighbour who can't drive right now.)

Democracy is a participation effort.  Make sure your voice is heard.

Fallow

 

The word 'fallow' is not one that 'we' use much these days.  But it is something that human beings ignore when they should be paying attention.

When a field is 'fallow', it is not a 'waste'.  A field is left 'fallow' in order to allow it to 'rest'.  Sometimes the farmer will plant a crop that will regenerate the nutrients in the field, sometimes it is helped by the addition of fertilizers - be that from compost or bags of chemicals.

It is a recognition that the land is getting 'tired' and needs some time to recover before it can properly feed whatever crop the farmer wants to plant there 'next'.

Human beings seem to be more focused on 'doing' - instead of 'being'.  We forget at our peril that our bodies need rest.  And that allowing some time to be 'fallow' is not a 'waste' but necessary.  

There are times when I'm designing something and I will set it aside for a bit.  Then, when I return to working on it, I can see it more 'clearly'.  Sometimes I toss out what I've done, sometimes I will make small changes, correct errors.  Like with this draft.  When I split the motifs between the front and back 8 shafts, I made a progression error.  When I returned to the draft with clearer eyes, I spotted that error and fixed it.

When I write, I leave the text alone for a while before trying to edit it.  While the text is left to 'rest', my brain keeps nibbling away at it.   Then when I return to take up the editing role, my brain has had a chance to think through what information I want to convey, and consider my word choices.  Does this word or phrase make sense, or only to me?  If I want to help educate others, I need to get to where they are in order to lead them further along the path of knowledge.  Especially a craft as complex as weaving.  (Well, all of the crafts are, I just happen to know more about weaving than anything else...)

Saying that weaving is 'complex' doesn't mean that people can't weave, can't make good cloth, can't choose good projects and their own colours even while new to the craft. 

But I feel that people who know more about the complexity of the cloth/craft should try to share 'good' knowledge.  Knowledge that will help others to understand some of the complexity involved in creating cloth, so that they can make good decisions and come closer to what they want to make.  

I would say - and do it without mistakes - but I would be giving assurances I cannot, given the number of mistakes I *still* make.  The previous warp had 3 threading errors.  I *hope* this one does not.  I took a quick look at it last night and it *looks* good on the loom.  So far.

Yesterday I, Doug and our neighbour, went to vote.  We chose to vote during 'advance' polling and were confronted with a line up - something unheard of!  We didn't wait long, but I heard throughout the day that line ups continued, not just here, but in multiple locations across the country.

Now I need to leave the election 'behind' because I have done my duty and the next few days need to continue until all Canadians have had an opportunity to vote.  And for those votes to be counted.

Yesterday I finished setting up the above warp and wove about 10".  I wanted to get it weaving so I could do a cursory look for threading errors.  Finding none (that I can see) I am now ready to finish weaving the last of the linen, then tackle one of the (huge) cones of 20/2 white cotton (unmercerized).  The warp is 2/20 merc. cotton, so the contrast of the shiny merc. and matt unmerc. yarn should be a nice subtle effect that will show off the complex patterning without looking too 'op art'.

Yesterday I also emailed the text for the next article for WEFT - forgetting it was a holiday weekend.  But hitting 'send' means I have put a period on that project.  I can now clear away the clutter generated in the production of that article.  And I can move on.  That project is now in other hands, and my brain can go 'fallow' for a few days while I weave this warp - and think about what I want to write.  

Next week I should also get the new medication.  Time for me to just 'be' for a while and wait to see a) who has won the right to govern Canada, b) if the 'hail Mary' drug will work for me.

In the meantime I *can* still weave, so I will.

Civic Duty (yes, politics)

 I Voted.

When I was in high school, I benefited from having young and enthusiastic teachers.  Social Studies class became particularly interesting because they covered 'current events' and - at the time - Canada was going through some tempestuous times.  We learned about the history of my own country as the basis of understanding what was happening.  It was illuminating.

If you have never heard of the FLQ, especially if you are a Canadian, time you learned.

My teachers were thorough, covering the rights of different regions in Canada, but they were also aware of the history of The Indian Act, and how shabbily colonial populations had treated the First Nations - something I didn't know very much about, but I am grateful I learned about that part of our history. 

Now, some people might criticize my teachers for teaching our history, including the things that were done that weren't very 'Christian' or even very 'humane', but I have always appreciated them teaching such a broad class in such a way as to give us the facts - and then let the students make up their minds about those facts.

For me, it was 'easy'.  I had read books, not just fiction, but non-fiction, in part because I found things interesting.  Understanding, even at a rudimentary level, how things worked?  Seemed like something I should know.

Understanding how things happened in the past, helped understand what was happening then and there.  

I will never forget the day we were discussing the FLQ and the rights of Quebecois, and one student stuck his hand up and said that if the French didn't like living in Canada they should go back to France.  I put my hand up and said that given how the French had been 'here' before the British, why should they go back?

And then my teacher, one of my favourite (there have been many but I will never forget Mr. Gordon) said, I wonder how the 'Indians' (the term First Nations wasn't commonly in use in 1966) feel about sending us *all* back to Europe?

It was like a gigantic bucket of cold water thrown over me and I sat back and chewed on that thought for a while.

Now, Mr. Gordon did NOT 'turn' me into a 'liberal'.  The tendency was there all along.  I was a Sunday School attendee, then did a bible study course so that I could become a full fledged member of the church (so yes, I've been baptized twice as some 'born again' person insisted all 'true' Christians were supposed to be), and took the teachings of Jesus to heart.  

I also learned about the Crusades, the Holy Roman Empire, the Christian excuse for conquering the 'new world', etc.

My tendency to be 'liberal' continued long after I graduated high school, and my exploration of my world outside of my reality bubble continues to this day.

We are in a perilous time.  I don't know how this election will turn out.  I *hope* the alt right gets beaten back from the gates, but I doubt we can get them out of our world entirely.

In the meantime, I still have the right to vote, so I exercised that right today.  It's been referred to as our 'right to bitch' card.  But elections are not decided by just one riding (ours is historically right wing, ever more right as the months have gone by), but hopefully the majority of Canadians will get out over the next few days and vote and keep this country more 'liberal' than 'fascist'.

As I stood in line (almost unheard of in this riding! - I expect the numbers to be surprising) and thought about my father and father-in-law and other family friends who served in WWII.  The least I can do is get out and cast my vote...

3D and Weaving

 

Yesterday I finished pressing the towels from the warp I wet finished over the past few days.  

As I pressed, I got to see the cloth from different angles from what I usually view cloth from, and I was reminded - yet again - that cloth can have a 3D effect, especially when weaving an 'unbalanced' cloth - as in weaving more weft on one side with more warp on the other.

The whole subject of 'balance' is difficult for some people to understand, in part because we can refer to a cloth as being 'balanced' or 'unbalanced' for different things.

For example, plain weave.  If we say 'balanced' it *usually* refers to the same number of warp and weft so that neither the warp or the weft takes over from the other.  But you *can* use a plain weave and weave it 'unbalanced', such as for tapestry, where the weft (usually - there's that word again) is all that is seen, or warp faced, where the weft is pretty much invisible, hidden by the warps.

This draft was designed over 8 shafts, but since I would not have enough heddles on 8, I split the threading and used the first 8 for a repeat, then the back 8 for a repeat, etc.

Apparently that was a little bit too much for my brain to process because I made not one, not two, but three threading errors, in spite of working slowly and carefully.  So this entire warp is 'seconds'.  I have not decided if I will sell them as such, or just give them away.

Yesterday I gave my doctor a pair of tea towels (I mean, everyone can use a tea towel, right???)  He said I didn't have to do that, but I know how hard everyone in health care is working right now (especially), and I want to express my gratitude to them and the best way I can do that, I feel, is to give them some of my weaving.  Because my health care 'team' is literally keeping me going right now.

It's too soon to tell how effective the injections in my back are going to work, and my pharmacist and family doctor are working together to get me the 'hail Mary' drug, hopefully by the end of this week, or maybe next.  They were still working out the details yesterday.

At this point I no longer hope for pain 'free', but pain 'less' would be good.  And being able to sleep would be great, too. 

Schrodinger Day

 

This week has several 'Schrodinger" days in it.  Right now I am waiting until it is time to head to the hospital and get the injection in my back.  And then - hopefully - tomorrow I might hear about the new drug I have asked to try - even though it is off even the 'off' list of options.  Last year I changed pharmacies, and I'm so glad I did.  It's a smaller owner/operator business and so far I have received excellent 'customer service'.  

The new drug is a 'hail Mary' option and I've been warned that it doesn't help everyone (well NONE of them helped thus far without adverse effects that are just not tenable) and I feel like I have to at least *try* and see if it will help me.

Yesterday I spent what energy I had on pressing (half of the towels ready to be pressed) and then threading.  The threading draft is quite a complex one, made more so because I didn't want to shift heddles on shafts so I split the threading between the front 8 and the back 8 shafts.

After I get the injection everyone tells me I'm to take several days of 'light duty' so I have the rest of the pressing to do, and then the final polish/edit for the current article.  If I can see my way to getting that into the mail today, I can cross that one off the list.

I'm of two minds about that article, but ultimately it will be the editor who will decide if it is appropriate for the magazine.  However, if it is not, I still have time to re-write it.  One of the advantages of not waiting until the last possible second to finish a project!

In the meantime, I have sort of put the next article aside until I can clear my desk off and focus on it.  In the meantime this warp is another option (the previous warp was intended for the article, but I'm not entirely sure if I'll use it).

Yesterday I booked the guild room to do a weavers get together on May 25 at 1 pm.  Hopefully I should have my hard copy of WEFT magazine by then, and I'll bring the two boxes of samples I did for those so that people can see them up close and personal.  :)

But for this morning, I'm trying to distract myself until it is time to leave the hospital in about an hour.  I won't thread because I'm focused on getting the shot and will be too distracted to follow the draft.  It is just better if I sit in this liminal space, waiting to see if the jab will, or will not, work.

Schrodinger.  It is, or is not - until you find out.