Cycles

 

Yesterday I started beaming the next warp in the never ending series of tea towels.  I was a bit hard pressed to get enough spools, but decided to make a serious attempt to use up more of the bits and bobs of 2/16 cotton (dyed) as I could.  There were enough of the pale grey to do half the warp, then a scattering of different values/hues of blues.  What is left now, is mostly various shades of beiges and likely enough grey to do one more warp.  I will decide how to approach the coming warps as the time goes by.  Things are uncertain and I have no idea if the new drug protocol will be effective in providing me with additional comfort, enough that I can feel at ease enough to weave.

However, I did manage to beam half of the warp yesterday and will get the other half done today, body willing.

Weaving is labour intensive and can be physically demanding.  And I've been doing it for a rather long time.  Most of the current issues are not from weaving, but weaving doesn't leave much room for resting or recuperating when an injury happens.  Not to mention the level of stress of being a self-employed weaver in the 20-21st centuries where such labour isn't well recognized.  

However, what can I say?  I'm stubborn.  And I was willing to work hard.  So I did.

One of the things I thought about the past while, is how much weaving is like life on this planet.  There are seasons, and plants and animals need to pay attention to the seasons, move from one place to another to ensure food.  Weather the storms and the fair weather.

Being a professional production weaver was much the same.  There were sales at particular times and places for which I had to be prepared - adequate inventory, new designs, able to produce to meet demand.

As I beamed this warp yesterday, I thought about the processes involved in the craft and really *saw* the cycle.  Come up with an idea.  Think about it.  Look at it this way and that.  Do a tentative rendition of what I was thinking of making.  Looking it over for potential problems.  Check my yarn inventory and see if I had enough yarn in the colours I wanted to use - or not.  Order more yarn if not.  All while weaving the warp on the loom.  Because if I didn't overlap the new with the old, I would have an empty loom.  And an empty loom didn't make an income until it was dressed and I was throwing the shuttle.

Then the post weaving (shuttle throwing) - cutting/serging, inspection/repair, wet finishing, hemming (if that was going to happen) and then a final press.  And then, *then* tagging/labelling/pricing.  And then store the finished items ready for the next sale.

The hardest part right now?  Leaving time for my body to rest/recuperate from doing as little as I can manage.

And so I turn to one of my other 'jobs' - writing.  I now have two manuscripts that I am 'review' reading - or will do as soon as the second arrives, any day now.  

That 'job' has it's own cycle.  The review reading is different because I not coming up with the idea for the article, but reading the words of others to give my opinion on what they have done.  There are a number of reasons to have someone else provide feedback - the big one is that, as a writer, especially a lengthy project, you lose all perspective on what you have done.  And sometimes getting an outside opinion is necessary to provide that perspective for the original author.  It is not a role that I was familiar with, but knew in my own experience of how 'lost' you can get and how much someone else's viewpoint can shine a light on what you have managed - so far.  The truth is, any major writing project has a very similar arc as any other creative endeavour - it's own rhythm, it's own cycle.  Anyone who takes raw materials and turns them into something 'new' has to become familiar with the process, and give the project the time to plant the seed, water it, fertilize it, add to it when and where necessary, and do the finishing steps, whatever they might consist of.

Whatever I can do to help others (as others helped me along the way) I will do.  

As for now, today?  I will get dressed and see if I can manage to beam the rest of this warp.  And then we'll see what else I can manage.  Because I have some reading to do, as well.