Individuals

 

It is always interesting that trees, even of the same species, will sometimes turn colour at different times.

With the past few days of cooler, wetter weather, the colour has really come on in some of the mountain ash across the street.  But not all.  The one in the yard next to this one is still mostly green.  

And it's a good example of how not every individual in a species will develop at the same time.

A lesson we tend to overlook and should not.

So when I'm teaching, I am aware that not everyone in the room will learn what I'm teaching at the same time or the same rate of comprehension.  I tend to repeat things over and over again.

Sometimes people contact me and say that something I wrote recently resonated with them and are delighted at learning The Thing.

While I am always delighted to hear of such 'discoveries', I have essentially been saying the same things for literally decades.

At lunch one day at the John C. Campbell Folk School, the person sitting next to me shared that they are an educator, researching how people learn.  And what they are discovering is that if there are any 'holes' in someone's foundation of knowledge, they quite literally cannot take in any information that builds on the information that is missing - because it hasn't been learned.  Yet.

This resonated with me because I have seen the dynamic over and over again.  I will go into a classroom, usually with a vast array of experience and knowledge, some people very new, some with decades of weaving under their belt.  And time and again, the more experienced weaver will suddenly see something that they hadn't been able to understand previously, begin to make sense.

Sometimes it's fairly esoteric.  Sometimes it is really basic.  But they were missing the block of knowledge to build upon because they didn't have the foundation on which TO build.

Over the years I stopped feeling embarrassed about repeating things over and over and over again.  The way memory works is that information will go into the short term inbox, but in order to transfer that knowledge into long term storage, the mind must shut down more information coming in.  So the 3 or 4 sentences they 'miss' while that transfer takes place means that sometimes they simply do not absorb the information.  And so the hole continues, preventing the absorption of information that needs that kernel to build on.

I enjoy teaching people with a basic understanding of the craft because I hope to invest them with more of the subtleties of the craft and for that they need to have at least a partial foundation of knowledge to build on.  I also bang on about the same things, but hopefully examine them from different perspectives.  Because I don't know what someone is missing, I don't know what they have been told, I don't know what they need to take their next step in learning.  So I just keep sharing information that I feel really needs to be understood for a weaver to make good decisions.

Yesterday I finished gathering the materials for the taping next week.  Doug has done the laundry and next step is to begin filling my suitcase with what I will need for a week away.  Last minute communications with details have been examined, and I think we are as ready as we can be until I am there and the van is unloaded.  On their end they have crunched numbers, made up charts, schedules, attempted to estimate how long each segment will take so that we can re-stage for the different segments.  For 120 minutes (estimated) of finished presentation, we will spend all day getting the scenes staged, props to hand and filmed -with re-takes as necessary.  The wet finishing topic will flow fairly smoothly from one stage to the next.  The skills tape is estimated to be 240 minutes and we have 3 days scheduled to film that.  Given the nature of weaving, it will be filmed out of sequence, so then continuity is a consideration as well.  It will be four days of 9-5, very intense hours.

I'm glad Doug is going to be with me because I have a feeling that by the end of the week I am going to be limp as a rag.

But I'm looking forward to this happening and crossing all cross-ables to get it done.  The expectation is to have the classes ready for the new year.  When the class is ready to go live, I will be sure to share.  And I hope you all will spread the news, too.

Spinning

 

With weaving (plus teaching/writing about weaving) being so labour intensive, oftentimes with months of input before any kind of return comes into the bank account, I became pretty proficient at having large numbers of projects partially underway.  Oftentimes I would feel like the guy on the Ed Sullivan Show with his sticks and spinning plates.  How many could he keep balanced before they would topple off and crash to the floor?

This past summer I've been working on a number of projects, all in process, all requiring some attention in order to keep them moving forward.  

The distressing thing is to finally have to admit to myself that I can no longer keep more than just a few of these kinds of projects humming along.  I just don't have the energy or mental wherewithal any more.  

It's been...sobering.  OTOH, it was part of the reason I 'retired' (for certain values of).  I just didn't have the physical stamina or mental acuity to keep doing craft fairs, haring all over the country to teach, plus the writing and marketing of myself and my work.

Paring back what I was doing became essential, but even so, opportunity knocked and I took on the Next Big Project.  I also took on a commission, which has proven to be challenging and more time consuming than I hoped/expected.  Both of those projects have time lines that I can't miss and this has put pressure on me in addition to my health issues.  The past three months have taken more out of me than I hoped.

But!  I am managing - just - to keep both of those things ticking along and both will be done soon enough.

As the year progresses, covid continues, and hopefully things will improve.  With hope and optimism, the local Community Arts Council has determined that they can produce their craft fair, with as much protection as possible.  They have moved the event to a much larger venue so booths can be spread out further apart.  Participants and customers will have to show proof of vaccination, and indoor mask mandates are currently still in force.  I'm not expecting to attend because I'm still taking every precaution to prevent exposure to the virus.  New advice is indicating who might be possible to get a booster, but at this point I don't 'qualify' under the terms I read on the government website.  

However, the guild also plans on a guild room sale on the weekends following Studio Fair and that I feel I can participate in personally.  (Doug has offered to work shifts at Studio Fair on my behalf.  I still have lots of inventory I would LOVE to sell!)

At the guild AGM, several members said they were really enjoying the Sunday Seminars.  I may be convinced to book more in the new year.  I thought of another speaker I would love to have and who would have lots of interesting things to say about textiles.  But I'll wait until after my current crop of deadlines are done.  One more study group this Sunday, then two in October and what ever Zoom meetings are left will move to the new year.  

Autumn is definitely in the air.  And time marches on.

The Learning Continues

 

One of the attractions for me about weaving was the potential.  The vast potential involved in choosing a yarn, developing an interlacement, combining colours, textures.  

It has been a life long journey of exploration and experimentation.  One that is still not over.

Weaving someone else's designs has proved valuable to me on many levels.  Interesting to note how other people process the information and then document it.  How they work with the processes involved.  In many ways this has been extremely helpful as a teacher, seeing how other people visualize and chart the information.

As I work through the Next Big Project, it has been enlightening to see how someone then takes MY information, charts, documentation, then applies their area of expertise to the project.  

One of the things I have had to fine tune is the concept of flexibility.  As I work with students, listening to what they are asking, then intuiting what their questions actually mean, shining a light on the process that brings greater understanding to them.  Constantly turning that mirrored ball to and fro, examining this bit here, then that bit over there and how they play off each other.

It's why every short answer to pretty much every weaving question asked is...it depends.

This morning we had a meeting about the project and it was very helpful to have two other sets of eyes looking at the materials.  While one person was processing the information in terms of camera angles and set up, another set was working from more that of a student, questioning what needed to be shown.  My viewpoint was from the teaching aspect of course.  

But at the end of the conversation, I think we all came away with a much clearer idea of what will be needed on the day(s).

We also discussed further working together on other aspects of weaving that can't be covered within the framework that we are dealing with.  

This makes me very happy, to think that my knowledge will continue on, one way or another.  Not that I haven't taught a lot of people, but one person can only personally interact with so many people.  This project will hopefully reach a new audience, and allow what I know to continue.

When I 'retired' I really had no idea of what my future would look like.  I had a vague idea that I would like to continue weaving, but balked at the idea of more dark o'clock flights.  I also didn't see myself being able to do virtual teaching - I just didn't have the technology and skills required.

Now I'm working with an experienced team.  And hopefully everything will continue to move forward and the first week of October we'll get it done.  And talk about the future.

For now I have a list of samples to weave for someone also trying to teach from their point of view and needing help with the weaving end.  Because I support all efforts to get good information circulated, not just mine.  The sooner I get those samples done, the sooner I can start pulling the studio apart for the trip to the coast.

Learning

 

Another Zoom meeting under our belts.  Numbers attending the live presentations have fallen off, but that's ok.  I just loaded the recording to You Tube where people can view at their convenience.

And that's the thing.  We don't have to miss out when live events either don't or can't happen when it suits us.  Because Life Happens, and despite best intentions, sometimes you just can't get there in person, on the day, at the time.

As a teacher, I find doing on line a bit challenging.  I don't get that immediate feedback that I get when I'm there in person, doing it live.  But I've done this for a while now, and while at least one friendly face makes things easier, I have been known to do on line seminars before they became popular, due to pandemic interference in our lives.  So I'm not a stranger to talking into a microphone.  Hell, one of my first jobs out of high school was long distance operator for the telephone company.  I spent my entire day interacting with people by talking with them, trying to puzzle out what they wanted with only verbal cues.  

Teaching takes it up a notch, however.  When I came up with the on line study group idea, I figured I'd done enough Power Point presentations, both live and on line, I could manage.  

Just like weaving itself, giving a presentation on how to understand weaving is much the same.  Where do I want to end up?  What path should I take to get myself AND my students at the same place?  What visual aids should I have to illustrate my point?

Intellectual understanding is probably the easiest to deal with - physical engagement the most difficult.

But if someone really wants to learn, there are ways.  Books, of course.  I know a number of people who decided to learn how to weave, picked up a copy of Mary Black and stubbornly followed the text until they got it.

Other authors have done much the same - Mary Atwater, Elmer Hickman, S. A. Zielinski, and so many more.  

Today the group looked at lace weaves.  It warmed the cockles of my heart when several said they finally understood the difference between huck, Swedish and Bronson.

It may seem like hair splitting, but sometimes to really understand something you need to take it apart as much as possible, then build it back up again.

I'm still learning.  The samples I wove for the Next Big Project added to my foundation of knowledge as I worked with yarns I had never worked with before.  I won't say I learned something 'new' but what I learned confirmed my analysis.  Sometimes what I expected was even truer than anticipated - a thick 3 ply yarn really doesn't want to flatten, even when given a good hard press, for instance.  That cloth is thicker than I anticipated when I wove and wet finished it.  Doesn't make it bad, just slightly different than anticipated.

Since I seldom weave with a 3 ply yarn, that was 'new' information to me and a kernel of knowledge to add to my database.

It is a long weekend here, so a number of pots on the simmer will have to continue to simmer for a few days.  In the meantime, I have another silk scarf warp to wind and get into the loom

September Dawn

 

It's September, Labour Day weekend.  My iPad camera didn't do this gentle dawn justice, but shows the movement of the sun from the north, on its journey to the south.

It started to rain, shortly after I took the photo.  A gentle rain which likely didn't bring much in the way of water, but no thunder, so that was good.  There are not too many wildfires in the area where I live, and our town has been spared much of the smoke plumes over the summer.

Yesterday, after working for several (more) hours on the filming schedule and other associated documentation, I took a deep breath and decided I needed to withdraw from the madding crowd.  I'd forgotten I had wound the next silk warp, but when I 'found' it sitting patiently on my work table, it was like my past me had given future me a gift.  

I rough sleyed and beamed the warp, stopped for lunch, then went down and threaded/sleyed and lashed on, weaving a few picks for a header.  Then I stopped for a break and started weaving.

By 4:30 I'd nearly finished the first scarf.  It's going more quickly because I'm using a slightly thicker rayon slub, so fewer picks per inch.  I'm not complaining!  I've used this yarn combination before and I know it will make a nice scarf.  And because only the warp is silk, I can price them lower than for 100% silk.

Today is a sort of rest day.  I will continue working on the current silk warp, then check my laptop is working, pull the samples for the Zoom on Sunday, maybe a few books.  

Until I hear back from the team, things will be quiet, which means probably until Tuesday, given the holiday.  I'm hoping I can finish this warp and begin the next over the long weekend.

I'm feeling a wee bit nervous about these classes.  I don't feel like I know enough about how to get content into a good format, but I do know how to thread ideas together.  So I've relied heavily on my past experience and the little bit I DO know.

In the meantime, covid continues, but the number of new cases in BC dropped on Friday, so fingers crossed the newer more strict measures will do the job and we can start tamping the virus down.  Selfishly I really want these to work so I can go to Vancouver and do the taping.  And then discuss with the team any further collaboration that might be possible.  

Time will tell.

In the meantime, we continue our slow steady progress to autumn, then winter.  Here's hoping for a much better 2022 with less covid around and more in person activities a reasonable expectation.  But if not, at least we have more options for on line things.

Gratitude

 

It was a lesson I learned a long time ago - to help someone else did not diminish me in any way.

The pandemic has been hard.  Oh, so hard.  People have had to scramble to keep a roof over their heads, food on the table.  All while dodging a virus that continues to make a large swathe of the population sick.

Since I am immune compromised I have been particularly observant in avoiding crowds, staying home as much as possible, figuring out ways to continue to support and encourage my students on line.  Just after the pandemic was grabbing hold, my computer died and needed to be replaced.  Then I bought Zoom - the professional package so I could host meetings (classes) longer than the 40 minutes the free version allowed.

I have spent literally hours writing Power Point presentations, then the actual time of doing them live, then uploading them to You Tube (unlisted, for my students only).

In many ways doing this has been good for me as I dragged myself through further chronic health issues.  It gave me a reason to get up in the morning and keep going.  

This summer I have also been re-writing my material to hopefully wind up in another on line class.  Even though I've done this kind of thing before, it's still a lot of effort to review, then re-write the material for another look at how threads get turned into actual cloth.  

As I pore through the books in my personal library, I am reminded of the countless weavers who have gone before, learning the technology that was available to them, recording the information for as long as the weaving community finds it useful, valuable.  I am grateful they preserved their knowledge for me to learn from.

And now I put my perspective onto the information, and hope to share what I know about textiles, how to turn thread into cloth.

All this week I have been at the desktop, sifting, sorting, thinking, considering.  Is this important?  Is this necessary for someone to know?  How can I explain it better than I've done before?  What examples will illustrate the process best?  Have I woven enough samples?  

And last but not least - will anyone be interested enough in what I have to say?

Because yes, Impostor Syndrome is a thing and I still question myself.

But regardless - I also know that sharing what I know takes nothing whatsoever from me.  Telling people my 'secrets' does not remove knowledge from me.  

So I will continue for as long as I can, to shine a light on the creation of woven cloth.  It is something I can do from the isolation of my studio, my computer, my internet connection.  And hopefully - covid willing - getting as much of what I know on tape as we can manage.

We are in the midst of an upsurge in covid where I live.  I am really hoping very hard that the numbers start to come down so we can drive to Vancouver the first week of October and get the taping done.  

Stay safe everyone.  If we ever meet irl, I'm a hugger.  But if you aren't, I'll respect that.  Just know that I am...

Two Months

 

It took just two months to go from a very low case count to routinely running around 650-800 cases of covid.  Per day.

Today the BC health officer held a press conference to answer questions about what will happen now that numbers are rising, not just in a couple of hard hit regions, but the more northern, more geographically remote areas of the province.  Including my town.

The announcements of limited access to *non-essential* events to only people who have been vaccinated seems to have spurred renewed interest in people finally getting vaccinations, but yesterday also saw a slew of protests by the anti-crowd.  They targeted hospitals, making life difficult for people who are sick or needing tests that could only be done in a hospital.  And showing the utmost disrespect for the health care workers who have been working their asses off to try and help people who fell ill for the past 19 months - not just covid patients but anyone who has needed health care.

Thankfully my appointment for a CT scan was today but I left the house a bit early just in case there were any lingering pockets of angry protestors.  There weren't, and I sat and read my book.  The waiting area was not full, and some of the chairs had been marked 'do not sit here' to enable at least a modicum of spacing.  And of course, everyone was wearing a mask.  Properly.

I haven't heard the full report of the press conference, but our town has shown a sudden growth in cases over the past 10 days, which is all very concerning, especially with school starting next week.

In the meantime, I'm hoping that more stringent measures will 'save' Thanksgiving (in October in Canada) and (selfishly) my filming dates, the first week of October.

To that end I worked on the schedule again today and now I'm going to work on the weave-a-long project for the class.

I'm not sure I've done the spreadsheet correctly, but I'm going to send my more extensive notes (7 pages!) with more detail than is needed in the spreadsheet.  I figure they can take what they need and ignore what they don't.  But it's information that will keep me on track during filming.

I don't have a script, so I just wrote out a Coles Notes version of the topics I want to cover, in the order I want to do them.  The hardest part was estimating the times.  But just giving it my best guess, I have 236 minutes scheduled with an estimate of 240 minutes for the class.

Now, if I could only pretend I knew what I was doing when I did that.  (Impostor Syndrome is strong!)

At this point in time I am nearly ready for the trip.  There are still some things that need to be done, but the biggest part of the job is there.  I just need to find my written notes for the project, not just the drafts.  Either that or I do another yarn wrap to figure out epi, then crunch the numbers for width/length for an actual project warp, not just a sample warp.

Little by little, day by day.  We get through this.

August Ending

 

Yesterday I worried away at the filming schedule for the Next Big Project until my brain felt like old porridge.  Not wanting to think anymore, I took the silk warp I'd wound the day before, rough sleyed it, beamed it, then threaded/sleyed/lashed on.

I needed enough concentration to do that job that I didn't have any surface brain left to keep worrying at the schedule, which was exactly what I needed.

The warp was ready to weave on by 4:45 but other than weave the header, I decided I had done enough for the day.

Today I heard back from the team and the information I sent for topic 1 is now in their hands.  I promised to get topic 2 finished up and sent to them later in the week.  I only have one appointment on Thursday, now, so I can focus on honing the second topic.  I know they need time to do their jobs, too.

Of course as I was dropping off to sleep last night I remembered something I had forgotten to include, so will have to add that in - preferably before I forget it again.

I had to go to the lab today to get some blood work done and as part of my trip outside the house I braved one of the larger supermarkets** because it has a clothing department and they appeared (according to their website) to have gotten some new stuff in.  I made a list of four items, found one style of t-shirt (not on my list!) that might do.  I had the choice of precisely one colour that had three shirts in my size on the rack and then I looked for another 15 minutes for a 4th shirt - it didn't have to be the same colour or style but it had to fit the same requirements - solid colour only, no graphics or logo.  Beyond that, a colour that wouldn't make me look like death warmed over (beige, lime green, coral - not!), preferably 100% cotton, no lycra to cling to every contour of my body, long enough to cover me.  To my standard.  And sleeves, preferably short but something.

Eventually I found a dark navy blue shirt which *might* be ok - but I will see what else I have in my closet before I buy more t-shirts.  I have plenty, just not solid colour with no graphics or logo.

No stripes or other things that would cause strobing under the camera, like a small repeating pattern.  So in spite of my finding shirts I would happily wear, I couldn't because of the strobing effects.  And with potentially 3 days of filming for topic two, continuity means I need 3 identical shirts, because we will be filming topic two out of sequence.

This morning I managed to weave about 30" which meant I could roll a couple of lease sticks into the cloth roll to protect the woven web from the large-ish lumps of the knots.  If I don't do that right away, I usually forget.  The distortion will come out, but it's annoying to 'fix' them when putting a couple of lease sticks in to bridge the lumps is so easy.  /*\  

I have quite a bit of this dark royal blue with magenta and not much in the bamboo yarn that would go with it so I dug into one of my other bins for some of the hand dyed semi-solids I got a dyer to do for me.  Found exactly the right shade of blue with a very light degree of change in the colour so I'll likely do both of the scarves on this warp in that blue.  It's a rayon with a little bit of a slub in it and it finishes up nicely.  The scarves should have nice drape.  I'll see what other colours are in that bin for the next warp.

Over the weekend, I downloaded the application for mail-in ballots and that is ready to go.  I will be voting in this election.

**Yes, I was concerned about going into such a large store, but figured mid-afternoon on a Monday wouldn't likely be too terribly busy.  It wasn't.  There was also a large sign at the entrance saying masks inside were mandatory, and I don't think I saw a single person in the store without one.  And all appeared to be wearing them properly - covering both nose *and* mouth.  Which made me feel comfortable enough that I spent a good 20 minutes looking for something there so that I didn't have to go to yet another store!

Challenges

 

I have never been one to shrink from a challenge.  I like puzzles.  I enjoy learning things.  I like sharing my passion with other like minded folk.  I've been called a story teller and I'm happy with that label.

But I have had a lifetime of it.  One of the questions I ask myself - almost daily lately - is...when have I done 'enough'?  When will I be satisfied?  When can I say I don't need to push myself anymore?  

These are all good questions and deserve answers.

But I don't have any.  Because I just don't know.

Are there still people who want to know what I know?  Are there still people who care about what I say?  Do I care if anyone does?

I have enough ego that the answer to that last one is...yes.

I care about helping people who are struggling to find stuff out - about textiles primarily.  I care about people who feel overwhelmed and at sea, not knowing the way forward.  If I can be a beacon, I try to shine a light.

But I've been doing this for 40+ years and I'm tired.  OTOH, I still see people referencing my information and expressing gratitude, so I keep going.  I keep trying.  I keep learning and then sharing what I have learned.  Because the journey to knowing stuff never ends, if you don't want it to.

I'm currently reading Finding the Mother Tree by Dr. Suzanne Simard.  In this memoir she writes about her childhood, growing up amongst the forests of BC, then trying to figure out why some forests thrived while others died.  Her journey through the humus and root networks of trees and fungi, as she dug deeper - quite literally - into how and why an ecosystem works and what allows it to fail is fascinating.

I'm particularly interested in how she crafted her research experiments - the things she hoped to learn and the things she *actually* learned.  And how she has had an impact on forestry in BC - and beyond.

Now forestry is a pretty niche area of expertise, not unlike textiles, really.  So I have been reading her book and absorbing her journey and thinking about what, if anything, I can contribute now.

It's been a pretty stressful few years.  I was reminded yesterday that it is just 4.5 years since my mother died - a period of time that feels eons longer on the one hand, and just yesterday on the other.  

Because those 4.5 years were filled with many stressful things - house renovations, travel to Europe, the death of another friend from cancer, finally finishing the writing of  The Intentional Weaver, dealing with my own health issues, shutting down my business, the pandemic.  The list goes on.

This past month I have had to come to grips with my own health, yet again.  Accept that what is currently affecting my life will never get better - it's chronic and not subject to being 'fixed' - all I can do is learn, as best I can, to live with it.

And so I am forging ahead with my Next Big Project, partly because it might be my last kick at the can to get some of my knowledge 'out there'.  

Since publishing The Intentional Weaver, I have sold a number of copies and every month - until this one - I have hit my payment threshold.  But not this month.  Not yet.  I self-published.  Any marketing I did was all me - and the people who chose to share the info with their friends.

So if you have found my information helpful - either Magic in the Water or The Intentional Weaver, you can do me the favour of a shout out.  The link to Blurb is in the lower left of the screen, or just go to Blurb and search for my name or the title(s).  They can be purchased as printed or PDF versions.

And if you are looking for a really good book, whether or not you are interested in forestry, do find Dr. Simard's book.  Highly recommended.

New Tricks

 

If it was easy, everyone would be doing it...

Over the years I have worked with spirit duplicators and Gestetner stencils.  Used a dictaphone to do transcriptions.  Typed on a manual typewriter and an electric one.  The height of technology was the Selectric typewriter where you could change the font ball.

Computers came along and I figured out how to use WordStar and eventually to compose on a desktop, which required a whole nuther part of my brain.  Now I can't imagine how I used to write magazine articles, generate weaving drafts, class handouts etc., without a desktop. 

I even got pretty good with Power Point and Word.  But the one thing I did not learn was Excel.

And now I have to.

As a weaving teacher my technology choices have changed over the years and I continued to learn how to make those programs work - as best I could.  But becoming technology proficient wasn't the end goal - it was just another tool and I learned enough to make each one do what I needed it to do.

But now?  Now I have to finally learn Excel.  And I'm not happy about that.  I'm a weaver, not a geek, Jim!

After pouting about that for a while last night, I got up this morning to discover that it wasn't a bad dream - no, no, I do still have to tackle Excel.  

Sigh.

When I set out on this journey, I had a pretty decent idea of what needed to be done.  I was already conversant with cut and paste options and pretty confident that I could get the information into a format for students to use effectively.

But as computers become more common, the production values went up and the expectation of the students to have quality handouts in their hands raised accordingly.

With Zoom meetings, those expectations seem to just keep going up.  Now weaving instructors are expected to have video with high production values as well as graphic artist level slides in their presentations.  

And I'm tired.  I'm supposed to be retired (for certain values of), not learning new technology.  (OK, old technology, but new-to-me.)

However, I have done the prep work.  I have the information in a format that *I* can process.  How hard can it be to enter that into a spreadsheet?

I guess I'll find out this morning...

Next Phase

 

Yesterday I finished weaving the samples I'd planned for the Next Big Project.  Today I started pulling samples I've woven for previous classes on the same topic as well as some of the tools I will need to do the demonstrations.

There are still more things to add - more samples, more tools - but much of the floor space behind the Megado is already taken up.

In some ways I wish that my samples had more cohesion - more visual compatibility.  But I'm not sure it matters all that much.  Something for everyone.  And the samples will be seen individually, not all at once like in this photo.

So the samples in the foreground are to *be* wet finished.  The samples in the background are *already* finished.  Some of them have loom state samples to go with the finished samples - an important reference to help people understand what wet finishing actually accomplishes.

Tomorrow I will begin the 'fine' sorting.  What I have.  What I want to do when.  How long to allow to do the demonstrations.  Once I have the schedule worked out - as best I can - I can start to pack everything into bins.  Once I've done that, I can add the rest of the things I want to bring - my copy of Magic in the Water, the box of samples that I did for the GCW certificate.  The other tools to put with this stack.

Of course I will need one of those tools before the first week of October - the small press.

Once this topic is fine tuned with approval from the team, everything can be packed away and I'll begin the next topic.  That topic will be mostly process, but will also need a bunch of tools packed up.  

Balancing between packing up a big chunk of my studio and continuing to work in my studio will be the big challenge.

I have another project that will begin on Aug. 30 and for which I will still need my studio to function.  Once I have the final instructions for that, I will have a better idea of how much time to allot for it and which tools I'll need.  But the press will absolutely be needed.

How did I learn to do all this stuff?  By paying attention, just like I learned how to weave.  I paid attention to how teachers conveyed their material.  I paid attention when it worked well, and when it didn't.  Not to criticize, because not every teacher is 'good' for every student, but I wanted to avoid pitfalls I saw while emulating the things that worked - not just for me but other students.

I also took classes in video production, was a camera person, learned how to frame a shot, how to pan, how to zoom in - and when one might want to do those things.  I learned that you need to hold a shot for x amount of time so that the viewer could focus in on the content and absorb it.  It drives me crazy when I see amateur video footage that pans wildly, left, right, up, down, never settling on one spot long enough to actually see what is happening.  

When I did my own video work back in the early 2000s, I kept framing tight and viewpoint static.  My video clips were short and to the point.  Not a lot of talk, lots of doing the process in as clear a manner as possible.

I know I have a tendency to 'drone' a bit, which is why I like an audience.  It reminds me that they need to hear a voice modulate, emphasize things that I consider important.  A little humour helps lighten the mood, and I use a mild self-deprecating kind as much as possible.  Because if we can laugh at ourselves, we will be endlessly entertained.  And I'm not so proud that I can't act as a bad example. 

Doing this sorting took less time than I expected.  I have a lot of samples, but many of them are simply 'repeats' and not necessary for the taping.  So I put them away and kept the 'best' of the samples to share.  One thing about having lots to choose from?  Lots to choose from!

Today was a lot cooler and the weather forecast for around here seems to be slowly sliding into autumn.  I can't say I'm very upset about that, given the number of wildfires still burning in this province.  And I'm hoping for some concrete news about covid tomorrow.  There are rumours that the province will hold off on reducing any more covid mitigations - at least until numbers improve a lot more than they currently are.  Hopefully the trip will happen and we won't have to worry about it so much.  But we will plan on eating in our hotel room, not in restaurants.  And, as much as I would like to visit the Museum of Anthropology at UBC if there is time, I'm going to skip that for now.  I'm just going to keep being cautious until things are a lot more improved on the pandemic front before I plan on going anywhere there might be a lot of people.

Moving Forward

 

So, yesterday I signed and returned the contract for the Next Big Project.  All while casting a wary eye at the provincial case numbers of covid, which continue to rise in an alarming way.

The first week of October is far enough away that 'we' can still turn this around.  So I continue working on what needs to be done.

My responsibilities were laid out in the contract in fine detail, which is great.  I have a plan.  A blueprint.  A map to follow.  I would have done much of what was set out anyway, but they are a team, and they all need to know what I'm going to do so that they can do their jobs, too.  So instead of carrying my plan mostly in my head, I will need to set everything down on paper.

I'm nearly done the weaving I needed to do and once I take the final warp off the loom (Saturday now, because yesterday I spent a fair chunk of time checking over a four page contract and emailing with a couple of questions)

Once I'm done the weaving part, I will lay everything that I want to include in the presentation out - as in physically lay everything out, on the floor, so I can see it all.  The Big Picture.  Once I have the Big Picture, I can start to group the content into segments.  Once I have the segments, I need to start estimating the time required and also?  The staging.  What equipment will I need for each segment.  What other visuals - signage, labelling, additional visual aids.

And this is just for the one day taping.  

When I'm done with that, I will begin on the 2nd topic.  No actual weaving required for that one (beyond what I've already done) but lots of lists for equipment needs, visual aids etc.  Plus timing.

It's a good thing I have done time studies all of my career because I am going to have to work out how long it would take me to do something, then add in the time to explain what I'm doing, time for the on camera student to practice the process and more time to add additional pertinent camera angles.

And so on.

And this, folks, is why I could not see myself teaching on line when there was only me.  I have confidence in this team - I've seen some of the things they have produced so far and I'm happy with their production values.  After skimming the contract, I'm also happy with the level of detail they are working with.

But there is also a corner of my brain that knows that we are still in the midst of a pandemic, with a growing fourth wave, wondering if this will all come to naught.

In the meantime, our hotel room is booked and we will be talking to someone about taking care of the house while we are away, planning on how to load the van up with all of the Stuff I plan on bringing with me.

My innate pragmatism won't let me forget that I need to have a Plan B (C, D, etc.)  But my optimism will keep me on track.  Especially now that I have a firm deadline by which to be ready to roll.  The adrenaline can come any time now, please - I can use it to get me through the coming weeks.

More Progress

 

fresh off the loom

One of the things about getting older and living in a body damaged by time and, um, experience (a gentle way to say pushing it too hard for too many years) is coming to grips with new expectations of what can be accomplished in a day.

So even though it seemed to take 'forever' to get these two scarves off the loom, I did it.  And now the fringe twisting will begin.

I did a bit of a dive into my silk yarn stash and found the dark olive first and was ok with it.  It's definitely different and it works.  It just isn't to my personal taste.  But it looks good and I'm pleased enough with it.

The second scarf was woven in a mid-eggplant kind of purple, which went with the warp very well, although it isn't very 'exciting'.  But that's ok, too.  Again, I'm pleased enough with it.

I now turn to the last three new yarn samples I have.  The hope here is to get them all done by Friday.  But if I don't make it, that's fine, too.  I'm well ahead of where I wanted to be and quite enjoying the calm.  It's taken me a while to get used to not having RUSH deadlines and working by using the rush of adrenaline I used to count on to carry me through to a deadline.  

Instead I am working at a much slower pace and paying more attention to my body and it's need for rest.

Once I get these last yarn samples done, I will need a chunk of thinking time to block out the shooting schedule, manage the content so that it will be presented in smaller doses than I've been doing on Zoom.  I think a lot of people are finding the Zoom lectures difficult, in part because there is So Much information to absorb.  And with life returning to more 'normal' in many places, people are finding it difficult to set aside two hours to watch, either live or recorded.

So I'm looking for the possibility of doing the Zoom lectures with higher production values in smaller chunks as a 'class'.  I'm talking with the same team in part because I like their approach and the classes they have already been producing.  I like that they are flexible and encouraging and have the skill set I don't have - video production.

I am also a bit anxious at the growth of the fourth wave of covid, unsure if or how that might affect the schedule this autumn.  But if it does, I will swallow my disappointment and postpone until later - even into next year.

Because I now understand that progress is not to be made at all cost but only if it is safe.  I'm not doing in person presentations, but virtual.  And so I don't have to forge ahead willy-nilly.  I can hold back until it is safe.  I've always strived to be flexible, and so I am calling on my resources now to work on Plan b, c, all the way to z if I have to!  And so far the team is willing to work with me, support me and be there to pick up all the pre and post production that I cannot do myself, nor do I want to learn how.  I'm too old and too tired to learn all of that when I know enough about how it is done to realize that I don't have to do it all, by myself.

So, let's just say I am taking the time to enjoy the more relaxed pace and focusing on taking care of my body.  It's the only one I will get issued and it needs to last a few more years.

I still have way too much yarn to use up, after all!

Making Plans for the Future

 

I wanted to have some silk to wet finish and since I have a, um, generous supply of it, went digging.  I found enough of one colourway to make a warp long enough for two scarves and started weaving the first one yesterday.  I nearly finished it, but my new way of living is to pay more attention when my body begins to object and instead of pushing through the last 20" yesterday, I stopped and will finish today.  The goal is to get this warp off the loom tomorrow.

Part of the challenge with a shrinking stash is finding colours I want to use together.  The warp is a dip dyed skein (four of them, 50 grams each) in fairly loud colours with that bright magenta and a blue that has quite a lot of cyan in it.  It's fairly brazen, really, and I searched around for a while until I found the weft for this one - a very dark olive.  It looks quite nice in real life - the camera was having trouble getting a good representation of the actual colours.  

The dark olive toned down the magenta.  A lot!  It turned the cyan into more of a teal.  I have enough of the olive I could have done both scarves the same, but if I'm going to think ahead to the autumn and the guild sale, I'd like to have more colour choices, so I dug around again and found a deep purple.  That should work well with these colours as well.

Because value is more important than hue.

I still have a lot of the dip dyed silk left but I'm low on solid colours to weave with, so late last night I quite literally threw my hands up, looked at my other options, and decided I will weave the silk as warp, then cross it will one of my rather large selection of rayon yarns.  Weaving something only half silk means I can keep the price lower and since I've done this combination before, I know I'll get a nice textile for my efforts.

Once this warp comes off the loom, I have three more yarn samples to test weave.  I aim to do one a day, and have all of the weaving for the Next Big Project done by the end of the week.  Then I'll keep going on the Leclerc (the Megado is being reserved for some ghost weaving I've been asked to do) and whittle away at my hand dyed silk and rayon yarns.  It means fringe twisting will be piling up.  However, since I am restricting how many hours I weave, I can be fringe twisting during the day and hopefully stay on top of it.  And then, of course, the wet finishing.  

But in the end I should wind up with a few more silk+ scarves for the guild sale.  I'm meeting with another guild member tomorrow night to discuss how we will manage the sale, given the continuing covid issues.

In spite of the world seeming to be going to hell in a hand basket, I will keep looking forward.  Planning for the future.  Hoping for the best (while preparing for the 'worst' - in this case postponing the NBP).

Sampling is Research

 

Required weaving content - draft for single end huck

The past few days I've been messing about, working on the Next Big Project, whilst keeping a wary eye on covid numbers.  I choose to believe that we can, and will, grapple the Delta variant and stop it, hopefully before my deadline.  But I will have to make a decision soon in order to book a hotel and begin preparations for the journey.  But not quite yet.

For now I'm doing a fair bit of rummaging in my files because I am still doing the Zoom study groups.  And as part of the rummaging I found a Power Point presentation on lace weaves which I can take, just the way it is, and use for #10.  The final presentation will be on wet finishing, of course it will.  Because it isn't finished until it's wet finished.

Plus lace weaves are one of those weave structures that can change quite dramatically in the wet finishing.

So, a good way to end the series.

In the meantime, the heat is back with a forecast here of 30C and higher humidity than we are used to.  Yesterday I didn't get much done after both massage and chiropractic adjustment, but I did get the initial sampling done on the next warp.  I'm not used to weaving with such thick yarns so the weaving tends to go a lot faster than I usually experience.  At 12 epi/ppi, the inches add up very quickly.  

But I also have administrivia related to the Big Project and my goal today is to address the next step in that as well as - perhaps - finishing the current warp on the loom.

After that I have three more 'new' yarns to experiment with.

All of this sampling?  It's my research.  It's how I learn more.  It's how I add more bricks to my foundation of knowledge.  Sampling is never a waste of time.  

I'm hoping that some of the research I did for the Guild of Canadian Weavers master certificate can be incorporated into the Next Big Project(s).  Because even if you can't (for reasons of time or economics)  do the weaving/sampling for yourself, you can learn from the results of others who have.  Best, of course, is in person.  But next best thing is virtually - in books, photos, on line classes.  

In the time of a viral pandemic, we have to accept what is workable, what is do-able and stay focused on what is possible, not on what isn't.

Another point a number of people have made is accessibility.  Not everyone can travel to take an in person class.  A number of my on line friends have expressed gratitude for finally being able to connect with instructors on line because they have never before been able to attend in person.  Lack of funds, ability to travel long distances, whatever barriers were in their way were suddenly removed because everyone (pretty much) was learning on line.  And they benefitted from that.  

So I think there may be on going need for on line learning in some form.  In the meantime, I will keep a positive attitude, but figure out a Plan B, just in case the fourth wave keeps building.

Pandemic Plans

 

Pandemic times means pivoting to other ways of doing things.

One of the things I had done as part of 'retiring' from production weaving was open an on-line account with ko-fi.  As the pandemic ground on my inventory grew, with little opportunity to sell anything since large gatherings - like craft fairs - were cancelled.

Well, the large craft fair I do here has been cancelled again, and rightly so given the rise in the Delta variant.

However, I am trying to add listings to my ko-fi 'shop' and last night added the ones fresh off the press.

They, along with some other towels can be purchased there

Payment is easy via Paypal, or if you are in Canada, etransfer.

If you don't see something you like, email me - I have more.  Lots more!  I'm just trying to keep my listings a manageable size and at times suspend one design as I add others.

I'm actually really pleased with the above design.  There are now 7 of this one, with an additional 4 woven with the plyed 16/2 (not mentioned in my ko-fi listing but available) - a slightly lighter colour, but a bit thicker/sturdier than these with the darker 8/2 weft.

If they don't sell, I might just keep them for myself.  

In the meantime, work on the Next Big Project continues.  This morning I'm fringe twisting the scarf I wove yesterday.  Then a bunch of the woven samples will go into the washing machine to be fulled.  I thought long and hard about how much I could show in a day's worth of taping, and I think just one example of fulling or else there won't be time to talk about anything else.  Instead I will have lots and lots of woven and finished samples to show/discuss.

In many ways I feel like weaving all these samples isn't much different than a farmer honing their scythe.  Preparing to do the work sometimes takes as long as the work.  Longer, even!

Pom Poms of Encouragement

 

I've been having stress dreams again.  This time not related to travel, because I'm not - traveling that is.

Instead the dreams are vague, disturbing concoctions, all jumbled up with covid and climate change.  The two plagues upon us at the minute.

The weather forecast is saying temperatures are going up into the 30s again, which is very bad news for the wildfire situation, although this morning we are having a light rain.  Any little bit of moisture and cooling is welcome.

News out of the south east of the province is not good, nor the middle where the White Rock Lake fire is spreading so fast that people who were evacuated are now under alert and need to find somewhere else to go - along with the communities that took them in.

I try to compartmentalize things so that my worry for friends and citizens of this province doesn't overwhelm me.  I try to focus on the future - a future without covid, a future where we finally deal with the effects of climate change.  A future where it might be possible for people to travel to take classes in person again.  

And if not, at least be able to access information on line.

I continue to plod along with my plans for my own Next Big Project.

But then I dream.  And when I wake up, carefully pack those feelings of unease back into a box in the back of my mind.  

Lately they don't seem to go easily or willingly.

On a more positive note, I found a Power Point I had written a couple of years ago so I don't need to worry about the Zoom study group #10 and I can ignore that until September when it is time to present it.  In the meantime, I have the next sample warp on the loom.  The sample looks good so I'm going to go ahead and weave a scarf, fringe twist it, then wet finish some of the samples I've woven the past week.

Yes, I had lots of samples.  But I didn't have samples of *these* yarns, appropriate for the Next Big Project.  So I bought more yarn and wove some.

And I keep going, looking forward with hope, shaking the pom poms of encouragement to anyone else having stress dreams...

Slow But Steady

 

stack of loom state samples to be wet finished

This little pile may not look very impressive, but represents the better part of 8 hours of effort, not counting all the thinking and planning, the winding of skeins onto cones, the rummaging through my shelves, the trip to the local yarn shop to buy the yarn.

There are a variety of memes going around, one with a cross section of an iceberg with the tip showing above the water and the majority of the berg below the water line.  Much of weaving resembles that sort of image - the actual woven cloth is only the last bit of effort that people can see.

The same is true for teaching.  Again, the hours of thinking, planning, working out logistics, acquisition of materials, all before any actual teaching can happen.

The two cones in the background are the next yarns that will be sampled.  I have enough yarn I can then take what I learn from the sampling and begin to make an actual item.  In this case, a scarf.

The deadline to have my materials (all of them, not just the woven samples) ready is Oct. 1.  I have several more warps to plan and weave, none of them very large, but the loom needs to be dressed for each of them.  The samples will be different fibres, different grists of the same yarn blend, different weave structures.  All to show the length and breadth of the topic.  And that's just for the one topic.

And all of this effort may come to naught, depending on Life Happening.

Add in that I'm ghost weaving for another weaver, also with tight deadlines...

We now have nearly 300 wildfires burning, small towns have been burned down, some entirely.  Another larger town is currently under evacuation alert and may very well need to move to safety if fire crews can't get it under control.

Plus covid.  It's a double edged sword right now with entire villages needing to evacuate in the middle of a virulent pandemic.

Interesting times.  Interesting times.

Can we have a little 'boring' now?  Asking for a species....

Teaser

 

Yesterday I started weaving the samples for the Next Big Project.  

I have been running numbers, examining the content, working out how best to present the material.  

This morning I woke up at 6 am and the thought squirrels immediately began running rampant through my brain.  Not able to shut them up (or off, or whatever) I finally gave in and got up.  

We have another hot day coming up and I will happily spend the time at the loom finishing this warp and then getting the next warp ready to weave.  I don't know if there will be time or energy to start weaving that one, but getting it into the loom will feel very good.

I am now at the point where I am having trouble fitting everything I want to say into the allotted time.  Because there are so many It Depends things to cover!

Nothing in weaving is set in stone.  It's all a spectrum.  It all depends.

If I do nothing else in my life, if I can convey that to a core of weavers who can continue to teach, I will feel I will have accomplished something.

I don't know that I have the spoons to do one more Big Project, so I am pouring everything I have (which isn't much) into doing this one.

And yes, I'm teasing.  It means a great deal to me to pass on my knowledge, and the way I do that is to let people know what I'm doing.  It will be up to them to decide if they are interested.  Or not.

I would also like what I do to be somewhat eye appealing, so I am hem stitching all the samples on the loom.  There are other things that can be done, from serging to gluing.  But for the purpose of these samples, hem stitching is the 'best' approach.  Never mind it takes longer to hem stitch than weave each sample.

People talk about not wanting to feel pressured to work efficiently.  For me it is the only way I can work.  Some people seem to think that working efficiently is to hurry.  To somehow not enjoy the process.  Not feel every thread pass through my fingers.

I can assure everyone that when I wound this warp - by hand - I felt every end.  When I beamed it, I did it manually.  I threaded every end into the heddles and every end into the reed.  My hands are throwing the shuttle for every pick and making each stitch in the hem.

The fact that I am efficient just means that I can do it in less time with less effort.

This is not inherently bad.  It is just a by-product of working with small motions instead of grand ones.  Knowing my processes so intimately that I don't have to stop and think, or forget things and have to backtrack.  Except of course when I DO forget, and then I have to fix that.  Fortunately I don't forget very often, and when I do I can usually come up with a work around.

With any luck and no fourth wave of covid, this Big Project will go ahead on schedule and be available in the new year.  

Stay tuned.

Next!

 

Today was a little bitty day.  (A little bit of this, a little bit of that...)

It started with pressing a batch of towels, which took longer than 'usual' because they were a bit on the wet side.  Plus there were 16 to do, not 8 or 9, which has been my 'usual' batch of late.  However, the fact I was able to do all 16 in one go was an indication of slow improvement - although I'm paying for it now.  I should have stopped at 12, but by that point I was soooo close to finishing them all I pressed on.  (Sorry {not sorry} about the pun.)

After a long break for lunch I headed back down to the studio and started clearing a path through the rubble.  The press was cold so it got put away on the floor and I worked on crunching numbers until I figured out the best approach for the sampling I need to do.  Since I'm expecting more ghost weaving work to do as soon as next week I need to stay on top of my deadlines or I won't get everything done.

With numbers crunched and a couple of plan Bs for the two warps that are next, I wound the two warps, then rough sleyed one of them before I took another break.  My feet were really not happy by this point, but never mind.  That's what Tylenol is for, amirite?

It was a fairly short break because I wanted to beam the warp and maybe even get it threaded.  So again, I pressed on.

Sitting to thread was welcome and with such a narrow warp and 'fat' threads, the threading went quickly enough that there was plenty of time to sley, too.  At 8 epi, I would have used the 8 dent reed, but really the four was fine and took half the time.  

So there it is, all tied on, ready to go.

I couldn't face getting down on the floor to put the tie up back to my default - I had to change it for the last set of samples - so that will get done tomorrow morning.  Or maybe tonight when I go back down to shut the studio up for the night.

We had a bit of a reprieve from the smoke today but the temps are high, 28C last time I looked.  Might be higher now.  

I'm hoping to get the 8 samples I need woven tomorrow, but if I don't get all of them done I will make a dent in them.  And then the next warp, another 8 samples.  After that, I'll put a cotton warp on.  I've already decided on the threading, just need to crunch the numbers.  It will be a shorter warp as fewer samples will be required and should go fairly quickly as well.  If everything goes smoothly, the first set of sampling for the Next Big Project can easily get done in the next few days.  

She says, optimistically...