Get Up and Go

Leclerc skein winder for winding yarn for quills - and a couple of proto placemat warps in amongst the rubble

For the past few months I have been 'suffering' from a serious lack of get up and go. I've been blaming this lack of energy on a whole list of things - the unremitting stress in my life, my health issues, adverse drug reactions, yadda, yadda.

Whilst whining about this last night over coffee with a friend and moaning about the diuretics and Plavix - the current suspected culprits - she commented that her mother had taken diuretics for much of her life and found that she very quickly became deficient in potassium and had to supplement it. My friend also said that if that was the problem, it would become very apparent very quickly once I started supplementing potassium.

As it happened, I had some bananas at home, so I ate one last night. This morning I was reasonably productive but was reluctant to give too much credit to one small banana. :}

However, feeling somewhat better, I decided to pick up some potassium supplements while I was at the store this afternoon and took a first tablet with dinner.

And have been working steadily for two hours getting quills wound for the kits. Plus I don't feel so fuzzy headed and - well - squashed is about the only word I can think of to describe how I had been feeling.........

My bp continues to fluctuate and spike for no real reason, which is worrisome but not terrible, so I won't think too much about it for now. If it continues to be this erratic by the time I see the doctor in January, I'm going to ask about changing out one of my bp meds and try something else. You know - the one that causes weight gain as an adverse effect? I'd sure love to lose some weight and nothing seems to help. So right now I'm blaming those pills......... :^)

The colour gamp kits are nearly ready to ship - should be able to get most of them into the mail tomorrow. After that I will start working on the afghan warp for the AVL, finish the rayon chenille warp on the Fanny (two more scarves), then begin making placemats. And start back on transcribing WeaveCast episodes. I've gotten very far behind on those. :(

I haven't seriously made placemats for many years - people still come up to me at the craft fairs and say their 20 year old placemats still look like new - but this year I had people coming looking for them so I guess it's time again. Perhaps people are wanting a new colour, if nothing else?

Currently reading The Night Visitor by James Doss (gave up on 13 1/2 by Nevada Barr - too gruesome for me)

Of Studios and Messes

Piles of bins with yarn


Work table with more bins stored under it

Top of work table with neutral gamp yarns ready for winding

My studio is home to many different activities. I don't just weave I also dye yarns for re-sale, teach, write and once again make weaving kits.

Each of these activities requires equipment and materials and - of course - space.

The first photo shows a stack of bins. The ones on the top are those being used right now. Each bin contains the yarns for one of the colour gamp kits, plus handouts and any wound warps/quills.

Beneath that are bins with the 2/20 silk to be dyed. Some of it has been re-tied, some of it still needs to have the original ties replaced. A job for Karena when she comes in next Monday.

On the other side of the walkway is my work table. It is set up with the metal Leclerc skein winder. I've worked out how many turns are required for each quill. That yarn then gets wound onto the paper quills. The bobbin winder is just out of sight to the left.

Under the table is an office chair on which another bin full of shawls to be fringe twisted is temporarily stored. That bin may go with me to Seattle for the demo area. Another bin is stored under the table, too. It's full of teaching samples. I just don't know where else to store it right now. :}

There is also a roller from the AVL with some red shawls that I wove last spring and still haven't taken off and fringe twisted. :( Another one of those 'I'll get round to it one of these days' jobs.

The last picture shows the skein winder and the yarns for the neutral gamp that I was using tonight to wind warps and quills.

In the distance you might be able to make out the Silver Needles cone winder. I had been coning off some of the dyed 2/20 silk in preparation to weaving it up, but the colour gamp kits became the priority. The silk warp was experimentation and speculation; the kits have actual buyers waiting for them. :) The ball winder stays on the corner of the table - again I don't know where else to put it.

The table has other tools and materials on it - tape, scissors, quill papers, the pastel gamps awaiting wet finishing, boxes with yarn and bobbins that will be used in a day or three.

The activities that go on in my studio vary from day to day, week to week. While I would love to have a pristine studio, there is one thing lacking - sufficient space to store the things I need in order to do all the things that I do.

And so I work in quarters that are cluttered and messy looking, with piles of boxes and bins in every available corner, and clutter on every flat surface. I don't like it that way, but there doesn't seem to be much that I can do about it.

This is just one little area of my studio. It doesn't look any better in any other area of the studio. Do I really want the entire weaving world to know what a messy person I am? Not really - I'm only sharing this with my close personal friends. Friends who will not judge me and find me less worthy now they know my darkest secret. :} And now you know why I declined to share my studio with Handwoven for the current issue!

Thrumming Along

Bucket of thrums (weighing 15 pounds)

On Wednesday I'll be meeting the surface design artist to whom I give my thrums, so I dragged the bucket out from under the table where it lives tonight so I don't forget to bring the bag with me.

I haven't weighed it, but the bag holds the last 6 months worth of thrums - a not very heavy weaving schedule. Normally I'd have filled the bag much sooner but between having students, travelling and not feeling much like weaving it's taken much longer than usual.

Once Laura (the other Laura) finishes taking what she wants for her surface design, she'll take her scraps plus whatever thrums are leftover to the Salvation Army. The local branch has a recycling program for textiles.

I'm pleased to say that today my bp was *much* improved (thank you chemicals) and I hummed right along making significant progress on Mount Everest. Still a long way to go, but at least the barrier has been breached, or base camp reached, I suppose I ought to say in order to not mix metaphors!

And I finally did some actual weaving today. Weaving a colour gamp or two doesn't really count as aerobic weaving! Unfortunately it's been two weeks since I did any 'real' weaving and my thighs are letting me know I've been ignoring them. :}

The current issue of Handwoven has articles about studios. Madelyn suggested I participate in this issue, but I blushed to think that anyone would see the chaos that my studio is in reality and declined. :}

My four students saw it and my house at less than it's best this summer and that was bad enough!

Currently reading Brida by Paul Coelho

First Gamp Woven

Plain weave gamp

Today's progress has once again been slow. :( Wound three pastel warps and got one of them onto the Fanny and finally managed to get the plain weave gamp woven. I expect to weave the twill tonight while Doug is out visiting his buddy.

While I've done nothing about the two Mountains on my job list, I did tackle a separate issue that had been plaguing me. Unfortunately my blood pressure shot through the roof doing it, but at least it is now dealt with and not festering at the back of my mind. And for that I feel relieved. :)

I reviewed my blood pressure readings and made an interesting discovery. My bp settled down in June with readings that were not only good, but even a little on the low side. They shot up in September and have been very irratic since then.

In June I switched from Ezetrol to Niacin for cholesterol and in September I stopped taking the diuretic. When I reviewed the dates when my bp settled down and went ballistic again, I realized that in June I had also started taking a nutritional supplement, and in September I ran out of my supply and stopped taking it.

Ding!

So rather than try and change my medication again, I'm going to ask my doctor if we can wait until I can get another supply of the supplement to give that a go and see if it is the missing piece of the puzzle............

The downside is, of course, the fact that nutritional supplements aren't covered by my medical insurance while pills are. :( We'll see what the dr says on Wed. when I go in to get my Rx's renewed. I'm sure he'll have words about my bp readings, especially the one this afternoon when my bp really went ballistic. :( I hate being such a 'fragile flower'! :P~

I'm also hoping that getting my bp settled again will mean I'll feel more settled in my own skin and once more feel like working.

Currrently reading The Shack by William Young (read Sand Sharks by Margaret Maron and Fire and Ice by J. A. Jance while I was away)

Good Enough to Eat!

Here are the yarns for the pastel colour gamp kit. Delicious!

I'm not entirely happy with the pale green (third from the left) - dye lot difference means it is a tiny bit more intense than the sample card. But it's about the same value as the salmon (third from the right) so it should balance out nicely.

I continue to have a hard time getting myself to do anything at all, but finally got the twill neutral gamp woven, and that and the earth tones gamps are in the dryer along with a load of the hearts cotton tea towels - all of which will get pressed tonight.

Doug got me some more filtered water for the boiler so that has also been dealt with and I'll take it to the annex tonight when I go to press. There was only one 3 liter jug left so it was time.

There are a couple of things on my job list that I am finding to be real roadblocks mentally. They are committments that I agreed to a while ago and now find less than attractive. But I have given my word and feel honour bound to complete. Until they are done, I really don't want to start anything else but have been finding myself perfecting procrastination and therefore - not doing anything.

But that has got to change as show season has begun and there are many things that need to happen in very short order. My goal is to get both of the Mountains summited before I leave for the Seattle Weavers Guild sale on Oct. 20. That gives me 10 days.

This afternoon I'm going to wind the pastel gamp warp and see if I can get the loom dressed before dinner, press the load of stuff I just wet finished and tomorrow start tackling Mount Everest. Kilimanjiro may get offerred to another weaver because I'm really not wanting to go there, do that. :}

Tiny Steps of Progress

I'm not sure why I've been struggling the past few months, but I suspect it has something to do with the fact that I'm extremely deadline oriented. :}

Since I have plenty of inventory, the incentive to drive myself to the loom to make more seems - well, a little excessive?

Arrived home Sunday evening with a vanload of stuff (how on earth did I collect so much????) which filled the kitchen floor once it was offloaded. Where I'm going to put it all is a mystery, but the boxes and suitcases did get carried downstairs to the studio. Something to worry about another day.

Monday was frittered away catching up on mail (e and snail), attending a luncheon for a moving guild member, and then who knows what? I did work on the orders for the colour gamp kits, but need to wind more warps in order to assemble them.

The rest of the yarn arrived while I was away, and I'm much happier with the substituted colours so I can go ahead with the other two kits now.

I'm calling the one above "Neutral". It's also a sort of grey scale. I had intended to make all the gamps with the lightest value the dead centre, but this one worked with the natural white stripe slightly off centre, and I kind of liked the fact it was asymetrical. I also included a green because people often forget that some greens can make a great 'neutral' when crossing other colours.

Three of the kits are now listed http://LauraFry.artfire.com Pastel will go up later this week, once I've woven the test warp.

Today is errands with mom, then a consult with a guild member about her loom. I don't know if I can help, but I will go and take a look anyway.

Hitting the Road - Again

I'm about ready to load up the van and hit the road again.

Stopping in Vernon to meet a prospective client, so I'll be home later than I'd hoped - it will be getting dark before I get home.

It's been a great interlude before I get back and jump onto the colour gamp kits.

Had a lovely day on Saturday at the Ponderosa guild spin-in.

Neutral Colour Gamp

For the past few weeks I've been high into procrastination mode. Today I finally figured out why - I'm waiting on word about a significant project and have been on tenterhooks wondering if it is going to go ahead with the co-operation of another person, or.....not.

I am terribly deadline driven, and with this project up in the air I find myself waffling. Nothing else that needs doing holds as much interest to me as this Major Project. The other person in question is also someone I admire greatly and could learn a lot from, so my interest in doing it is somewhat selfish. :}

So I have been playing a lot of computer solitaire (!), knitting my silly scarves from left over yarns from weaving, reading and distracting myself by doing video clips and posting here - a lot!

However, I have managed to make a little headway on the colour gamp kits. The Earth Tones kits are posted to my Art Fire store (http://LauraFry.artfire.com) and I'll be completing the Neutral kit today.

That said, my store will be going on vacation mode tonight as I head to Seattle area once more, this time to pack out the show at the Puyallup Fair, and inventory everything in preparation for the Seattle Weavers Guild sale Oct. 22-24.

Currently reading 206 Bones by Kathy Reich

Colour, Colour,Colour!

In spite of on-going procrastination tendencies, I did manage to dress the loom and weave off two gamps this afternoon. :}

The hem-stitching took longer than the weaving - as is often the way. So often the finishing takes longer than making something........

The three yard warp is a generous length for two gamps. If one didn't cut off and re-sley there would probably be plenty for a table runner woven with - perhaps - black - or some other very dark colour to 'pop' the brilliant colours.

But as a learning exercise, I think I've got the numbers sorted. There is plenty of weft on the quills - rather than try for squares in the twill gamp, I just wove off all the weft on the quills and there was easily double than what was required.

The hold up now is waiting for the fill in order of yarn to come and double check the new colours. In the meantime I will work on the paperwork to go with the kits and on Monday get Karena to wind the "neutral" gamp warp. It's also a sort of grey scale with natural in the centre, then going to dark brown one direction, black in the other.

My target is to have the gamps ready for sale by mid-October. Something for the Santa List?

Of course about the time the yarn arrives next week, I will be leaving again. I won't know until next week exactly when I'll get back as I may be meeting with someone about a joint project - it will depend on her schedule. If the meeting is on, I'll also swing through Kelowna and visit with friends over night. The days are getting short enough, and I'm finding it more and more difficult to drive in the dark, that I don't want to do 14 hour drives in one day once the long summer days are done.

Minimum Input, Maximum Output

Colour gamp test warp

One of the things I try to do is have the maximum amount of output for the least amount of input. What that means is that I try to do the various tasks associated with weaving with the fewest hand motions possible.

Two years ago, I watched as Syne Mitchell sleyed a warp. It was a colossal duh moment. She was sleying in much the same manner as I threaded. How could I not have seen that sleying could be done in much the same way?

When I got home from that trip, I immediately put the new (to me) manner of sleying into practice. It took about 6 warps to erase the old muscle memory and make this way of sleying into my new default. Yes, I had skipped dents, or doubled dents the first few times, but seriously? - I had those at times with my old way of sleying. :}

Notice the positioning of my hands. My left hand pretty much stays behind the beater, while the right hand stays pretty much in front of the beater.

What makes this method work is the hook. It is made by Harrisville and has a smaller hook on one end for threading, and a larger hook on the other for sleying. It costs just $10.95 US and is worth every penny as far as I'm concerned.

The hook is held downwards instead of upwards. It is gently rounded and never (or rarely) splits the ply of the threads. (It can split the ply of a very gently twisted yarn such as the Bambu 7.)

To sley I separate the threads into their groups, then put the hook through the appropriate dent, capturing the threads for that dent. The hook then keeps that loop of threads on the shank while it dips into the next space to grab onto the next group of threads. Then all the threads are pulled through at once.

I can do up to four dents in one pull. This particular warp the threads have been tied into groups of four, with two threads per dent so I'm just doing four ends (two dents) at a time here.

Colour Gamp Kits

Yesterday the yarn order for the colour gamp kits arrived. This morning I sorted through it all, dividing the yarn up into plastic bins - one for each of the kits.

Unfortunately I wasn't happy with a couple of my colour choices, so I have to order in more yarn to make the gamps look nicer - to me.

There will be four gamps - Rainbow (saturated - in the middle bin on the right), earth tones (bin in the foreground), Neutrals (sort of grey scale - middle left) and Pastels (on the top).

Each gamp will have 9 colours. Each kit will have a pre-wound warp, and paper quills with sufficient weft to weave two gamps. The warp will be enough for two gamps - possibly one in plain weave, one in twill. Or two weavers could share the warp and each have a colour gamp.

The challenge now is - where to store it all.

I'll be posting info to my Art Fire store as soon as I have woven the samples. All four kits should be ready mid-October.