RED!

Yesterday I was very, um, distracted.  I kept changing my mind about what I would work on 'next' instead of focusing on what I am working on 'now'.  And that is this lovely, very red, painted scarf warp.

I am very affected by colours and today this red is really appealing.  But I also have that blue towel warp to thread on the AVL, so I will be alternating between the two looms.

In the meantime I got Doug to drag four boxes of yarn to the studio from the annex and on Friday I'll ask a friend to help me unload, sort and put it 'away'.  Some of it is skeins that need to be put onto cones so they will be easier to work with, plus easier to see on cones on the shelf rather than a jumble of skeins.  And then I can start designing another line of scarves.

I am on a mission to use up as much of my stash as possible and that objective is coming along quite nicely as I am working on the principle of 'slow and steady as she goes'.  Since I don't know when the surgery will happen I'm trying to get as much as possible done now.  The good news, however, is that several friends who already belong to the Zipper Club have said that recovery didn't take very long at all.  So I'm staying hopeful and positive that once the surgery is done I will be better than ever.

And a big thank you to those of you who have shared your experience.  It really helps.

Numbers Game

Keeping track of numbers is how we access our progress.  I guess I'm a little OCD because I count stuff.  I count picks, steps (especially now I have Fitbit!), scarves woven, fringed, wet finished.

Today I wove scarf #161 since May.  The dyer has three more warps to return in addition to the three I have on hand plus the one on the loom and I'm wondering and worrying whether or not I will have sufficient inventory for the rapidly approaching shows I'm booked to do in Oct/Nov/Dec.  The other side of the coin is worrying whether I will sell enough to pay for the expenses of doing the shows....

Keeping track of numbers is also how our society measures success, generally by counting how many dollars someone has to spend.

Since a 'starving artist' usually doesn't have a whole lot of those, I count other things.

There were 50 AGY: Linen and Hemp.  There is now one.
There were 140 AGY: Cotton.  There are now 10.
There are considerably more AGY:  Rayon, but I'm hopeful that they will sell.  Eventually.  Just like Magic sold.  Eventually.

I don't know what the people hosting the webinar were expecting for registrations but the moderator seemed pleased with how it went.  And of course people can still sign up and view the recorded version which should be available in a couple of days.

I am reminded almost daily how many students I've had.  It's a warm and fuzzy feeling, especially when they say how much I've helped them understand more about the craft.  It's what keeps me climbing back onto planes, shifting time zones, sleeping in many strange beds.

Recently, I counted how many of the US states I have been in.  Not for plane layovers, but actually took step out of the airport and stayed a while.

It was 30.  In October I'll add one more to the count.

I have been to 8 of the 10 provinces and none of the territories.  I hope one day to fix that.  :)

Last month I reached another birthday.  And counting.  There is a poster on Facebook that says something like - do not regret growing old.  It is a privilege denied to many.  Like my brother.  My father.  And now, in the senior years of my life...some of my friends.

The webinar is done.  I survived.  As a friend says, much nicer to say "I have done" rather than "I will do".  Now it's back to focusing on the up coming deadlines so that soon I can say I have done them, too.

A Rebel Born

As a kid growing up, there were all sorts of dress 'codes' that were strictly adhered to.  There were certain colours you just never, ever wore together.  Red heads never wore pink.  You never wore white shoes after Labour Day or before Victoria Day.  Or maybe that was Easter.  Your hand bag and shoes had to be the same colour, etc.

When I was about 14 or 15 I paired a bright apple green skirt with a deep blue/teal sweater.  When I went to meet my school mate to walk to school, she berated me for wearing blue and green.  Horrors!  What had I been thinking?  Blue and green were never, ever seen together!

"Green trees.  Blue sky."

She wasn't impressed with my logic.

Of course all that went out the window during the swinging '60's and Mary Quant et al.

And today this pink/orange/red/yellow warp flames into being on my loom.

It's all good.

Currently reading Thirteenth House by Sharon Shinn

Measuring Progress

some of the scarves woven since Tuesday last week - still need to be fringe twisted and wet finished

One of the ways I measure productivity is by crossing things off a list of jobs to be done.

Unfortunately when one item on the current list reads "Weave 36 scarf warps" it takes a rather long time to get to the point of being able to cross that off!  In point of fact, I'm still 4 warps shy of the 36, with more warps arriving from the dyer at the end of the month....

But just because I haven't been crossing stuff off my list doesn't mean that I haven't actually been rather productive since I got home from Sweden.  In addition to the 33 warps already woven, I also dealt with a great deal of administrivia, including doing 3 months worth of journal entries and submitting my sales tax return, updated my Power Point presentation for Weaving Today, did some fringe twisting and got Doug to do some pressing which meant running the textiles through the washing machine and dryer.  Not to mention being away for a week, twice!

But I still can't cross that "Weave 36 scarf warps" off my list.

11 weeks to the first sale of the autumn and counting.

Lemons

One of the things I am trying to do with these painted warps is to use up odds and sods of yarn in my stash.  When I came to this warp I decided I'd use up a medium brown Bambu 12, positive that there would be sufficient to weave a scarf.

No such luck.  :(  I could see that I was going to run out about 2/3's of the way and started casting around for an option.  Because a scarf 2/3's of it's intended length wasn't going to fit anyone but maybe a toddler.  Not having any toddlers in my life I wanted to give a hand woven scarf to, I needed an alternative.

When the bobbin was almost empty I started weaving pick and pick with a yellow/green about the same value - a little lighter but close.  When the brown ran out I carried on with the green.

Voila!  Lemonade.

Attention to Detail

before and after trimming

Doug did some more pressing yesterday and last night I began the final step in bringing my scarves to, in my opinion, saleable condition.

You don't have to do as I do.  Trimming the wispy bits off the ends of the fringe is purely a personal choice kind of thing.  A final step that takes some time to do and isn't, in some people's minds, necessary.

Some people question whether or not the knots will hold once they have been trimmed.  All I can say is that I've not had a customer complain.  Yet.  And my own scarves (lightly worn, it's true) show no signs of the knots not holding.

To me, trimming the fringes makes them look tidy.  Neat.  Hopefully worth the price I'm going to be putting on them for sale.

An item is worth only what someone else is willing to pay for it.  I'm hoping the buying public will think these scarves are worth my price....always a gamble when you are a self-employed creative person...

Nearly 40 years after making the decision to become a professional/production weaver I'm still wondering how someone who needs as high a level of 'security' as I want chose a profession with so little!

Complementary

I think this photo shows off the iridescence in scarf  #83 quite well.  As usual, click to biggify.

One of the ways to get iridescence is to cross the warp with a complementary colour - in this case a red violet weft on a mostly turquoise blue/green warp.  This is one of the 'test' colours the dyer did for me.  I told her I didn't necessarily want completely 'level' colour and I think she nailed the ever so slight variation perfectly for weft.  :)

The scarf isn't wet finished yet, and I am hoping the iridescence intensifies after a good hard press.

I didn't sleep well again last night.  For so many years I slept poorly that I've been rather enjoying the fact that 9 nights out of 10 I do actually sleep.  Last night appears to have been number 10 and it took ages to get to sleep so today I'm sleep deprived.  Therefore I'm beginning to really feel the stresses and strains of the last while.  The only 'down' time I've had this year were the 3 days after a trip when my back went 'out' on me and I was literally forced onto my back to let it rest.

As I peruse the calendar, I don't see any time in the near future for any sort of 'holiday'.  Even the trip in August is by way of being a working holiday, as enjoyable as it will be and as much as I am looking forward to it.  :-/

So I am thinking that the weeks between Boston and my departure for Departure Bay I'm going to have to crank back the dial and not set my daily goals quite so high.  Because as soon as I get back from the August trip I will be back to looming critical deadlines.

On the other hand, if I don't work at least a little bit during that three weeks, it will make the pressure in September and October even worse.  So perhaps any sort of 'holiday' will have to wait until after John C. Campbell in January, after which I will go to Florida to visit with friends there for a few days.  And this time, Doug will get to join me there.

Perhaps there is good reason for my calendar next year to be so empty?

Registration for Weaving Boot Camp should open in the next week or so.  Check the folk school website for details.

Thought Squirrels

Once again the camera can't capture the subtleties of the colours in the warp.  You'll just have to try to see them in person?  :)  Click on the photo to biggify....

When things are going smoothly and only surface attention is required for the actual weaving the thought squirrels sometimes start chasing themselves around in my head.

This morning's squirrel had to do with DVD's, teaching 'remotely', and the various efforts I have made to satisfy the desire to learn when people can't attend workshops for one reason or another.

To that end I produced (with the help of my web guru) a CD with text, numerous photos and embedded video clips showing the action where I thought it necessary for people to really understand the motions.

It took a great deal of effort to keep the CD format up to date with computer technology PLUS people kept getting confused, thinking that what I'd done was a DVD.

Eventually it just became too much and I discontinued production of CDWeaver, loading most of the clips produced for the CD onto You Tube.

But the requests for a DVD keep coming.

Well, folks, I don't know how Victorian Video and/or Interweave choose their subjects.  I do know that there must be a dozen videos/DVD's with warping info on them.  Back-to-front, Front-to-back, Scandinavian style, North American style, tips and tricks galore.  There is no dearth of warping information.

Does the world really need a DVD from me?  If you think so, then I suggest contacting Interweave directly to let them know there is a market.  They won't go to the expense of producing yet another dressing-the-loom video/dvd if they don't think they can sell it....

Just finished Dancing with the Virgins by Stephen Booth and started The Perfect Ghost by Linda Barnes.  It's not one of her Boston based Carlotta Carlyle mysteries but I'm happy to see a new title from her after several years.

Elephant on the Menu

box of warps

box of weft

next warp being beamed

It may have been Thomas Edison who is credited with the saying that creativity is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.

I'm at that stage now where it is eat-the-elephant.  Once scarf, one warp, working up the perspiration in order to get as many of the painted warps woven as I possibly can before the end of August.  Because the job isn't done at the weaving part - they still have to be fringe twisted and wet finished, then trimmed and tagged before they are really and truly ready for sale.

But I have my box of weft yarns now and the dyer is going to try to dye some 2/16 rayon in colours that I can't get from Silk City so I'm keeping fingers crossed that the yarn isn't too tender and that it will wind off of the dye skein without breaking.

I have sort of lost count but I do believe that the warp going into the loom tonight is #18, that I have so far woven 68 scarves.  There are going to be 47 warps in all (if my count is accurate!) for a grand total of 188 scarves.

Now if they only sell....

And of course that isn't all that I need.  I'm out of place mats and low on tea towels.  But those can be done in September/October.  It's the scarves that really take up the most time in terms of finishing.  As far as the mats and towels go, I can even bring them with me and hem while on the road if I have to....

Scarf 57

Getting to this point of completion for A Good Yarn:  Linen and Hemp meant that progress on the painted warps stalled.  While I did manage to weave at least a little bit each day, I didn't have much energy left over, especially after the marathon assembly/shipping days.

Then I was busy all day Saturday with the World Wide Knit in Public Day (no photos - forgot about taking some) and today was Lace Day - where I actually made a little progress on my next bookmark.  Not enough woven yet to see, but I'll take a photo and post when there is.

However, after lace I did get to the loom and began Scarf #57:

This is the last of the blue/green warps and I'm hoping to complete it and leave the loom with the next warp set up ready to go so I can jump on the loom when I get back from Bellingham.

I will be picking up another dozen warps from the dyer on the way home and frankly, with my schedule the way it is...so far...I don't have a moment to waste.  It could get a whole lot busier after my meeting with the project manager (if that's the correct term) in Bellingham next week.

It just now occurred to me that from the time I get home late Sunday June 23 until the time I leave on Monday July 8 is just - gasp - 14 days.

Currently reading River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay

Stymied - Sort of...

My tight deadlines are not my suppliers' problem.

Sending the incorrect yarn, is.

Started winding a warp to drop off to the dyer next Tuesday (the plan is for 14 more warps for fill-in colourways) and got 8 out of 10 sections wound before I ran out of yarn.  Upon opening the box from Brassard, I found that they had sent entirely the wrong yarn.  A panicky email last night asking them if they can possibly get the yarn to me by Friday was answered first thing this morning, and they will ship today.  Now we are at the mercy of Canada Post....

I don't like leaving a partially wound warp on the warping board but in this case I really don't have any choice.  At 8" the warp is just way too narrow to consider a 'fudge' so it isn't worth my while to tie it off and have it dyed.  It won't 'fit' the rest of the production run closely enough.

So while I wait until noon when I can pick up the copies, I have been doing other things.  Like running back to Costco for a small tweak of my frames.  Dressing the loom with another warp.  Discussing with Doug what needs to be done over the next few days so that we can actually get the publication assembled and packed up, ready for the conference in Alberta next week.  Not to mention the orders mailed before we leave.

My suitcase is still empty, too, and if the yarn actually does arrive on Friday, I will have Friday night, Saturday night (because I'm hosting a Knit in Public day at the Railway Museum), Sunday morning and evening and whatever I can squeeze out of Monday, in between everything else that needs doing.

I'd love to take some time 'off' but as soon as I get home preparations for NEWS will be in high gear, not to mention the other two major projects slated for August.  Hoping to have more information that I can share by the time I get back from Bellingham.  :)

Too Close to Tell

Yesterday I roared through the warp, wove scarf #48 with the 2/16 bamboo, fringe twisted it and got it (along with a batch of other scarves in approximately the same colours) run through the washer and dryer.

Today while I was up at the guild room hoping to sell some yarn Doug pressed all the scarves and the two shawls I'd wet finished so I could compare the latest 'sample' to the rest of the scarves woven with different yarn for weft.

The scarf with the 2/16 yarn is very slightly lighter (thinner) than the 2/10 Tencel (no surprise there).  But, and it's a big but, the drape is so close in quality to the Tencel that I have no qualms about going ahead with this alternate yarn for weft.

This is a huge relief because I truly did not want the added expense (labour and outright cost) of having to get some fine rayon custom dyed.  That would have pushed the 'profit' margin to such a thin slice that it would truly not have been worth my while to even make them.  As it is I'm having to increase the price of my scarves.  Truth to tell, my prices have been static for the past several years as I have battled with health issues - issues that have taken the focus off my business.  Frankly, I have just been coasting, in more ways than one.

It is well past time that I look closely at all the facets of my life/business and some changes were long overdue.  My prices are one large one.  Costs of everything else have continued to climb while I have been dealing with Life.

To partly compensate for the higher price, these scarves are longer than the ones I had previously been making.  The longer length will help to justify the higher price, necessary because of higher material costs, marketing costs, etc., etc.

Sometimes you just have to have faith in your product and yourself.  If you don't value yourself, why should anyone else?

Full Sized Sample

scarf 47

Working with that 8 ounce skein of 2/20 Tencel I was forcibly reminded why I loathe working with skeins of fine yarns.  The yarn broke, repeatedly, until finally the loose end buried itself so deeply into the skein that I could not find one, let alone either of them.  In the end I wound up throwing away nearly half of the skein.

Which realization sent me on a quest for some other fine yarn that was commercially dyed and came on tubes or cones.

And so scarf 47 became another full-sized sample.  In order to quickly identify it from all the other scarves in the run I inserted a small loop of yarn and as soon as these scarves are cut off the loom I will, as a matter of priority, fringe twist and wet finish it to see if the 2/16 bamboo yarn from Brassard will be okay.

I don't expect it to have the same hand as the Bambu 12 - it is spun with a much higher degree of twist making it stiffer - and stronger - than the Bambu 12.  But it might be in the same category as the 2/10 Tencel in terms of hand.  If so, I can switch to it instead of buying a fine white yarn, skeining it off, getting it custom dyed and then struggle to get it off of the skein onto bobbins or cone.

The savings in labour alone are worth it if it will make a reasonable substitute for the Tencel.

Flexibility.  Kinda takes on a double edged meaning in this case - can I be 'flexible' in my yarn choice when the cloth won't be quite as 'flexible' with the higher twist yarn?  Only the finished 'sample' scarf will tell....

Flexible

scarf 41

Yesterday I talked about having to be flexible and go with my #2 choice of yarns.  Last night I rummaged through the dwindling supply (yay!) of 2/10 Tencel, some of it custom dyed, to select the weft for warp #11. This morning I started winding it onto bobbins directly from the skein and immediately noticed that it was much finer than I expected for 2/10.

After winding the first bobbin off, I compared the yarn to the rest of the 2/10 and my suspicions were confirmed.  It was much finer.  Probably 2/20.

Since I haven't ever ordered 2/20 dyed Tencel I can only assume the dyer got some skeins of the finer stuff and then, like me, didn't realize it.

I stopped and thought about it for a split second, then decided to go ahead and use it up.  The colour is 'right' for this warp and the next two - if the yarn lasts that long.  I'm low on Bambu 12.  I paid good money for the yarn (it *is* custom dyed, after all) and the fineness of the yarn means that scarves woven with this yarn will be more in keeping in terms of hand with those woven with the Bambu 12, which is approximately a 2/16 grist.

While I didn't anticipate that this run of scarves would wind up such an effective stash buster, why look a gift horse in the mouth?

Currently reading Dead Ever After - the final Sookie Stackhouse - by Charlaine Harris

Things Change

scarf #40 - 10 warps now complete...

I know that things change.  Mostly I embrace change because it usually means I'm doing something new and interesting.

OTOH, sometimes things change way too fast!

Yesterday I moaned that I was running low on weft inventory and I needed to place an order with Silk City for the Bambu 12.  I was completely out of Kelp, and getting dangerously low on some of the other colours I wanted to use as weft.

I immediately swung Plan B into action so that I would not have any 'down' time and started using up the last dribs and drabs of the dyed 2/10 Tencel in my stash.  Not an ideal situation, but better than not being able to weave the scarves at all.

Well, the bad news is that Kelp has been discontinued.  So has Sugar Plum.

Generally when suppliers, especially wholesalers, start discontinuing colours in a line it means that that particular yarn is probably on it's way out.  Which is really annoying because I didn't even get this new design properly into production and now I'm going to have to (probably) switch gears and start sampling for a new weft, all over again.

Like I say....annoying!

So if anyone has any Bambu 12 in Kelp they would like to move on out of their stash, I would probably buy it?  If you are going to be at ANWG or NEWS, I could maybe pick it up from you and save the shipping....or if you have some 2/10 Tencel in nice dark values....?

The Not So Never-ending Stash

I knew I was beginning to run out of colours of the Bambu 12, but I had not realized just how low my inventory had gotten until I got to this warp (#10).  Fortunately I had more of the custom dyed 2/10 Tencel in the semi-solids, one of which was a very dark green with lots of blue in it.

After rummaging through the stash and adding up exactly what I did and did not have, I realized that I must urgently (as in today!) place an order for more Bambu 12.  In the meantime I've dug out all the 2/10 Tencel that is left and will try to choose warps on which those yarns will work as weft.  I can't afford to not be weaving, even though my pace will be somewhat slower as I continue to tackle the text for AGY:L&H.

It's not a bad thing, this having to improvise on the planned colour ways.  It forces me to try colours I might not have tried if there had been something more obviously good for weft close to hand.  It forces me to take small creative risks.  Even if the results are not to my tastes (as some of them have not been, in the past) it is quite amazing because almost always someone will come along and fall madly in love with the very thing that I think is a 'failure'.

Off to check the Silk City website and see if they list the available colours for Bambu 12.  One of my favourite colours is not on the colour cards so I'm hoping I just can't find that card, not that it's been discontinued....

Tangled Skein

I love when things are going smoothly and all that is required is surface attention.  I can either go into my 'zone' and use weaving as a working meditation, or I can use the time to think about writing projects.

And so it was this morning that I figured I could use the time spent weaving scarf #35 for getting my thoughts in order for AGY:L&H.

Unfortunately with not one, not two, but three major research/writing projects all clamouring for attention, I found my thoughts bouncing from one to the other as a thought regarding project 1 sparked a thought relevant to project 3 which sparked a thought relevant to project 2 which reminded me I wanted to include this or than in project 3 and where was I?

Pretty soon my thoughts were in a tangled skein (pun most definitely intended)!  It very quickly became apparent that the best use of my time was to simply go into my 'zone' and finish weaving the scarf and then get to the computer with my notes and resources and get writing!

So, lunch, then hair cut and then...write?  Or weave?  So torn!

Letting Go of Perfection

scarf 33

scarf 34

When I sampled for this production run of scarves I used several different wefts and weave structures, then chose the combination that I felt was the most successful.  The most 'perfect' if you will.

Unfortunately the Bambu 12 doesn't come in the variety of dark value colours that I would like to use so this morning on scarf #33 I decided to change wefts.

It was a choice between making a good first impression by using the 'right' colour weft to bring the warp colours out to their full potential and having a hand that was less than 'perfect' or using colours that I felt enhanced the warp colours but would not feel quite as nice.

Since you only have one chance at making a good first impression, I let go of perfection - because I wasn't going to get it anyway - and went with 'good'.

The top scarf - the first on this warp (#9) was woven with a solid medium range purple in 2/10 size Tencel.  The second one is being woven with a variegated yarn, also 2/10 Tencel.  I wasn't sure if the colour variations would show up on my monitor but they actually show quite well.  This was yarn I had custom dyed a few years ago and of which I just have dribs and drabs left - enough to do 2 or 3 scarves of each colour, perhaps a few more if some of the unconed skeins turn out to be good matches for the warps.

Normally my preference is to have the variegation in the warp, but these yarns were specially dyed to be very close in both hue and value and I like the slight shimmer of this first one.  So I will probably look for other warps on which I can use up some of this 'semi-solid' coloured yarn.

Stash busting.  Gotta love it.

Currently reading The Bat by Jo Nesbo

Controlled Panic

scarf 31

Working on a large project it is all too easy to let the nay-sayers living in your head to send you into a frenzy of procrastination.  Will it turn out?  Will people like it?  Will people actually pony up real money and buy it?

If you let yourself listen to those voices you can get mired down in thinking about all the things that will go wrong and wind up not doing that which you most want to do.  I find an approaching deadline does wonders to shut those voices up.  The panic from watching the deadline creep (or race) up on me is generally what provides the energy to break through the fear of failure.

With so many approaching deadlines, all of them critical each in their own way, I am having to really control the voices and the panic.  Too much of either can cause the wheels to fall off the cart, so to speak.  A little panic to provide energy is good.  Too much panic and I start feeling overwhelmed.  And get really cranky on top of it.

Because I do want to do everything on my schedule.  I know I will enjoy all of it once the deadline has been met and the event - or project - is behind me.  I will have accomplished a major goal (goals) and that will make me feel good.

But as a friend says, better to have done it than to say you are going to do it.  The anticipation is one thing.  The feeling of accomplish from having done it?  Priceless.

Currently reading Emergence by Temple Grandin

A Change of Pace

Got the fourth scarf warp into the loom and wove the first scarf this morning.  Changed to blue/green, partly for a change of pace, partly because I may need to order more weft yarns in so thought I'd better work on some different colours.

I tend to work in 'batches' because using hand dyed cellulose yarns means that there will be a certain amount of fugitive dye.  Therefore having a washing machine load of the same or similar colours means I don't have to worry too much about dye transfer.  Not that I let the cloth soak - rinse, rinse, rinse - make sure the dyes don't have time to settle anywhere else!

Having the scarf warps to work on while jet lagged was actually A Good Thing.  No thinking required, just follow my notes and do.  (There is no 'try', only 'do'.)

But now that I'm nearly back to my 'normal' routine, it is time to start looking at the stack of administrivia that has been building.

My calendar for next year is virtually empty.  This is good - and bad.  Bad because I don't know where my income will be coming from, so to speak.  When I have a full schedule of teaching events, I am assured of a certain amount of cash flow coming in.  OTOH, historically when I have had a great gaping blank in my schedule it usually means that the universe (or whatever you call the intelligence behind this reality) has something up it's sleeve.  So I'm not panicking about that blank slate.  More just curious about what is coming down the pipeline.

To that end I have been working on several projects which may - just may - be part of what will begin to fill up my calendar next year.  There is a good chance that rather than teaching in person, I may take on more of a role on the internet.  Stay tuned!

In the meantime, there is a great deal of preparation for these things to be done.  With a schedule cram packed with more than half of this year left to go?  I am going to have to stay on top of things so that I don't start missing some critical deadlines....