Snow Subtle

 

You might want to biggify this - the effect is subtle and not really seen.  One might wonder why I bothered, knowing that the effect of the original loom state (See Jan. 14 post) cloth and the now wet finished state would be...I mean, why?

Well, I wanted to find out, that's why.  (And they WILL dry dishes, so....)

I'm nearing the end of the single 6 yarn with high twist energy, and having messed around weaving twills and watching them distort into a texture that could be guessed at but not entirely known, I wanted to know - what happens when I do this?  Interesting?  Or meh?

I still have to hem the towels, and truth be told, I'm  not sure I'll bother giving them a 'finishing' press when they are, because - in large part - the whole point of making the cloth was to develop a 3D effect.

I did have one more weave structure I thought about, but I've done that one before, so I actually know how it wet finishes.  And frankly, I'm done fiddling with the high twist energy.  For now.

It's annoying to try to wind the bobbins, although steeping them in the humidor for several days (longer is better) helps with weaving with it.  But when I inspected these with an eye to fixing any 'pigtails' I looked at the rest of the texture and thought...donwanna.  

So I've set my determination to 12, and I'll finish the rest of this warp, and then the rest of the single 6 will go away - for now.  I'm tired.  Not just of weaving with a petulant weft, I'm physically tired of struggling to deal with chronic pain.  And I want something else to 'fondle' for a while.  And the silk spools are just sitting there, patiently.  I'd kind of like to start working on something other than my fine cotton stashes seeing how close I am to being out of so many colours, which limits my choices.

I have enough 2/20 merc. cotton that I can do a couple more towel warps, and try to use up more of my miscellaneous stash of linen, but again, not now.  Maybe come summer when the relative humidity is a bit higher.

In the meantime, I need to follow the 'new' regime to manage my pain.  The doctor seemed impressed I had put a number of pieces on the game board over the holiday.  None of them quick fixes, but I keep trying.  We'll review the infusion today in four weeks, see if it is doing very much.  I may need to continue with therapy for a while, figure out the entangled mess of my trauma/anxiety, and how that is fueling the chronic pain.  For anyone who wants to know more, I'm reading the book with Gabor Mate' called When the Body Says No.  I'm beginning to learn way more than I ever expected about how the body systems are so delicately balanced, and when they start going out of whack, how our health can be affected.  The book is about 20 years old so there are probably newer resources, but this one is geared to the layperson, especially if they or someone they care about is dealing with trauma/anxiety.  75 years ago no one recognized birth trauma - for the mother OR the infant.  So I'm doing this at 75.  Better late than never?

Today I keep 'easy' and will continue that for at least two more days.  Maybe more.  I'm told the infusion doesn't always kick in right away, and my body was already 'fighting' it (hence the therapy - in hopes of breaking down the barriers my body had put up).  I have other things I can take to help, but it's a good idea to take a few days to let my body start to figure things out.  

I am trying, for once in my life, to be kind and gentle with my body.  I hope you are doing the same to yours.

Inching Along

 

I have managed to get to the loom and pick away at the current warp.  Today I will finish weaving towel #6 on the warp, cut off, re-tie and begin the 2nd third.  It feels painfully slow, but...on I go.

Because it doesn't seem to matter if I weave or not, the pain I live with daily goes on (and on and on...)

Right now I am doing the difficult work of changing - from within.  If I can.

It is never easy to pause and reflect on oneself.  Things that have been repressed for a lifetime don't want to easily change.  We set up barriers, protection, and it feels dangerous to take those away.

But I have learned that it is even more painful to NOT do the work and attempt to change what needs to be changed, as difficult as it feels in the moment.

It isn't like I've never done that before.  I sought help in my 30s and did the work to heal as best I could.  I got to the point where the immediate issue was addressed, but a half a lifetime later, I realized that I stopped too soon, and just set up different barriers.  Different coping mechanisms.

And my body absorbed it all, protected itself the best it could, and now it is tired.  Worn out.  And *I* am exhausted.  

Of course current events don't help.

The only thing I can do is try to heal myself.  Whatever that means.  I will keep trying, keep working on myself.  

I don't yet know if the treatment for the peripheral neuropathy is 'working'.  All I can say is that the pain appears to be changing.  For the better - or worse - I don't yet know.  But it is a hopeful sign.  

Doug got the rest of the studio re-organization done - at least enough that the table for the table loom is now available, and for my light duties after the infusion on Wednesday, I can weave on that loom.  I'm looking forward to doing that, and then getting the article written.  Hopefully they will be pleased enough with what I do.  

I'm tempted to toss the 6 towels into the washer and dryer, even though they will make a very small load, because I'm interested to see how they transform in the wet finishing.  Also something I could do as 'light duties'.  I may succumb to the curiosity...

I also have a couple of visits from local folk to look forward to.  So I am trying really hard to stay focused on the future, keep encouraging new(er) weavers, and continue the work on myself.  These are things I can control.  I cannot fix the world, but maybe I can make my little corner of it feel a little bit better.

Keeping On, Keeping On

 

I'm in the 'slog' part of weaving.  OTOH, since I *enjoy* the weaving part, it's not actually a 'hardship' for me.  It becomes a working meditation, a dopamine dump, an endorphin rush.  

Mostly what I'm doing right now is preparing for the next treatment (Wednesday, if anyone cares to send positive energy my way), and trying to not get my hopes up for what will happen during the treatment.

I have started counselling.  I am trying to keep a positive outlook, without going overboard and expecting a magic miracle.

We seem to have zeroed in on the major issue for one of my problems, the one actually causing me the most grief at the minute, and begun treatment to encourage healing.  In the meantime, I still have pain, and I'm hoping to get some relief from that while the healing takes place.

There isn't a lot of energy for me to do like I used to do - plough through.  

One of my counsellors recommended a book called When The Body Says No by Gabor Mate.  I have been picking my way through that, trying to engage with my body so that we can work together - to both our comfort level(s).  

I have been working on being 'kind' - as kind to myself as I tend to be towards others.  I'm recognizing my trauma and the anxiety that my trauma sparked, and which was reinforced (because reasons) for my entire life.  I have been the poster child for the meme 'feel the fear and do it anyway'.

Weaving is helping me keep 'sane' and rooted in my reality.  It reminds me of the purpose I chose in this life.  I wanted to production weave for 25 years, then teach for 25 years.  Instead I did both at the same time.  Well, that 50 years is now 'up' and I need to really - and carefully - examine my life and how I want to spend what is left of it.

Again and again, I want to help others.  Answer questions - not just for my own edification, but to share with others.  It seems I have come through the brain bleed with my brains more or less 'intact' and a good friend who keeps me pointed in the right direction word wise.  I still make 'mistakes' and sometimes I will correct them, and sometimes I don't bother.  Just like with weaving.  I've gotten a lot less demanding that I only show 'perfect' work.  Because frankly, my mistake can be subtle enough that no one but me (or someone very experienced like me) can tell they are there.  But they will still do their job (dish towel, scarf, whatever) even if they have a flaw - just like humans can.

Doug has continued to work on the studio re-organization.  He'll deliver about 150 pounds of rayon chenille* to the guild for the stash sale, another friend will get about 30 or 40 pounds more.  I've given a small box of a very fine wool (both in grist and feel) to a friend and will include some fine wool for a guild member to 'buy' at the stash sale.  

I'm nearly 1/3 done the current warp, and once this warp comes off the loom, I will begin working on the silk cashmere.

So I continue to make plans, but leave myself the space (and grace) to change my goals if my body says 'no'.  I'm trying really hard to listen to her now.

*and yes, bagging up that much yarn was a real wrench - I know how much I paid for it and to just give it away was really really hard.  But the guild will benefit (I hope) and once it is out of here, I will be able to cut any leftover emotional ties about the yarn and move on...

Riding the Avalanche

 

Just started weaving this warp yesterday.  So far, so good.

However...

There is an 'easter egg' in this cloth.  The warp is 2/20 merc. cotton at 36 epi; the weft is singles 6 with energy (high level of twist - which if you look closely you can see evidence of in the little 'pigtails' in the weft just above the fell) and it is weaving in at 32 ppi - which was what I had guestimated.

The threading is quite simple, over 16 shafts, and the tie up is: 1:3:1:3:3:1:3:1 and the treadling is as drawn in.

Now I'm not claiming that some weaver somewhere, some day, hasn't done exactly this threading draft.  But I would venture to guess that no one has used this precise yarn combination before.  I could be wrong, but, it's not a common thing to do.

Why am I doing it?  Well, I am *trying* to use up as much of my stash as I can.  I'm down to the last large mill cone, plus the bit of cone that was left over after finishing the previous warp.

Am I tired of coaxing the single 6s to 'behave'?  Yes.  Yes, I am.  Even though there will likely be a rather large amount of yarn left over, pretty sure I'm 'done' with this yarn.

And since I have not done a wet finished sample, it's a mystery what will actually happen.  There will be *something* happening, though.  The degree of twist energy is significant and it has done something 'interesting' every other time I've worked with it.

Will the effect be pleasing?  Dunno.  I have faffed around and will find out...

Stay tuned in a couple weeks to find out when I do.

Reply Guys

 

I'm no stranger to 'reply guys' trying to 'teach' me things.  Mostly I ignore them.  Mostly.

Recently one replied to a short answer I wrote in an online group to 'teach' me because my answer 'wasn't entirely correct'.  Of course it wasn't. It was a very brief response to a specific question  - a question that would require a chapter in a book  (perhaps - ahem - above) to fully address, with all the 'it depends' factors.  He implied that I was ignorant - or purposefully obfuscating.

It was obvious he had little to no idea of my background in educating new weavers, or the leeway I allow for personalized solutions based on the weaver running the experiments, weaving the samples, figuring out what the hard and fast facts are, and which rules can be mangled to create something specific.  So, no, I didn't cover all that in a short paragraph.  No, my answer wasn't 'complete'.  But my goal was not to be complete, because I tried to come close(r) to complete in The Intentional Weaver.  If he had read it, he may have been able to see more of my very targeted message to a new weaver, struggling with a very specific issue.

Because until the weaver has laid down a solid foundation of knowledge, it is hard to begin to understand the underpinning mechanics and physics of the craft, and then tweak what you do, and how you do it.  Until that understanding is solid, the new weaver stands on a shaky foundation.

But I took some time to reflect on my career.  I thought about my approach, how I talk to very new weavers, trying to work out what their current issue is, give them enough information to move forward, to grow their knowledge base, learn for themselves the dynamics at play.  This cannot (imho) be whiffed away because I am not 'completely correct' about the craft as a universe, I am merely trying to bring each individual forward by one more step on their quest to learn.

As for 'breaking' or 'bending' the rules, I am constantly pushing, tweaking, tugging here, there, finding out where those actual boundaries are.  Of *course* my answer was incomplete.  New weavers cannot be confused by all the variables or they (most of them) collapse in confusion.  It is too frustrating.  Too difficult.  You don't talk to a 5 year old (usually) about calculus!  Or if you do, you use appropriate language.

So, I stand by my brief answers on chat groups.  That doesn't make me 'wrong'.  It makes me a thoughtful, considerate teacher, trying to answer the explicit question.  

I told the reply guy that I prefer to teach 'best practices', but he took exception to that, too.  

It was just another reply guy in my 50 year journey of exploring the pathways and boundaries of this craft.  

I will never forget the day when I answered a question on a chat group, from someone who wanted to set up his AVL in a very specific way.  Since I used my AVL* in specifically that way, I decided to answer, because all the replies had - to that point - told him he would 'ruin' his loom abusing it that way.  I probably should have answered privately, but I was on a quick break from the loom and needed to get back to it because I had a deadline - and weaving was how I earned my income.

So I quickly explained what I did, and went back to the loom.

A while later I came back to see if the OP had any further questions, and was met with a dog pile of several 'reply guys' all calling me ignorant, that I was abusing my loom, I was going to destroy it, and I needed, post haste, to hie myself to Chico and take classes so I was using the loom 'properly'.

Since I had been using the loom in precisely that way for literally 20 years, and no sign of damaging it, I closed the desktop and went back - to abuse my AVL some more.

When I went back later, Allen Fannin had responded to the reply guys saying (I paraphrase) that we (Allen and me) had agreed to disagree on a number of things, but when I said something people need to pay attention because I knew what I was talking about.

I was stunned at the public support from someone as knowledgeable as Allen Fannin (who had very firm opinions) and I have never forgotten the vote of confidence from him.  (Yes, we agreed to disagree about a number of things - but I respected where he was coming from and the knowledge his opinions were based upon - but change one thing and everything can change...)

So, while I have never articulated this before, here is where I stand - I have learned a great deal about this craft.  I have learned (generally speaking) how most people learn.  I have learned that you don't do an info dump about all the levels of complexity onto a brand new weaver.  I try to build their foundation of knowledge by adding the complexity in stages and letting them fit that information into their foundation of knowledge when it begins to make sense.

And I am not afraid to bend and mangle the 'rules' when I need to do so to create something specific.  But I will continue to try to teach 'best practices' and *then* remind them that when one thing changes, everything can change, and try.  Weave the samples.  Examine them.  Learn from them.  Do what you need to do.  FAFO, as they say.  But don't just throw out the 'rule book' without considering *why* there is a 'rule book'.  

Learn as much as you can about your materials, and your equipment.  I have made many modifications to my equipment over the years.  When people recoil in horror, I reassure them that I understand the basic principles of the mechanics involved, the physics, and have an in-house woodworker who *also* understands mechanics and physics and has the workshop to do quite extensive modifications if we both agree that is the best thing to do.

So no, my 100 word (at best) answer to a question on a chat group was not meant to cover the entirety of the possibilities that were available, but to give a new weaver having problems an answer.  An answer that they could grow their foundation of knowledge further and more usefully with.  Set down some 'boundaries' - for the now moment.

My knowledge is far greater than I generally share with new weavers.  It is too overwhelming.  Too confusing.  But I'm delighted when I find someone who wants to go forth to discover those complexities and we can talk subtleties.

It depends on which 'hat' I am wearing in the moment.  

For anyone at all who wants to know more, you are welcome to this blog, or my social media.  You are welcome to email me with specific questions.  laura at laurafry dot com

My books are still available at blurb.

My classes are still available at:

School of Sweet Georgia

Long Thread Media (classes and articles in back issues of Handwoven)

And if you *want* more subtlety, more in-depth knowledge:  WEFT Magazine

Now that I'm 'retired' (and dealing with health issues making life...challenging) I am finding solace and, indeed, therapy, by continuing to weave.  Continuing to ask why.  Continuing my personal journey of learning and exploration.  WEFT seems interested in what I look at, and my journey of learning while I do.  And they don't insist I have definitive answers but accept that it is huge, this craft.  And it may take more than just one person poking at it to bring more information forward for all of us to benefit from.

(now descending from the current soapbox...there's a loom that wants setting up...)

*Jon Violette told me just before he left AVL for other pursuits that Doug and I had essentially beta-tested the AVL Production Loom - me by using it *as* a production loom, and Doug by making changes TO the loom to make it work better.

A Tiny Blue Dot (CW warning - current events)

 

yellow line represents the divide between the US and Russia

This morning I read a post that explained that the current president of the US said that he 'didn't want to be neighbours with Russia'.

About that...

The current president has also said - repeatedly - that he wants to destroy my country economically so that he can annex it.

Why, if he doesn't want to be neighbours with Russia?

He is so confusing.  Because taking over Canada would mean that he would be even more 'neighbourly' with Russia than the US currently is.  

I constantly see posts by people who don't believe we live on a globe.  And yet even Google knows that we do.

People don't understand why flights take such stupid flight paths - because they don't ever look at a globe and find out that things in reality are different than what a Mercator projection makes it look like.  Compare Greenland in this photo to what you see in a Mercator projection.  And think about how perceiving things changes depending upon your view.

I grew up in a 'remote' town in the middle of the province of British Columbia.  The nearest big city was 500 plus miles away.  Edmonton could not be reached by road until the 1970s - unless you went south to Kamloops and used Highway 1 through the Rocky Mountains - a journey of around 800 miles (we were still using Imperial measures until the mid-70s - or north to Dawson Creek and then down to Edmonton - another 800+/- mile drive.)

On the other hand, I benefited from some really excellent teachers and they addressed things like the role of that radar base just outside of town, and how the US and the USSR would use Canada as their battleground instead of fighting on their own land.  It was a sobering perspective during a sobering time.  Kind of put international 'relations' in perspective when you realize two other countries are perfectly willing to destroy a 3rd (yours) because it makes a convenient battleground.  (And USians wonder why I'm not a big fan of US international policies.)

On the other hand, I read.  I read voraciously.  I read things that were far beyond what my life looked like, or what it promised me - a child of a blue collar worker who never actually attended school, and a 8th grade drop out from Montreal.

Living in a remote mostly forestry based resource town, far, far away from any large metropolitan centre, there was no higher education to speak of until the 1970s when a college finally opened.  The university was started in the early 1990s, because the community worked to make it happen.  The locals petitioned both provincial and federal governments, who stonewalled and stonewalled, and finally one of the locals asked what it would take to get the government to be open to funding a university of the north.  The government spokesperson whiffed and said "$1,000,000".  The spokesperson flew home from Ottawa, jumped on the local radio talk show and said 'ok, people, we need a million dollars to show Ottawa and Victoria that we are serious.  Send your donations asap."  I forget how long it took to raise the money but it was a matter of weeks, not months.  In 1994 the university opened their brand new campus high on the hill overlooking the valley the town sits in. And now?  We have some professors doing incredible research, pertinent to the north of Canada.  

All because there were enough people in this town who knew how to look at a globe and see the connections to others that we should never forget.

Over the years I have made a specific effort to break down my reality bubble.  Learning how to weave was the first step because I quickly learned that when it comes to weaving, change one thing and everything can change.  When I learned to begin to apply that to life, generally, I began to understand what was going on.  When I then started to apply that to human behaviour, I really began to see how people build barriers to understanding each other.  

We cannot keep going the way we are going with 1/4 of humans more than willing to kill off the rest of us.  We cannot assume that every person has the same motivations as we do, even when they proudly, loudly, proclaim they are followers of this religion or another.  Because most humans have little understanding of the very religions that they profess to follow.  (Sad, but true.)

I have turned into a curmudgeon in my later years.  Because I am old, I'm in my twilight years.  I have no family beyond me and my spouse.  (I do, however, have many many younger friends, who I care deeply about.)  So I have little to lose by speaking out when I see injustice.  

For decades I have stood quiet when I saw things that were wrong, not feeling that my voice would - or could - (or did I even *want* to) change anyone's minds.

But there is a meme going around that finally rattled my cage:  I do not speak out to change the others; I speak out so the others do not change me.

My speaking out has made a number of people uncomfortable.  I know, because they have angrily let me know.

Their anger is displaced.  I am not the one doing these things.  I am merely pointing them out.  If the Nazis came to rule Germany - and attempted to rule the world - built on the shoulders of good people who did not object - well, then I am going to make sure that I let people know that what is going on is wrong.  It is wrong by every metric humanity has attempted to build into human society.

As one single voice, I have zero to no power.  But if I can make just one person think?  Well, I can still write.  I can think.  I can share my conclusions.  I can encourage others to break out of their reality bubble and look at a globe instead of a Mercator projection to begin to really SEE our world.

So, no, I will not be quiet.  Not any more.  

Books - Unexpected Gifts

 

I have read multitudes of books.  I love reading.  I love learning stories, fiction and fact, examining new places, people, how humans deal with stress and happiness and everything in between.

Sometimes I stumble across books, sometimes a friend will recommend one, sometimes I will see an ad online and something catches my attention.

So it was with this one.  I don't remember where I learned about it, but if the author was going to talk about 'thrums', I was intrigued.  There was mention of grandparents being croft weavers, and I assumed there were going to be lots of stories about weaving.

Well, there are some stories about grandfathers weaving and sharing some of their knowledge, but Alan Garner is a weaver of words, not threads.  I'm not all that different when you come right down to it, honestly.  (As a weaver of threads AND words, I can see the similarities...)

Anyway, the public library didn't have it in their collection but it wasn't all that expensive, and that little inner voice that I've learned to listen to urged me to buy it, so I did.

It was only a little bit of a disappointment when it arrived and I realized that there wasn't that much about the weaver grandparents, but there were stories.  And essays.  Poems.  

Today I was reading it again (I can only read in little bits these days) and on page 162 read a passage and went a-HA!  This was the passage that I needed to read!

Given the way of the world right now, I've been struggling to justify weaving.  I'm 'retired' (for certain values) and I no longer have any 'need' to weave because I'm trying to weave down my stash and get rid of my inventory of woven goods.  But weaving is *also* part of my therapy right now, so I feel compelled to keep getting to the loom.

He was telling a story about meeting a astronomer/cosmologist and discussing a lot of things.  At one point the cosmologist considered leaving his profession when he felt it was being used to advance 'war', and briefly considered entering the priesthood.  But then "a bishop said he would do more good by staying where he was, since creativity is a form of prayer."

Garner then followed that conversation between the bishop and cosmologist by observing that Dylan Thomas was saying 'Creativity is prayer.'

I literally sat back and closed the book to think about that and let it sit for a while.

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear, it's been said.  I have no idea why I felt compelled to buy this smallish book.  But this morning, when things were looking rather bleak in the world, when there is so much uncertainty, and danger feels far too present...somehow I felt how much that statement rang true in my ears, my brain, and in my heart.

Another book that Doug found mentioned on FB yesterday that I requested.  I feel it is the type of book that the public library *needs* in it's collection right now:  Humans; the 300,000 year struggle for equality written by Alvin Finkel.  I don't know if the library will bring it in.  Again, it's not a terribly expensive book, so I will buy it to read myself, if they don't add it to the collection.

OK, found a photo of the cover:

I have read other texts about very deep/ancient history.  I find it fascinating to think about my distant ancestors, how they lived.  What they made.  What they might have thought.  The gods they worshipped, the government they may have had.

And how, in truth, we are more like them than most of us would be willing to admit.

Complexity. Subtlety.

 

As a new weaver, it gets confusing to try and figure out things like weaving drafts.  What do those little black boxes mean?  How do you get plain weave on this weave structure?  Where are the odds vs even treadles that weave 'tabby'?

It can be frustrating to make sense out of what you *know* to be true - tabby or plain weave is always, always odd shafts vs even shafts.  Confusion reigns.

It can be really hard to break through that wall of absolute certainty - because 'My teacher told me tabby is *always* odds against the evens!'

Yeah, about that...

Sometimes teachers are just plain wrong, or they gave you a nugget of the information, not the whole picture.  Simplifying for immediate use, not to understand the larger complexity and/or subtlety of the craft.

Plain weave (or tabby) is when every thread alternates such that a plain weave interlacement can be achieved.

If you look at the draft above, which is an 8 shaft Bronson Lace, take a close look at the tie up.  See the two treadles at the far left?  One treadle is tied to just shaft one.  The other treadle is tied to shafts 2-8.  *Those* are the plain weave treadles.

If you want to weave plain weave across the warp, you alternate those two treadles for as many times as you want plain weave.

Other weave structures will present with different possibilities - based on the threading sequence and what you want to achieve by manipulating the threads to weave the design you want.  

Some new weavers are anxious to do the 'fun' stuff, leap into the very deep end of the pool and find they don't actually know how to swim.  Not because they can't - they simply haven't learned enough to stay afloat.

Going to bang my own drum, blow my own horn...

The Intentional Weaver, written for my Olds students (and any other newer weaver) to help put some of the subtleties of the craft under the microscope.  My other books are available as well - Stories from the Matrix is a series of essays looking at the craft in various ways, some teach actual weave structure theory, others look at various 'historical' stories, some 'attitudes' (mostly mine - sorry, not sorry), or things that intrigued me in the moment. And of course my very first book, Magic in the Water. 

A Thread Runs Through it is a 'memoir' of being a professional production weaver for the best part of 45 years.  That one is available (pdf only) at my ko-fi shop.

Online classes:  

School of Sweet Georgia - four classes - looks at some of the lessons I wrote about in The Intentional Weaver.

Long Thread Media - two classes - and lots of articles in Handwoven over the years

WEFT magazine - articles in every issue - so far - with more lined up.

I will do my best to answer questions on groups online, but for more detailed explanations, read my books, or if you can't afford books or classes, check out the labels here.  I've probably written something about most things here.  And if you have a mystery that you just can't figure out, you can email me laura at laurafry dot com.

Tugging At Threads

The Intentional Weaver

Talking to someone the other day who was feeling overwhelmed about how much there is to learn.  I suggested that they try to find the end of the thread and then follow it, wherever it led.

We all learn in our own ways, following our interests.  With a craft such as weaving, the journey is long (if you want) and can lead you down myriad paths.  The abundance of books, magazines, classes (in person and online) gives plenty of opportunity to discover more than you might have expected when you set out on this journey of discovery.

OTOH, it was what initially attracted me - I could see that I was standing, not by a small pool, but the shores of a great ocean.  

Someone tried to 'school' me yesterday by 'correcting' what I said (or what she *thought* I said) citing her 30 plus years of weaving.  I scrolled on by, tempted to see her 30 years and raise my 50...

Some people read *a* book and assume that they now know all that they need or want to know.  And there is no need for every weaver to know everything there is to know.  Point of fact, it's impossible.  

Sure I have made rugs.  But I'm not a rug weaving expert.  I've done art pieces, but I don't consider myself a textile 'artist'.  I've woven with many different fibres in many different formats - but not all of them. 

The fact is, I'm not terribly interested in weaving more rugs.  They are physically hard on a body and mine is loudly letting me know it is not willing to do that anymore.  But do I know the principles of making a good rug?  Sure.  I've even made some.

I've woven window coverings, bespoke garments, fashion accessories, and literally tons of table textiles.

I want to add some 'beauty' to everyday life.  It's a tried and true approach to life evidenced by archeological finds - functional things made beautiful when it took buckets of time and effort to spend the extra time making them  beautiful.

This morning I got a nice email from a former Olds student and I encouraged them to find a new path to follow to continue learning.  Weaving is largely a solitary activity for most of us.  But we have the internet.  We have study groups.  Online communities.  Classes.  Workshops  Goodness knows, I've posted my links here often enough I feel stupid repeating them.  I'm not hard to find, goodness knows.

In the meantime, I continue to deal with my aging body, best I can.  For now I need to bear down and continue with the program.  I'm just not a very patient person, so waiting is never done 'patiently' but with much grinding and gnashing of teeth.

Today we have sun, though.  And I have a couple of maintenance appointments.  And that warp to thread, if I can.

If you need me, I'll be tugging at threads...

Where Ideas Come From?

 

Here is a 'tease' - something I'm working on presently.  What is it?  My surname's first letter.

I am - or was - a production weaver, constantly looking for ways to work efficiently (and ergonomically, of course!)

I learned a technique about using pick up to extend the limitations of a shaft loom and once I saw the possibilities, I worked quite a lot (for me) with the technique.  I no longer have the pick up Bronson Lace piece I did for the Guild of Canadian Weavers level 3 since I donated it to the chemo infusion unit at the cancer clinic here in town.  

Since I had no idea what to do with it, and saw that other artists had donated pieces to brighten up the unit, I gave them the piece.  Is it there now?  I have no idea.  I have not needed further chemo infusions and that is not a place that I want to set foot in, if I can avoid it.  (Which I'm doing quite well, thank you for asking...)

When I started teaching more frequently I used the technique in one or two of my workshops, usually rendering the motif as a 'monogram' suggesting people could personalize their textiles by weaving the Initial(s) into the cloth using pick up.  

I had an alphabet that I had saved since I was using it quite a lot (some of the scarves have appeared here) where I wove words into the cloth.  Those were loom controlled because my AVL had 16 shafts.  The alphabet I was using (and I tweaked from a book) consisted of 10 blocks in height and woven sideways, made it possible to use a variety of loom controlled words.  Plus the computer assisted dobby, of course.

This one reads 'create joy'.  Others said 'imagine'.  Or other things I wanted to weave into my textiles.  I felt very 'clever' when I did it.

But there is NO secret about how to do this.  It is not, however, a technique suitable for a quick blog post, nor for a comment on a chat group question.  

So I'm currently weaving samples in Bronson Lace in which I will show how it works to pick the monogram up in that weave structure.

This is NOT a technique for newbies.  (Sorry - not sorry!)  As a weaver you have to understand certain things about weave structures, how they work, how they can be manipulated.

However, the article is scheduled for 2027 - so you will have some time to study up on, for example, Bronson Lace, so that when the article appears (if it does - many a slip betwixt cup and lip) you should be able to read through the text, study the profile draft, then understand enough in order to leap off the cliff and fly?

Weaving.  The craft that keeps on teaching.  And you can continue to grow and expand with it.

Hopefully people will continue to subscribe.  There are some extremely talented and very knowledgeable weavers who are writing for WEFT.  I am privileged to be included.  

How It Feels

 

burn, baby, burn....

One of the most difficult things to do is to explain how you are feeling to someone else when you have no point of commonality.

When I tell someone my feet hurt - how can anyone else know what that means?  Hell, I can't figure it out myself, how can anyone else work it out?

I've been reading as much as I can about peripheral neuropathy*, and inevitably they have diagrams showing the affected portion of the body coloured in shades of orange/red/yellow.  Based on the most common way most people who have this condition explain it - that it 'burns'.  So the diagram isn't wrong.  It's just...inadequate.

Trying to let my spouse know how it feels, I've used a number of descriptions.  To begin with, I told him it felt like I'd sat on my foot for too long, put the nerves to 'sleep' and it felt like they were 'waking up'.  But they never 'wake' - they just continue to tingle, twinge, *burn*.  To a lesser or greater extent, throughout the day.

I've been living with this...hell...for over 5 years now.  I gotta tell ya, it's about to drive me to drink.  Or something.

Various things have been suggested, and I have faithfully followed all of them.  For a while one would help - a bit.  Then it would get worse - again.

I had been taking gabapentin, largely to combat the SI nerve pain from the spinal column trapped in a disc.  But this foot stuff...was different.  Eventually it stopped responding to the gabapentin, and I begged for something - anything - else that was not a narcotic.  I can't take those.  I wound up on Dilaudid (artificial opioid) for a few years, until that simply didn't touch the pain I was feeling.

Eventually a pain specialist diagnosed peripheral neuropathy, and suggested Lidocaine cream, which helped.  Some.  I was told that Alpha Lipoic helped, so I got some of that, and it did help.  Some. 

Another pain specialist suggested Red Light Laser Therapy,  Which also helped.  Some.  But ultimately, the pain was preventing me from sleeping - the pain was way worse at night than during the day.  I started taking a nerve blocker, and had some relief from the nerve pain, but began experiencing excruciating muscle pain in my hips, glutes, and then down into the thighs, to the point I could barely walk.  We changed nerve blockers.  Same result.  It took over a year to go through all of the options, during which time I also fell and had a brain bleed.

And the pain never really went away.  The brain bleed was the shit cherry on top.

In desperation I tried topical ketamine.  Which helped.  But my pain doctor suggested I wasn't getting enough relief and I should try an infusion.  So I did.

Which sort of helped, but not as much as I'd hoped.  But being off the nerve blockers meant I saw some improvement on the muscle pain (hoping to increase that.)

The infusion hasn't kicked in properly - yet.  And may not.  I am poised on the brink of finding something that might actually help, or exhausting all potential treatments.

Because what I am finding out is that my body is experiencing multiple 'failures' in the way it works.

It was suggested I was not absorbing vitamin B.  I did the lab tests, and oh hey, look at that - I can't properly absorb vitamin B 12 - and poorly access two other of the B vitamins.  I'm now taking a different formula of a multiple vitamin B supplement - not a pain treatment (yet) - but a way to potentially heal the damage (some, at least) that has been done to the protective sheath of the nerves, causing the nerves to spark out of control, causing pain, inflammation and damaging the muscles that they are going to or running through.

On Dec. 27 I added another supplement that says that it is also needed for the nerves to get proper 'nourishment' and to help them heal.

Again, not a quick fix.  I've been taking the Alpha Lipoic, but perhaps the 'wrong' kind.  I need to dig deeper and find out more.

In the meantime, I was made aware of the level of anxiety I have been living with and that it might be a good idea to deal with some of the trauma I have been living with.  So Wednesday I will have my first appointment with a counsellor.  

I am beginning 2026 the way I mean to go on: try to heal this broken/bruised body, live a life with less pain and more 'comfort'.  I have noticed that it doesn't seem to matter if I weave or not, so I will try to weave for an hour a day if I can manage that.  At least get the dopamine/endorphin hit daily.

I will finish getting my studio re-arranged, then get back to the warp interrupted by the holidays and trying to clean up my studio, complete the article I started and then got stalled on.

In the meantime the next issue of WEFT continues it's way through the process.  Yes, I have another article in that issue, and frankly I am very pleased with that one.  I had fought my way out of the initial  brain fog of the brain bleed, and for the first time since I fell, started to see a bit of light at the end of the recovery tunnel.  I have no idea how much more I can - or will - improve.  But with the unwavering support of my alpha reader and the technical team at WEFT - well, I hope to continue to exploring how to construct cloth and hone one's knowledge and skills in weaving.

I didn't die on Aug. 28, 2024.  Guess I'm still here for a while longer.  Might as well keep doing what I love to do, amirite?

*peripheral neuropathy is a condition that afflicts a large number of people, generally progressing to worse levels of pain and disability as the person ages.  There are common risk factors, primarily diabetes, but also other medical conditions up to and including being treated for cancer by a chemo cocktail that contains Vincristine.  Which I had.  I had also some damage to my feet by practicing ballet, not just as a child, but as an adult student.  Plus some other things that may be causing trouble, the solution to what I'm dealing with its not straight forward and may never result in a 'cure'.  But as one of my health care team pointed out - if I don't try something, I will never know if it will help.  So I keep trying...

Endings, Beginnings

 

Yesterday I got the last warp inspected and repaired and into the washing machine and dryer.  Today I will press them.  

Weaving is a constant state of ending one project, beginning another.  

I had thought to get the next warp beamed, but what with one thing and another (Life Happens) I had not generated the threading for the next warp.  I had a plan thought out, but needed to polish it and make sure it was going to work.  

This morning I did that and polished it so that it is now weave-able.

The repeat is fairly large so I don't know if it is going to copy/paste nicely here or just be a blur or smudge on the screen.

It is my 'final' (for now????) warp in which I will use the energized 6 singles cotton for weft.  The temperatures dropped like a bucket in a deep well, and the relative humidity dropped with it.  The highly energized cotton became unruly (even more than usual) and a bit of a bear.  The penny finally dropped and I wound bobbins and put them into a humidor to steep and - while it wasn't 'perfect' - the yarn became a lot more co-operative.

The yarn is going a lot further than I expected and I doubt I will do much other than put a small dent in the last, final cone.  I may 'save' what is left (nearly a kilo) and do one more warp in the future.  Or I may donate/give it away.  TBD.

On a personal level, I am in a 'holding' pattern (holding on to the knot at the end of my rope for dear life), waiting - for appointments, for new meds to kick in.  I grit my teeth and keep going - if I can.

When things are so uncertain and feeling very unsafe, it may seem useless to keep weaving.  Keep creating.  But remaining *human* is the best thing we can do.  

To my mind that means to fight for everyone to survive these much too 'interesting' times.  I do that by using my imagination.  My knowledge.  To encourage others to do the same.  And above all, never lose sight of the humanity in all of us, even the ones that don't give a flying fig for others.

It is a balancing act.  I'm not very successful at it some days.  But for now, I keep on...

Puzzling

 

Many of my childhood memories revolve around working on jigsaw puzzles.  In our home, there wasn't a lot of room to devote to the building of a puzzle, so we were pretty much confined to 500 or 1000 piece puzzles, which we built on the coffee table in the living room.  These days, I'm still 'confined' to that size, but it is familiar, and a comfortable challenge (usually).

I came to the world of weaving well prepared to deal with multiple issues within a challenge.  To examine the various pieces.  Learn to recognize shapes, colours and sizes.  Work out the logistics of joining them up to create the pretty picture (because I prefer to work on puzzles with pretty pictures). and by sheer stubborness, eventually get them built.  (Not always.  If they are too much of a challenge, I will give up and switch to something less challenging and more enjoyable.)

Weaving really isn't any different.  There are multiple layers to the way cloth gets built, multiple pieces to the puzzle.  The weaver can (and frequently needs to) choose different pathways to get to where they want to wind up.

New weavers assume that there are hard and fast 'rules'.  Sorry.  There are hard *facts* - but then you add this consideration, that one, tweak your processes...and you can wind up making a very specific cloth for your particular purpose.

As a new weaver, you will not have the knowledge to be aware of those variations.  You will not have the facts at your fingertips.  So you ask questions.  Good.  Questions are good.

However, it would be nice if more brand new weavers would take a little bit of time and read about the 'facts' of the craft before they start tweaking the information they are given.

And then complain because what they are doing isn't working.  The designer of the project must have made a mistake.  And they are mad that the thing they chose to do isn't good.  It's someone else's fault for giving them bad information.

Um - when you chose to sley your reed at a completely different density from what the instructions specified, why are you surprised the results are...wrong?  Oh, you didn't want to do the 'hard' thing, so you did the 'easy' thing and it's not working?

You haven't bothered to learn the language, and get mad because people are not helping you properly?  

Personally I get chastised for repeatedly (and rather boringly, I admit) tell people to *sample*.  When a new weaver complains that they don't have enough yarn to 'waste' on a sample, I wonder why they are willing to waste the entire project by having it not turn out?  First of all, stop buying expensive knitting yarn.  Buy some weaving yarn.  Weaving yarn frequently comes in half pound tubes, or 6 ounce cones, sometimes even pound cones.  You might pay $30 for that pound, but you will have plenty to weave a sample.  Maybe even 3 or 4, trying various approaches.

New weavers buy a kit, don't follow the guidelines for epi/ppi, and complain the kit designer 'shorted' them yarn to make the project.

Personally, I gave up making kits - kits designed to create *two* colour gamps, then had a couple people bitch that there wasn't enough yarn in the kit I made to make four napkins.  I was called a 'rip off' artist.  What part of a kit that specified *two* square colour gamps ever equated to four square napkins?

By that time most of the people who actually *wanted* colour gamp 'samples' had bought (if they were going to) and I just...stopped.

I wrote a book that I wished had been available when I was just starting out, with the same sorts of questions new weavers have.  When I did a demo for my class at Olds, one student asked where they could find a book with that information in it.  I had to admit that no one book contained that information.  So I set about to write one.

I won't claim it is the Compleate Book of Weaving - but hopefully I sowed enough seeds for new weavers to learn more and then follow their own trail of learning.

This new year has just begun - with a bang.  I expect plenty of 'whimpering' to follow.  One person and his coterie of enablers has just done the unthinkable - except that he has been telegraphing his intentions for years.  So, while I am not surprised, I am sickened.

Resisting such actions is necessary.  Being aware of the ramifications is imperative.  And continuing to help the craft stay alive is absolutely necessary.  Weaving was one of the pillars of human beings surviving in the beginning.  It may become necessary again.  

For as long as I am able, I will continue to explore, experiment, and - hopefully - document what I have been doing.  If what I do isn't destined for WEFT, I will continue to share here.  There are over 4000 posts - so far - with many of them labelled as to topic.  If you can't find what you need, you can contact me directly.  But first?  Get a book.  Get several books.  Not 'just' mine - there are many many very good books (none of them generated - I won't say 'written' - by LLM/AI) available.  Some are out of print.  Mine are not.  They are available as usual, here.  All three titles are in pdf download or print.  They are printed in the US, so not subject to tariffs.  

Weaving is not difficult.  It IS complex.  

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

Begin As You Mean To Go On

 

I was expecting to have a rather quiet day, but in my email this afternoon was the digital version of the spring issue of WEFT.  Of course I had to immediately stop and check out 'my' article...(ahem)

I have probably mentioned previously that when the brain bleed hit I was about halfway through weaving the samples and beginning to write the text for this article.  What I had been doing was a pretty deep dive into what happens when you take some fine threads, bundle them (*not* spin them) and then try to use the bundle in place of a spun yarn.  What was a fairly complex question turned into an even more complex job of taking a badly injured brain (the bleed hit my speech centre - hell for a teacher who has aspirations to write) and then try to comb through the sinkholes in my brain looking for my words.

It was enormous support from my alpha reader and then the technical team at WEFT that I managed to produce something that doesn't 'solve' the mystery of bundling vs plied yarn, but will - I hope - encourage others to approach the subject with a bit of caution.  Because the two 'yarns' do not behave the way one would expect.

So it was with some trepidation that I caught the article in the stages of being edited, tried to provide the information they wanted/needed, and have it make some kind of sense.  When it does not follow the 'myth' of being able to take 4 strands of 2/20 merc cotton and treat it as though it is going to behave like 2/5 merc. cotton.  Because it will not.

If you want to do this for certain reasons, be prepared to sample.  More than once, if need be.  Then make sure you wet finish your samples to find out the quality of cloth that has been produced by using a bundle of fine threads instead of a spun thicker yarn.  

Maybe it won't matter for your project.  But if it does...don't assume!  

The issue has been sent out to people with subscriptions for the digital version of the magazine and the print copies will be mailed shortly.  (It is a holiday season, after all!)  If you are interested in the depth and breadth of topics being covered, do consider a subscription.

For myself, having the magazine arrive today - the first day of a 'new' year - well, I was reminded of an old adage - begin as you mean to go on.

I'm still fighting with my body, trying to keep it going when it doesn't wanna.  I see a counsellor in a week, which I'm hoping will help with some aspects of living with chronic pain.  And I have begun a new supplement which is supposed to help heal damaged nerves.  Who knows, I might find myself in a more comfortable place in this brand, shiny, new year?  Eventually?

Doug has managed to bring home all my inventory from the guild sale events over the past few months, and I've pulled an order that I hope we can get into the mail on Monday.  Once the rest of the tea towels have been put away (on the shelves which *used* to hold the rayon chenille), I will be able to set up the small lever loom again.  Over the holidays Doug cut down a reed so that I can weave my samples for the next WEFT article with the reed I want to use.  I did one sample at 24 epi, but as suspected it was just too dense.  So, 20 it will be.  The samples are small, but will show a technique for weaving using pick up in order to increase the patterning capabilities of a smaller loom.  It's a technique I enjoy quite a lot, and I have tentative designs for the samples for the article.  

Tomorrow I will finish the current warp and dress the loom with one more tea towel warp, and whatever is left of the singles 6 cotton will be donated to the guild.  Or a weaver who really wants to play with 'energized' yarns.  TBD.

I had a lot of doubts about my being able to continue.  I was feeling like a burden to the WEFT technical team, and finally confessed my difficulties.  They were incredibly supportive.  And, since I DO still have things I want to write, I have signed the contract for this article, and hesitantly submitted an idea for the one after.  

I see so many new wannabe weavers, confused, dazed by the deluge of information that is needed to get comfortable with the craft.  

All I can really urge them to do is to learn.  Learn as much as you can.  Learn how to read the language of weaving, and the 'codes' that we use to convey concentrated bursts of information.  And please stop expecting perfection on your very first warp.  Weaving is a *skill*.  It takes time and mindful practice to master.

As I look forward into 2026, I have no idea what will happen to my health.  But if I can keep writing articles to document my explorations, and try to explain some of the 'mystery' of working with thread to create cloth, I will do my best to share what I've discovered.  

With the help and support of my alpha reader and the technical team at WEFT, I'm hoping I can continue creating content for a while longer.  Because I'm still learning.  And still fascinated by how threads rather 'magically' turn into cloth.