Interdependent

 

'linen tester' showing .25, .50 and 1 inch dimensions (got it from Jane Stafford)

New weavers don't get the connection between the various factors in the development of a cloth.  

That is not a 'failing', just a lack of knowledge.  It is only after they weave enough cloth, pay attention to the results, that they begin asking the questions they need to ask (if they follow the thread) and begin to understand how the answers in weaving are only ever *conditional*.

What do you want?  What will it take to get you there?  Which fibre?  Spun in which way?  Which weave structure.  Even, what loom are you using?

The question of density is packed with conditions.  

There are the 'ideals' and then there is reality, based on functionality.

I see people saying that true freedom is to ignore the 'rules', do what you want, free your creativity.

Which is all nice and all, if you don't care about the qualities you are building into your cloth.  If you don't care, then, do as you will.

OTOH, if the apocalypse arrives, knowing the 'rules' and understanding the equation of time spent to get the cloth made and how well it serves becomes an issue, it might be a good idea to actually learn the 'rules'.  Just so you have those in your weaver's toolbox.  

I've been known to bend those rules in order to wind up with a particular quality of cloth.  I'm not adverse to bending them until they 'break', just so I know that particular boundary, too.  

So when I talk about 'ideals', I also hold space for bending the boundaries.  So there are times when my twill isn't 45 degrees (after wet finishing), but maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less, sometimes very much not the 'ideal' at all.  It depends.

When we shift the dial back and forth between this quality and that quality, we can fine tune our results.  But knowing certain things - like combining stripes of plain weave *and* some other weave structure, like waffle weave, will produce certain results.

(receipts)

I have been known to do something like this *on purpose* - for an article.  

Understanding the concept of dimensional loss (commonly referred to as 'shrinkage') should be understood.  And if you achieve that dimensional loss, know that you are doing it willingly, not by accident.  For example, the dimensional loss in waffle weave (or Brighton Honeycomb if you are in the UK) can be as much as 50%.  Not a problem if you have woven samples and you know that going in, not just discovering that after you have woven your entire project and do not have enough cloth to do what you wanted to do.

So, do use your creativity.  But maybe make a sample or three before committing to a large project?

Books (sort of)

 

baby rattle carved by my father 75 years ago for me, his eldest child

I have begun reading more regularly again.  My brain feels less...porous...more able to contain a thought for more than a minute or two.

My reading tastes have always been eclectic.  I not only loved stories, especially ones that helped explain humans, but also non-fiction, where things or processes were explained.

Part of this drive for 'knowing' came from my parents.  My father was illiterate, with about a grade 2 reading level.  That didn't make him unintelligent, just uneducated.  He knew lots of things, but also?  He expressed appreciation for those people who were knowledgeable, talented.  To say that he was complex might be an understatement.

Because when it came to family, he rarely expressed pleasure or...pride...in his kids.  I can't talk to the relationship between my parents but I remember when he was sick with his final illness, mom would bake 'treats' for him to take to the hospital to try and entice him to eat.  The nurses would express appreciation, because mom would make sure they got some treats, too, probably because she didn't want the food to go to waste and while dad would try to eat, he couldn't eat very much.  Whenever someone would express amazement at the goodies, my dad would tell them 'my wife built it'.

And that was typical dad.  He appreciated people who 'built' things.  Made things.

He made many things, some of them less typical than most things guys would make.  Yes, he would maintain his vehicles, in the days where it was all mechanics, no computers.  Check the oil?  Well, duh.  Adjust the air pressure in the tires?  Of course.  Change the oil?  Absolutely.  But also adjust the headlight height so that he didn't blind oncoming traffic with his headlights set poorly.

He did much of the work of building the house I grew up in.  For a while we lived in an unfinished house while mom and dad saved up the money to lay the lino, finish the kitchen cabinets, etc.  Mom would paint (her father was a master painter/plasterer, so she knew how to paint properly).

But dad also did other things, like participate in rug hooking.  All through my childhood we had scatter mats that mom and dad and when Auntie Betty would come to visit, all 3 would sit round the kitchen table and work on one or other of the current rugs being made.

Then there was the baby rattle he made, using one block of wood and carefully carving out the ball enclosed in the 'cage'.  It wasn't 'perfect' but the lines of the toy are lovingly made.  I don't remember it from when I was a baby, of course.  I'm not even sure where it got put 'away' until mom handed it over to me at some point.

He also made small pieces of jewelry.  During his time in the military (WWII), he would take dimes, carve out the centre, then hang the circle on shepherd's hook fittings for gifts for his barrack mates to give to whichever 'girl' they were wooing.  And rings.  Usually 50 cent pieces, with the centre carved out, to fit someone's ring finger, then hammered out to create a flange.  Our wedding rings were made by my dad.

Anyway - books.

I've just finished Written on the Dark by Guy Gavriel Kay.  I discovered him 'late' but once I did, I was hooked.  He writes 'light' fantasy, or alternate history, frequently draws upon actual history for his plots but not rendered as actual history.  He examines human behaviour in a way that I find intriguing.  This latest has a poet as the main character and while I would not normally share a significant 'spoiler', I don't think that my sharing this will spoil the read for anyone else.  Partly because it is a theme that I have been coming across in these turbulent times, and which I practice myself - that of making things.  Making something.  Putting creative energy out into the world.  And frankly from the vantage point of the last chapter(s) of my own life, what I try to practice.

To build 'that' - whatever 'that' may be.  For me it's weaving, making textiles.  But for others it might be jewelry, a child or baby toy, a cake?  

In the face of so much upheaval and negativity, build...something.  Create...something.   It may not be perfect - like the rattle (or my tea towels) but it comes into being through the 'magic' of *your* creativity.  Something that had not been previously other than raw materials and potential can come to exist - if *you* build it.

And in the end, I find I have found a way to say what I wanted to say without revealing a spoiler.  :)

Now that I'm done Kay's book, I have opened Wab Kinew's book The Way You Walk.  I have been keeping an eye on him since he was elected as Premier of Manitoba, and honestly?   The more I see of him, the more I like him.

I'm glad he has written a book and that I now feel able to read it.

Merci GGK.  Miigwich WK.

Thank you to all of you - because I get the sense the vast majority of my regular readers make something.  

International Women's Day

 

I wouldn't call myself a 'public speaker' - mostly I talked to weavers, about weaving.  Nothing like having a sympathetic audience!

But one year, I was contacted by the local organizers for International Women's Day and asked if I would talk to the attendees about being an artist/creativity.

I was pretty desperate for some income and they were offering a $50 fee, and a chance to show my textiles.

Considerably overwhelmed with Life at the time, I then kind of forgot about it until the date came crashing in on my conscious thinking.  The morning of the gathering there were a lot more people than I'd expected, filling the meeting hall at the local hotel.  

As I stood in front of the crowd, I remembered one thing, and only one thing - I was going to end with the phrase "we need our bread, but we need our roses, too".

Then I talked about the creative process, the experience of trying to earn my income by weaving, the benefit of life long learning that weaving provides (as does pretty much any creative endeavour).

I just opened my mind to the experience - as I knew it - to flow from me.

The thing is, mostly my community has rarely glimpsed my lifetime of effort to educate people about weaving.  Once a year I would show up (until 2020) and have a booth at two of the local seasonal sales.  And that was pretty much it for most local people's awareness of me.

But I remember what I did that day.  I don't remember the words, in part because I hadn't written what I was going to say down, nor was it recorded.  I just remember the expressions on the faces of the people, as they thought about how much being creative is part of the human experience.  

Did I change anyone's mind?  No data.  I would assume I'd done a good job if all I did was open a mind or two, here and there.  

And that is 'success' enough for me...

Proof of Concept

 

Even though I have been weaving for 40+ years, I still 'sample'.  The way in which I sample will vary because I now have a rather large foundation of knowledge I can reference.

The current warp (long delayed by Other Things) is now finally weaving.

To recap - when I 'retired' I thought I would be able to approach weaving from a more intellectual, more experimental viewpoint.  Instead covid arrived, I became a bear of little brain for a number of health related reasons, and so I concentrated on simply using up as much of my stash as I could possibly weave.

My approach was straight 'form follows function'.  I had X yarn, it is good for Y use, what can I make that will be interesting to weave and hopefully nice enough for someone to buy?

But I had sent that thought - that ill formed desire - out into the universe and I suppose it never really went away because I found myself poking around in the recesses of my mind until this idea popped up, pretty much fully formed.

I had been playing with using up my 2/20 mercerized cotton and began combining it with 2/16 as warp and getting some nice textiles (for tea towels) as a result.

Suddenly (it seemed) all the pieces fell together and I had a huge a-ha moment.  

It was a concept I played around with, yikes, 20+ years ago, but set aside.  At the time I was primarily working with Summer and Winter, but S&W is slow weaving and since my priority was to get food on the table, I needed to focus on something less time consuming.  So the cloth that I was making, weaving S&W on a double two tie unit weave threading, got set aside.

Only to come back to haunt me as twill blocks.  I had done 'regular' twill on double two tie unit threading lo, those 20+ years ago, but recently I had been playing around with 'ordinary' twill blocks for a while and realized that I could offset, or overlap - still not sure what word is the best to use - the twill blocks and come up with something more intricate, more complex that a four block unit weave could potentially provide.

After rumbling it around in the more conscious part of my brain for a few days, I tried to record what I wanted to do in Fiberworks, but realized I needed to be able to *see* the blocks and how they would overlap in order to generate a workable tie up and treadling.  So it was 'old school' - point paper, pencil and eraser.

Given my record of threading errors this year, I chose to do something very simple, knowing that if it worked I could develop something more complex in a later warp.  And if it didn't work, a simple progression could be switched to something else without too much angst.

Well, I *finally* got to the loom this morning and started weaving.  And it works!  I was pretty sure it would, but of course the final judgement will be made after wet finishing.  Because what is on the loom is not - yet - 'real' cloth.

However, I've been happy enough with this combination of yarns in ordinary twill blocks and fancy twills that I'm pretty sure it will be fine.  

Until the wet finishing happens though, it's not 100%!  Which is why I am considering this warp a Proof of Concept warp (iow, a sample) and while I'm weaving on it I'm letting it seep into my brain, looking for ways I can push it here, nudge it there, and come up with more 'interesting' designs.

I am being aided in this creative exploration by a book I just received.  I *thought* it was a book on textile design fundamentals.  Instead it is a philosophical look at creativity and it is blowing the cobwebs out of my brain!

I've only just begin, read the Introduction, and about half of Chapter One and expect to have further revelations as I read on.  It will take some time though, because this book is meant to be savoured, small bites, chewed well.  Not one to rush through, at all.  Watch this space for more...