Procrastination

 

trellis hem by Sheila Carey

Yesterday I (more or less) 'finished' writing the 2nd article for School of Sweet Georgia.

This photo isn't mine, but a friend offered her variation on a 'trellis hem' to show a variation from the more straight forward way I usually do it.

Nothing like having supportive friends!

There are so many ways to do things in weaving (in life tbh) and I have not done them 'all' so it's nice when friends who have explored variations share what they do.

I'm just over a week away from my next sciatic injections.  And I gotta tell ya, things ain't great in my world right now.  To be fair, it's not as bad as it has been in the past, but...it ain't great, either.  I have a feeling the coming week is going to drag something terrible.

OTOH, the white linen from Lithuania arrives this week, I have a shawl warp designed (see yesterday's post for the draft), and 2 of the 3 articles for SOS written.  I have also worked on the article for the other publication.  In part because it dawned on me that the deadline is rearing its head and I promised I would do it to her deadline.  I just didn't count on feeling crappy for the past two weeks and not getting my shit together.

Given my dwindling reserves of oomph, I've been thinking long and hard about how much time I spend on the 'net.  And seeing other people I know quietly slip off of sites like Facebook.  And wondering how much I would miss being on there and other places.  

Because my social circle has shrunk considerably since the pandemic.  While so many of my 'friends' have decided the danger is in the past, I'm still immune compromised.  My chat with the doctor at the cancer clinic confirmed that even though I am still in remission, only half of my immune system 'works'. 

And then a friend who has been working hard to remain covid free got caught last week, and I just...well, I just don't want to get sick.  Or any 'sicker' than I already am dealing with.

I have managed to get to the loom at least once a day, some days, twice, and I think there are maybe 3.5 more towels left to weave on the current warp.  But today is a busy day so once is likely all I will manage.  OTOH, I can pick up my new glasses.  The optician recommended getting them fitted, then taking them off to go home and leave them in their case until tomorrow morning.  She said sometimes it's just easier to put them on first thing in the morning, rather than part way through the day.  Plus, my prescription had major changes to it, and everyone is warning me it's going to take time to get accustomed to them.  Since I have nowhere to go tomorrow, it seems like a good day to spend getting used to the new eye glasses.  I'm hoping they will alleviate the eyestrain I've been having and let me see 'better'.

Who knows, maybe I can finish the article that is nearly done and get it sent to a friend to alpha (proof) read and then I can email that, too.  Nothing like crossing stuff off of one's to-be-done list.

Hems

Several people have asked about hem treatments recently so I thought it might be good to discuss them again.  Do a search for 'hems' for more posts.

Above is the place mat warp I was weaving today.*  Click on the photo to biggify so you can see the area of plain weave, the two picks of twill which create a cut line and the heavier body of the mat.  I weave a plain weave hem when the body of the textile is going to be too thick to turn a decent hem.  Since I'm not a big fan of fringes, especially on place mats and tea towels, my preference is always to hem those.

These towels were based on the Spring Bouquet towels I did for Handwoven a year ago.  They are woven from 2/8 cotton at 20 epi with a cotton slub in twill for weft.  The body is, in my opinion, too thick to make a nice hem so the hems were woven in plain weave with 2/16 cotton for weft.  When turning the hems on a striped cloth, try to line up the stripes.  And yes, I hand hem - it works for me.

These towels are woven from 2/16 cotton at 32 epi and a fine singles linen (probably 20's) for weft.  The body of the cloth is much thinner than the above towels and easily turns a hem.  You can see the border at the start where I've not woven the pattern for the hem part but simply repeated a single repeat of each block in a straight progression.  The pattern doesn't run off the end, so to speak, and the towels has a 'border' of the small block repeat on each side and the ends.

That's not to say I don't sometimes let the pattern run off the end.  

As always...it depends.

*I just run the bundled weft up the side of the mat and when hemming that gets tucked into the hem.  And no, there is no floating selvedge.  I don't use them.

Hemming

trim corners

fold in three, pin about every 4 inches

knot thread, insert needle into peak

 take tiny stitches to close tube/hem

when hem is closed begin stitching hem

catch one or two threads from bottom cloth and fold of hem

close hem at other end, knotting thread at peak then insert needle into hem to bury the end inside the hem - see needle eye to the right and needle tip to the left above word 'eye'

clip tail of thread flush with hem