April Showers

Another rainy day on the wet coast.

I'm not a big fan of driving in the rain, but all my stops are in a fairly small radius and so far I've found off street parking.   Not an insubstantial savings in a big city!

Had a successful meeting with the designer I've been working with and she will email an order for me to deal with when I get home.  It will take a couple of weeks to order in the required yarns, which fits right into my schedule.  There is a 30 yard tea towel warp on the AVL which has to be woven off, a scarf warp on the Leclerc, ditto, and final prep for the Big Project to be done by May 5.  By the time I'm done with the BP, the AVL should be empty, or very near, and if Doug uses the other beam and gets the warp wound using the stand it is a simple matter to swap the beams and get the order under way.

With more and more difficulty crossing the border generating more of my income in house, so to speak, has enormous attractions.

It is beginning to feel as though my road through life is beginning to smooth out.  I have accomplished many of my goals, with several more in train.  Just about time for something major to happen?   Boring never seems to last very long!

Of Lipstick and Pigs

My studio is a working studio.  As such I'm not terribly concerned about how it looks, but what comes out of it.  Being a 'starving artist' I could not afford much in the way of 'decorating' when the studio was built as I was much more concerned with moving in and being able to weave.  When a friend offered me her cast off shag carpets from two bedrooms she had just redecorated, I didn't care what colour they were, just that they were large enough to fit at each end of the studio.  They have been on the floor ever since.

The area in between the two main areas of the studio eventually became covered with an array of miscellaneous scatter mats but they had worn through in places and visually?  I had to admit they looked pretty bad.  Especially with the crew coming May 5 for the Big Project.

Still being a 'starving artist' I can't afford to replace the shag carpet - I don't have the money and I most especially don't have the time to shift everything out of the way to put new 'nice' carpet down.  So instead we compromised and bought a remnant of carpet to replace all the bits of scatter mats.

Of course there were still mounds of stuff to be moved out of the way so once again things have to get worse before they get better!

Doug is cutting out one of the pieces of plywood as a squeak has developed right where I stand to wind warps and he will try to secure the floor at that point.  I don't need to have that sound happening while I am doing the demo of warp winding!

Neglected No More

Finished the worsted sample for the Big Project this morning and then got back to the sadly neglected AVL.  For the 'last' sample for the BP I want to use the AVL - for a number of reasons.  While I can beam a 2/16 cotton warp on the small loom, it's the case where I want to double dip, so to speak.  In other words, I'd like to use up some of the legacy stash and to do that a really long warp is going to be required.  Much easier and faster to dress the warp sectionally and do at least 30 yards.  That length isn't really practical on the Leclerc Fanny.

Before I can do that, I have to finish off the warp currently on it.  So far I've managed two sessions this afternoon and the plan is to go back again after dinner and do another.  I'm hoping to get this warp done by Monday, but I also have personal stuff to do on Sunday so that day may evaporate in terms of weaving.  Realistically it will likely be Tuesday before this warp will be done.

But hope springs eternal.

On the 'spring' front, I actually went for a walk today!  The sun didn't stay out but it was dry and the wind wasn't howling out of the north.  Unfortunately there is more snow in the forecast so we aren't quite there yet, but at least it looks promising.  

Go Ahead - Leap!

I'm sure you've heard the meme - Leap and the net will appear.

It is scary looking into that chasm.  It seems like a long way down.  What if that net doesn't miraculously appear to at least break the fall if not out right save you from the consequences of that risky decision?

So it was with some trepidation I made the decision to leave off doing fibre festivals selling yarn.  So it was when I decided to not do 'real' books anymore.  (Not that I couldn't do them, the shipping costs were killing sales.)

So, especially, was it when I made the decision to become a professional weaver in the first place, knowing very little about being a weaver or being in business for that matter.  So it has been, over and over again throughout my career.

Each time I made the decision to leap, however, a net did appear.  As a consequence I have had a varied - and very fulfilling - life.

As mentioned previously, I'm no longer in my 30's, but double that.  Over the past 6 years I have had to come to grips with the fact that I am not a young immortal.  The myth of my good health broke with a bang. (It is just about exactly 6 years since I found myself in emerg being assessed for coronary artery disease and 3 years since the lymphoma diagnosis.)

But I still love weaving.  I love teaching it.  I love writing about it.

And that net I mentioned?  Less than 24 hours after posting yesterday, an offer I could not refuse dropped into my inbox.  It came completely out of no where (as far as I'm concerned) and while it doesn't pay a lot, it pays a little, steadily.

The contract is already signed, I'm just waiting on a few more details before I do the reveal - and permission to do so, of course.  The other party may wish to wait until they are ready.

In between taking care of that bit of business I started dressing the loom with one more sample for the Big Project.  It's a worsted wool and it very clearly shows that residual twist has been left in the yarn.  This is common with worsted yarns and makes them a little more, um, challenging to work with.  It took some care to beam the warp, although once everything was straightened out it didn't take too long.  It is also a bit hairy and densely set so that also presented some challenges for beaming.

But worsted cloth is stable by the nature of how densely it is set, not by fulling during wet finishing.  This is going to be a true worsted cloth so it has to be built that way in the loom.  Knowing that it was going to take some care, I didn't hesitate to carry on in spite of the challenges.  The bit of extra attention to the details of dealing with this fine, twisty, somewhat hairy yarn will be worth it for the results.

And sometimes you just have to go ahead and leap into the deep end....

Dream to Reality

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

attributed to Goethe

I met Mary Underwood a few years ago now, and she had a dream.  She had been researching Oscar Beriau - a Canadian I knew very little about.  She was looking for weavers to weave up the drafts in his books and I offered to contribute.  Well, many moons went by and finally I have started weaving my sample.  Watch for a guest post from Mary in a while where she will share her dream, and eventually what she has discovered about this extremely interesting man who quietly had an enormous impact on handweaving in Canada - and beyond!

I have to confess I am extremely nervous about my own next Big Project.  Things just became much more real today.  Even signing the contract - although that committment made the BP 'real' still didn't come as close as the next step - finding out today that yesterday the crew booked their tickets for May and making appointments for meetings to hammer out the details.  Ack!  This is scary!

But - I have a dream.  The BP is a project I have wanted to execute for a very long time, but knowing that I did not have the skills or budget to bring it into reality I honestly thought I would never have the opportunity.  This is even scarier than producing Magic in the Water.  With that project I knew that I had the skills and was young enough that I could finance it.  Now I'm much older - and potentially wiser - and relying on other people to bring this project to its conclusion.

I'm nervous I won't do a good job.  I'm nervous people won't like the end result.  All those stage fright butterflies are skittering around in my tum and the thought squirrels are bouncing off the inside of my skull.

But you don't succeed in making your dreams into reality but not trying.  By not answering the knock when Opportunity comes calling.  By getting so wrapped up in fear that you don't at least make the attempt.

So now I need to gear up, pull my big girl panties on, stiff upper lip, give it the old college try!  What's the worst that can happen?  Failure?   But giving up on a dream?  How can I possibly do that?  Time to be bold.

Static

This morning I went back to the warping board to start winding warps for the Big Project.  Unfortunately the long spell of cold weather (from -20 to -30C) means that the relative humidity has plummeted.  When the cotton developed static electricity during winding I carried on, gritting my teeth.

Thankfully I was able to get the short warp (5 meters) wound without too much tooth loss, and happily switched to the wool.  But even the wool became unruly with static!

Finally admitting defeat I set the humidifier up to try to raise the humidity level in the studio before tackling the silk.

While that is going on, I'm going to try to get my ledger up-to-date.  It's getting woefully behind and the end of this month I have to remit federal sales tax so I'll need to have everything caught up by then anyway.

Tired, Not Bored

I can't say I get bored, but I do get tired.  Bottom line is, I'm tired of doing these towels.  The first couple warps were interesting as I pursued a new design, but I'm anxious to get cracking on the Big Project samples and these last few warps are becoming a bit of a roadblock as I hunker down to just get them done.

Add to that my lower back went into spasm yesterday and weaving isn't much fun at the minute.  I had a massage appointment already booked for tomorrow but a quick phone call to the chiropractor revealed that they had no openings until Wed.

So I am very gingerly weaving.  Instead of doing two towels a session, I decided this morning to just do one, then take a break.  The slower I go means the longer it will take to clear the rose, blue, then the final (halleluljah!) red warp off my schedule so that I can carry on with the planning and executing of the BP samples.

I am not a patient person.  Being at less than my best physically is annoying.  Having that physical hurdle preventing me from charging through these last three warps?  Beyond irritating.  But the fact is I can't weave at my usual pace so I'm just going to have to deal with the fact that it will be next week before I can start the samples.  Hopefully by then my back will be much happier!

Mulling

I pulled this combination of yarns before I left in January and am still undecided about whether or not I really like them.  The spools are 2/16 cotton, the orange cone is 2/20 merc. cotton from Lynn's stash.  I keep going back to see if they sit any better than they did the time before.  I guess the only thing left is to just jump in, beam the warp and start weaving with the orange to see if it gels or not.

If not, I do have a back up plan.  There are still several cones of the 2/18 Fox Fibre Color Grown naturals, both in brown and pale green.  I've used that combination before and the results were fine.

The AVL needs to have a warp put on it.  I'm nearly done with the run of towels using the variegated cotton flake.  After the rose warp, there is one more large blue (purple/green) and a fairly large red (green/navy) and once those are woven, I will be starting on the Big Project samples, for which I will mostly be using the 4 shaft Leclerc.  Having a nice long towel warp on the AVL will give me a palate cleanser should I need a break from thinking about and weaving the samples.  And it's all got to be woven at some point anyway, so....

Now to find out when/if Doug has time to wind the warp for me.  :)

Opportunities

Really happy with this rose (mostly) towel warp.  I only have enough of the rose slub to weave four towels so the rest of the warp will be woven with natural white.

It is just day 3 of the new year and already it's looking very promising.  :)  This morning I had a long conversation with someone and between us we agreed to work on a couple of fairly major projects.  I can't say more now because there are many a slip betwixt cup and lip and it may all go away as being impractical. But the thought of either, let alone both, of these projects has put a real spring in my step.

It has also given me the impetus to finally tackle my excess weight so instead of just moaning about it, it is time to actually do something about it.  I am sure my body will thank me in the end - or at least my feet, ankles and knees will be much happier!

Decisions

Back to the soy protein yarn, this time to use it up, once and for all!  Unless I find more stashed away somewhere, although I am pretty sure this batch is the last of it.  Whatever is left will go into my 'good cause' scarves that I knit in the evenings.   Four warps of 4 scarves, four warps of 2 scarves each.

I've also been thinking a lot about the path I ought to take in the future.  I am hoping very much to be able to continue to teach and have a pretty full schedule for 2013.  Nothing for 2014, yet, but that's okay.  Let's get through '12 and '13 and see how it goes.  :)  (Dates on my Schedule page on my web page)

DH wants to add another craft fair to the circuit, but that means doing a show in December, something which I'm really not wanting to do because of the iffy travelling conditions at that time of the year.

Writing isn't terribly lucrative - there is really only Handwoven and none of the published themes for the rest of the year appeal to me in terms of wanting to weave or write for them.  There are a few other publications but frankly, the weaving community is so small that one really can't look towards writing about weaving for magazines for any sort of significant income.  Some of them don't actually pay anything at all so the contribution is a donation, which is fine - I've done loads of those - but right now I'm looking for income producing activities.

So that leaves me with more publications like A Good Yarn.  Right now I am wrestling with the number of copies to produce.  Initial sales were brisk and then fell off pretty much completely.  While I realize that it is summer and most guilds are not in session, I have to decide what to do about marketing.  Paying for an ad in Handwoven is not an insignificant amount.

Recent discussion on one of the chat groups indicates that people want to see more 'technical' content, which is what I tried to provide in AGY and intend to continue that with the next installment, on rayon.

But what I really need, gentle readers, is for those of you who invested in AGY and let me know that you were pleased with it to do book reviews publicly.  It's called Word Of Mouth and is one of the most effective marketing tools in this society.

If you are not on my contact list and are interested in AGY:  Rayon, email me at laura at laurafry dot com.  If you did not get a personal notification when AGY: Cotton was ready, I don't have you on my list (or your email changed - I did get a couple of emails returned as undeliverable).

The other thing on my consideration list is whether or not to shut my website down.  The hacker who is 'stealing' bandwidth from me continues to send out spam via my website.  I've had my website since the late 1990's and this is the first time I've actually been significantly hacked so I'm at sixes and sevens about it all.  Grateful that I got away without problems for so many years.  Vexed because we can't seem to shut the person down from using my website.  Sigh.

Currently reading Before the Poison by Peter Robinson

Here We Go Round Again

Assembly, Part II.  And Done!  All that is left now is to haul everything back down the stairs and over to the annex for storage.

The guild room was somewhat cooler given the t-storm that rattled the rafters and the rain last night, but not by much.  Although I should not complain - it was 'only' 80F up there.  :}  It could have been far worse.

Worked on two more teaching contracts and will be sending those off today (email) and tomorrow (snail mail).  I think there is still one more group to finish workshop details for February, one group for March and then.....well, then there is May.

I'm seriously thinking of going to visit my friend Kerstin in Sweden and she's suggested a side trip to London.  So I have been toying with the idea of trying to find some guild program or seminar bookings while there.  But so far I've not done too much about it.  As an introvert it is very difficult for me to do what are called 'cold calls' - that is contact someone out of the blue* and ask if they want to hire me.  So if anyone in the UK knows of a group that might want to book me for a presentation.....? I can do Magic in the Water, A Good Yarn, The Efficient Weaver or talk about selling hand wovens although that may not be applicable in the UK as I'm not familiar with their sales culture.  :}  I can talk about being a professional/production weaver for 35+ years if anyone is interested in that, though..

As for A Good Yarn:  Cotton, it is now listed in my Art Fire Store.  Prices there are in US dollars.  If you are Canadian, contact me directly and I can send a Paypal invoice in Canadian dollars.  Since the currencies are pretty close to par at the minute the price is the same but you get to use your own currency which makes things a little easier?

And yes I can send across the pond.  Contact me for shipping details.

Now it is time for lunch, finishing off those contracts, dressing the loom with the next warp and so on.

*Someone once asked me how I decided where to teach.  I told her I go where I'm invited.  :)

Rambling Thoughts

 One of several bins full of the first half of the assembled project pages

Today I worked some more on stapling the second half of the samples, sewed some more of the fringe on all four side samples, beamed a warp, spent way too much time on the computer and thought about how producing this sort of publication is probably a whole lot like giving birth (although I wouldn't know for sure as I've not actually had that experience!)

From the time of conception until today it has been just about exactly 9 months and apart from the month away in March I worked on this project nearly every day.

There were a number of reasons why I decided on 150 (in actual fact 145 copies to be sold) rather than more.  It took 10 years to sell the copies of Magic and quite frankly I didn't want to have to work that hard, finance the project for that long or have lots of copies hanging around for that many years until they finally sold.

If there is nothing else that I have learned the last four years is that 'tomorrow' is not a guarantee.  It's been a bit schizophrenic as I try to live my life in the now while being all too aware that if I am going to accomplish what I would like to do, I also have to plan for the future.  After all, there are events that I want to participate in and therefore things that must be accomplished in order for that participation to be of value for everyone - such as teaching events and sales opportunities.

Preparing for these events is not something that can be accomplished in a day or two.  The creation of textiles from scratch or even teaching about the creation of textiles - or writing a publication - falls squarely into the 'slow' movement.  Nothing about preparing for these events can be rushed or be completed in a short period of time.  The only reason A Good Yarn got done in 9 months is that I've done this before, had all of the equipment needed to do the job and by steadily applying myself to get down into the studio every day that I could - which means most days, holiday or no - and by having a deadline by which I wanted to get everything done, I was able to make that deadline - or near enough.

So I declare today, July 9, to be the 'birth' day of A Good Yarn:  Cotton.  Since today is my birthday, it seemed appropriate.  :)  

As some of you have surmised, this might possibly be the start of a series.  It will depend on how quickly AGY: Cotton sells whether or not I find it worthwhile to begin the next.

I am very grateful for the good wishes sent today and that I am still here, still weaving.  I'm on Bonus Time and I try to remember that every day is a gift - a gift that I should not take for granted - because so many people run out of time far too soon.

Currently reading Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris

Keeping On

I started by stapling 50 of each sample but realized I have more than 50 names on my contact list.  Since I'm an optimist, I decided that I'd better begin with 75 copies (half) so I've been doing 25 more of each in preparation to assembling the sample pages next week.  Hopefully Monday, although the forecaster finally seems to have got it right and the warm sunny weather they have promised has arrived.

Thankfully the a/c is working and the studio, which is in the basement, is nice and cool.

My proof reader has completed the project notes and is now working on the rest of the pages, I took some photos for the cover shot - still not entirely sure I like what I've got but I have to stop procrastinating - and we are planning on carrying all the samples up to the guild room Sunday night so I can spread out on the big work tables in the room.

Unfortunately the guild room always gets very hot when the weather is warm so I'm going to have to plough through as quickly as possible so that I don't bake up there.  My procrastination is 'punishing' me - if I'd got this all done a week ago the room would have been quite comfortable!

I did manage to weave a scarf today but there is still one more to go on this warp so perhaps I can get that done tomorrow in between stapling, contract details for a conference, etc.  I also have to do the sales tax return which means balancing the May ledger and entering/balancing the figures for June before I can do that.  Fortunately I've got a couple of weeks yet so that's been postponed until I can get the Big Project off the ground.  When you are a one person business, you have to get good at juggling to meet deadlines....

Long story short - I will be sending out details on July 9 with shipping to begin July 16.  So I've sort of nearly made my arbitrary deadline?

Currently reading Believing the Lies by Elizabeth George

Happy Place

With molehills masquerading as mountains this week, the hurdles I encountered as I set to work this morning turned into complete roadblocks and instead of doing something productive on A Good Yarn, I went to my 'happy place' and wove a scarf.

Thankfully I'd dressed the loom last night including winding the bobbins so all I had to do was put my weaving shoes on and I was ready to go.

The colours of the yarn are actually a little more intense than shows on my screen and over all I'm quite pleased with the way this warp is turning out.  There are quite a few cones of this blue/pink soy protein so I'll wind up with maybe a dozen scarves (or more) in this colour range.  Since the yarn was dyed in a random variegation no two skeins are exactly alike although the general public won't really notice that much of a difference between them.

I have several different possible wefts so there will be some variation.

This line of scarves is a 'win' situation for me.  I imported the yarn from China, dyed it and schlepped it around western Canada for the last few years trying to sell it.  What's left is enough to do a good selection of scarves; when I'm done weaving it my stash will be that much less and I'll have decent inventory for the coming sales this fall.

Now to hope customers like them enough to buy!

As for A Good Yarn, I did get a load of samples into the washing machine, am about to transfer that to the dryer and put the next lot in.  While that's happening I'll sew some more samples and/or staple.  I did actually get some work done on the text earlier - found a few typos and some areas that needed clarification.

The weather is supposed to continue wet and cool so pressing the samples tomorrow should not be too bad.  OTOH, I'd sure like to see some sun this summer....

One Step At A Time

Today I got the stapling 'station' set up and stapled 50 of one of the samples.  And then realized as I was putting that bucket away that I'd forgotten to staple the yarn samples to the page, too.  And then discovered that the yarn samples for the second sample I'd selected are not cut apart and therefore there is still about a half hour's worth of work before that one will be ready.  I think I'll set it aside and cut them tonight while watching tv and work on a different sample.  There are more, after all!

Yesterday I got my new 'eyes' and have been having some fun getting used to them.  Up close (sewing) is good, and distance is good.  It's that in-between place - working at the computer, reaching for things - that is still a bit of a challenge.  Yesterday my arms were way too short - I'd go to reach for something and miss!

So today I've been doing a variety of things - wound another scarf warp, coned off a skein in preparation for warp winding, stapled 50 samples (sort of), wove a scarf, got my back crunched and visited the library because one of my reserved books had come in.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to have a studio elf - a friend's 14 year old son needs something to do now that summer is here (well, it is supposed to be here - school is out, anyway!)  He will attempt to vacuum the studio and see if he can't at least corral some of the dust buffalo.  And who knows - if I can get two more scarves woven there will be some warp left on the loom so if he's interested - and likes the colour (a rather brilliant spring-ish green) I'll let him weave some when he gets the vacuuming done.  :)

Yesterday I managed to finish the four sided samples to be wet finished and will take a load of pressing to the annex on Sunday and do that.  A small number of the 'before' samples are also sewn and I think I'll do some more as a break from weaving.

So, all in all, a little progress on a number of different fronts.  No writing though - hopefully more tomorrow and then at least one page a day each day.  That's my goal if I'm to get it all put together before the end of July.  (Did you hear the gigantic swoosh as the July 9 deadline got moved?)

Four At Once

winding four ends at once...

Winding four ends at once is definitely possible but I don't find it particularly faster.  Which would seem counter intuitive - if winding two ends at a time is twice as fast as winding one at a time, winding four ought to be four times faster, right?

Welllllll.  Possibly.

What I find is that with four ends it is harder to maintain consistent tension on the individual ends and one of them (the one held between the ring and pinkie fingers) always seems to be too far away from the rest and falls off the pegs.  Which means that I have to stop and get it settled in the correct place.  Which gets frustrating, if not actually winds up being slower than if I'd just wound two at a time in the first place.

But there is another reason for winding so many ends at once.  That reason is that I am trying to use up stash and get inventory woven for the fall sales.  It is faster in the long run to put a warp for four scarves into the loom rather than just two.  So I'm saving the loom dressing time that I'd have to spend if I only wound a 5 meter long warp instead of a 9 meter long warp.

Since I have assorted variegated yarns, it is much better in terms of blending the slightly different shades to wind from four cones to make the 9 meter long warp.  If I only wound with 2 cones at a time, I'd run out about 3/4's of the way through the 9 meters and the different dye lot would show up as a definite stripe.  That stripe might be pleasing, but it might also just look like a dye lot difference.

So I am 'fighting' with the four ends in order to wind up with a result that will at least be pleasing to me - and hopefully potential customers.

And wallowing in procrastination about getting started on writing the text.  I have opened Word and once I have done a little more work in the studio - the looms are both nekkid  and I'd like to at least get one of them dressed - I will begin sifting through the project details and start getting them written.

Currently reading Beastly Things by Donna Leon.  If you like Louise Penny you might like Leon, too.  I've only just got started (while waiting at the dentist's office this morning) and so far I'm liking what I'm reading.

This and That

preparing the samples

Today I stapled one set of each sample - of those that were ready - so that I could lay them out.  To my mind the samples should be visually appealing but the sequence also needs to make some sort of technical sense as well.

What I decided on was to lay them out in order of the size of the yarns - largest first (in the warp), then in complexity of the weave structure but also in a way that I felt would be attractive as people paged through the 'book'.

So this is the tentative line up.  I'm pretty satisfied with it but of course, things are always subject to change.  I may swap 2 and 3.

There are 10 samples/projects and each will be illustrated with a before and after sample because, after all, how could I do otherwise?  ;^)

I didn't get as much done on the Big Project as I hoped because I felt that before I could really get going on it I just had to clean the desk around the computer.  I confess there were papers dating back to 2009 - probably the last time I cleared the area down to the desktop!

However I did manage a couple of sessions of weaving and finished off the coral/red scarf warp:

four scarves, four different wefts - from left - soy protein in natural (a light tan), dark red bamboo, an orange-scarlet Tencel, dark red Tencel...the colours are not quite true to life - they are actually a little more intense/darker in life

The warp was too long so the next ones will be shorter to minimize loom waste.  Not that anything is truly wasted because I donate the thrums to the Salvation Army.  The local branch has a textile recycling program and everything gets sent to Asia where it is broken down into fibre, spun and woven.  Part of me is delighted that my 'waste' will eventually wind up as fabric, although the cloth will likely be labelled '100% unknown fibres'!

Today I also picked up an early bd present along with an order for bobbin lace supplies.  My two compadres and I ordered some patterns from Larkholme Lace and Jacqui sent a couple of bobbins and a booklet of designs for my bd.  I'm not sure if I'm up to the challenge of the Flutterbies and Flowers - they require a lot more bobbins than I'm used to using plus adding in and subtracting the coloured threads that make up the designs, so I'll probably start with one of the bookmarks from the small booklet first.

Currently reading A Killing Season by Priscilla Royal

Seriously

last rep warp cut off and being serged in preparation for wet finishing sometime next week - still have to finish sewing the fringe on four sides samples...


There is a poster going round Face Book which says something to the effect that if you are working at home you are not considered to be working.

I agree.  I have faced that attitude more times than I can count since 1975 when I decided to become a self-employed home based business.

But people will only take you and your work as seriously as you take it yourself.

Scenario 1 - your best friend phones and needs some retail therapy as you are getting inventory ready for an up-coming show event.

Do you a) sigh inwardly knowing that your best friend needs you and decide to go ahead and head for the mall, with the realization that you will be working until midnight to make sure you can go ahead and load the van and head for the show the next day

b) get angry because your best friend knows that you have a show coming up

c) agree to meet at the mall suggesting that when you are done you both return to your place to finish trimming, tagging, pricing and boxing up your inventory (if she is truly your best friend, she will help)

Scenario 2 - a family member phones and says they are dropping their kids off so you can have some quality time for a week while they go to Costa Rica in spite of the fact you have a major exhibit you need to install and attend the show opening during that week.

Do you a) sigh inwardly and think fast about who owes you a favour so that you can get them to look after the kids while you do what's necessary

b) Get angry because they know you have an important show coming up

c)  Suggest that after the show is done you'd be happy to take the kids for a week

Scenario 3 - a family member is famous for her "I can get it for you wholesale" attitude and expects a big 'family' discount on your work which means she'll be supplying the entire town (because she counts everybody in town as her close personal friend for whom she will do favours - like getting stuff for wholesale)

Do you a) sigh inwardly and give her a discount knowing that you'll never sell another item for retail in your town again

b) Get angry because you can't afford to give everybody in town a discount via this family member

c) Smile politely and tell her that no one gets a discount - and yes, that includes her

Choosing a) will not get you taken seriously.

Choosing b) is destructive not only to your relationships but to you, too.  Remember that we will not be punished for our anger but by our anger.

Choosing c) may initially put you in the position of being called selfish, but if you politely stick to your guns, the people in your life will eventually have to take your work - and you - seriously.

Being self-employed usually means that there is no one but you and if you don't get the work done on time it won't get done and all you'll hear is the swooshing noise as the deadlines fly by.

In celebration of getting the last rep warp off the loom I beamed the next warp to go onto the Leclerc Fanny - the first of my production scarf warps for the coming fall sales.  If I don't get them woven now, they won't get fringe twisted, wet finished, trimmed, tagged and priced in time for the major shows we have booked starting in September....and the scarf warps will give me mental respite while I begin writing the text for A Good Yarn: Cotton.

Groundhog Day

It's beginning to feel like deja vu all over again as I dress the loom with the 3rd - and hopefully last - of the rep weave warps.

I'm in the groove now with this textile - the muscle memory pretty much kicks in and I don't have to think very much or even very hard to weave it.  There are times when I totally zone out and mess up but it becomes apparent right away and it is easy to weave backwards and get on track again.  I wish it weren't so physically hard on my body as I remember the reasons I enjoyed making all those rugs back in my 20's - before the damage one's body sustains in an active life.  :}

I am also experiencing - how shall I call it - ego strain - the closer I come to actually completing the Big Project.  All the fears of rejection and worries about not doing it 'perfectly' and wondering if people will like it and actually plunk down their hard earned cash to buy it are crowding to the forefront of my brain.  Like the clouds  looming on the horizon this month, it's hard to face up to the fact that not everyone will love it and want it enough to buy it.

But staying in that mind set is crazy making, especially considering how deeply I am already into this project! I've done far too much work and invested way too much time and money to not complete it now.

I don't think I'm alone in experiencing this effect.  I rather suspect that most creative people find themselves hitting an emotional wall right before their work goes public.  It's something that is real - and in many ways unreal - because, after all, it's all happening in my head as my ego struggles with putting itself in the line of fire.

While I will do my utmost to make this a valuable publication, geared towards newer weavers, I also know that not everyone will find it helpful or interesting.  And I can't control their opinions.  In fact I can't control anybody's opinion - negative or positive.  I can only do my very best and I suppose like a parent bird, let their offspring launch and hope that they fly, not fall.

The End...

...is in sight.  I cut the 2nd rep warp off the loom tonight, taped and cut the rest of the 'before' samples and worked out how long a warp needs to go onto the loom to finish weaving the 'after' samples.  

The Leclerc Fanny loom is quite efficient.  I could have woven even a bit closer to the heddles if there had been a little more warp.  I've woven to the point where the apron rod was almost touching the heddles.  But there wasn't enough warp to do one more gang of samples so decided this was The End - of this warp at least.

Tomorrow I'll wind the next - last! - warp and get it into the loom in between fetching all the yarns and fibres from the guild room and storing them at the annex.  Doug will put the van back to rights and we'll get the van stuff back in to the van and off my lr/dr floor.  And then I need to pay some serious attention to cleaning the floors so studio time may 'suffer'.  Being a self employed home based business means that you never truly get away from work and sometimes, well, let's just say that I'll never win the Good Housekeeping Award.

The bad news is that it is going to get worse before it gets better as I approach the assembly stage of the Big Project.  :}  Once the publication is put together I expect to store most of the copies at the annex with just a few here in order to ship orders.  With just 150 copies I'm hoping that they won't take up a huge amount of space.  Even better, that they will sell quickly so that storage won't be required!

In addition to finishing the rep warp, wet finishing and cutting the rest of the samples, writing the text, preparing the sample page text, stapling the samples, getting Staples to run the copies and assembling everything, I also have to do the usual things like balance my ledger and file my sales tax report.  It's going to be a busy 3 weeks....

And for Canadians, someone told me about these:

Shout Colour Catchers are no longer being distributed in Canada but it looks like these are essentially the same sort of product.  I got this package at London Drugs today.  To find a store near you try here.  Thanks to Deb for alerting me to this product.

Today was the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere and today it got warm.  In fact the a/c is still running (it's about 11:30 pm as I write this) but the forecast is still saying rain for the next few days.  This is not good as the Fraser River still has not peaked and low lying parts of town are under flood watch.  The good news about all this rain is that the wild fire risk is low.  Win some, lose some.

And no, we aren't personally in any danger of getting wet as our house is well above the flood plain.

Currently reading Black Work by Monica Ferris.  I sort of lost track of this series a few years ago so I'm catching up on the latest titles that I haven't yet read.  I also have a large stack of library books that are tempting me to just sit and read.