Of Resolutions and Gratitude

Here are a couple of the scarves Teresa dyed after I wove them in white and black silk.

As 2008 slowly ticks away, I can't help contrast this year's end with last year's end. And think about all that has changed, and all that hasn't.

For the last 3 or 4 years, my new year's resolution was Stash Reduction! Generally I've done pretty well at using up or selling off a fairly hefty chunk of my yarns. Even with not being able to weave at all for several months this year, I did a pretty good job of weaving quite a lot of my yarns when I could weave. :) And even accumulated more yarns when Lynn gifted me with some of her fine linens in October. :D

As I look around my storage room, I still see great mounds of yarns that need to be used up. Some of it has been shipped out for the workshops I'm teaching in '09, but there is also a lot that I'll have to use up myself, for one reason or another.

In addition to what's here,Teresa has more wound warps to paint and which I'll eventually get around to weaving once she's got them dyed.

So what has changed from this time last year? I no longer deal with bone-crushing fatigue and chronic pain - the two most obvious things that changed once my condition was recognized and dealt with. For that alone, I am truly grateful on a daily basis.

The other thing that changed was the nameless dread that followed me every day has now gone. When I think about how I was feeling just one year ago, I am once again amazed at the strength and resiliency of the human body and spirit. I wonder now how I could even move, let alone weave, dye, travel long distances to do shows and teach, given how I had been feeling.

I am also enormously grateful for a doctor who was willing to listen when I told him how sick I was this summer, and who was open to my suggestion that I was having a massive adverse reaction to the statin drugs. I'm not entirely sure that the Ezetrol is something I should be taking either, but that's something for the end of January when I see him again. I'll ask for a check of my liver enzymes to make sure nothing untoward is happening there. If I can't take the Ezetrol I'm not sure what else is available but I know there are some other medications to try yet.

What hasn't changed is my love of weaving. What hasn't changed is that I can now, finally, weave like I used to do - something I wasn't sure I was going to be able to achieve given how ill I was feeling this summer.

Whether or not I will continue to weave at this pace once my stash is used up I don't know. Neither do I know if I will continue to travel long distances to do shows and teach. Right now I'm just focusing on meeting my current obligations for '09 and will wait to see what opportunities come after those are met.

Every day I try to remember and be grateful that Doug and I are still alive, still learning whatever Life has to teach us, still able to be creative, and hopefully - helpful to others.

Life is full of challenges. We have been lucky that until this year our challenges were relatively minor - hindsight is always so clear - and that we have managed to survive this year after all.

May all your challenges be minor. May your warps be well tensioned, bobbins wound well, and any surprises that happen on the loom or in the wet finishing be pleasant.

Big Scarf, Next Installment

Here is the tail end of scarf #2, (on the left) and the beginning of #3. This time I remembered to reset the Compu-Dobby so I got the full 158 pick repeat. :)

I'll tweak it a bit tomorrow and do something similar, but a little different for #4.

With a 30 yard warp, I could get at least a dozen scarves off this warp. I don't think I'll have enough weft for that many, however, so I will likely get some small towels off this warp, too.

The question is, can I sell that many blue and white scarves? Probably not. So why am I continuing to make them? It's not just that I'm into stash reduction, although I am. I also know a professional dyer who will take blanks and turn them into gorgeously dyed finished items. So I expect I'll be sending some of these to her.

If I remember I'll take a photo of some silk scarves I wove in black and white and Teresa dyed for me. Teresa, if you're reading this, post the URL for your website in the comments? I'll put a link to it on the side bar, too.

Before and After

Here is a photo showing the rayon chenille Big Scarf before and after wet finishing.

The pattern is somewhat more obvious before finishing, partly because I gave the scarf a hard press which flattened the chenille and made it gleam. It also changed the feel of the fabric, which I like more than the unpressed, although others may prefer it unpressed. Both feel nice in their own way.

After finishing, the fabric was very supple which I think you can see quite well in the picture.

Finished weaving the first scarf on the new warp this afternoon, then re-tooled the treadling and started the second scarf. In the end, I had a memory lapse and forgot to re-set the treadling on the computer, so wound up with only a few picks (40) of the new treadling repeat. After weaving several inches decided that I liked the truncated version and will carry on with it. I'll do the longer version for scarf three. Since I've got 30 yards on the loom, variations are encouraged. :)

There is probably sufficient rayon chenille to do quite a few scarves. I'm looking forward to getting that used up!

I'm also winding some of the warps for the Birmingham Gamps Galore workshop and hope to get that into the mail on Friday. With any luck I'll get their Mug Rugs and More workshop boxed up on New Year's day and mail both at once. Over the weekend, I'll do the Columbus workshop (Magic in the Water).

I'm also trying to sample the buffalo yarn on the Fanny, but that may have to wait a bit. I'm supposed to be organizing a Show and Share bobbin lace day for Jan. 25th, too. Somehow I keep procrastinating over that one, though. :}

BIG Scarf

Had lunch with a friend today, then up to the guild room to dye a bunch of yarn. Got home around 4 pm, finished sleying the warp and started weaving after dinner.

Of course I had a sleying error to fix! Fortunately it was simple to fix - I put two working ends per dent, and about an inch from the beginning, I had only put one per dent for two dents. Really glad I spotted it so quickly.

Wet finished one of the chenille 'shawls' the other day and the shrinkage weft-wise was much greater than I'd been expecting - from about 22" in the reed to 14 after wet finishing. So instead of shawls, I decided to market them as BIG scarves. Instead of fringes, they will be hemmed - much faster than fringe twisting such tiny little threads! The fabric has incredible drape and feel. If I can get a good photo of the finished fabric, I'll post that.

Since this warp is narrower than I prefer for tea towels, I'm going to finish off all of the 3000 yard/pound chenille on it. If there is any warp left once that runs out, I'll weave the singles 12 linen on it. While the resulting towels will be narrower, they will still be about the same size as commercially produced cotton towels, so will be useable - just not as generous as I like my towels. They will make good hostess gifts, though.

The photo only shows a small portion of the overall pattern. I wanted to get a good close up so you could really see the fabric. I'll play with the tie-up and treadling so that each scarf is a little bit different.

Finishing - a Little

This photo doesn't really do these towels justice. The subtle colours make the fabric very rich. The cloth has two different sides - one more blue, the other more beige.

I got two of the cloth storage rollers cleared off and serged everything that could be serged. Today I ran a load of tea towels through the washer and dryer, and just finished pressing them.

The ones above were the most successful - and the ones I'd been most dubious about on the loom. The natural linen before wet finishing was a kind of drab greyed beige. It lightened up considerably after scouring. :)

The next most successful ones were those I'd thought were going to be too flimsy when they were on the loom. They turned out perfectly, while the ones I'd increased the ppi on were a little too dense and a bit stiff. Live and learn! Always...........

However I now know that I can go ahead with the next warp and use up the last of the 2/40's combined with the 2/20's with the singles 6's for weft and at 24 epi/ppi, I'll get some nice towels. And use up a bunch of yarn that really needs to be used up!

The current warp is nearly half threaded, but tonight I'm trying to finish transcribing WeaveCast's latest episode. I first met the Other Mary Black when I took a workshop at Coupeville Arts Center on Whidbey Island.

I never met The Mary Black in person, but did have some correspondence with her when I put together the original profiles of the Guild of Canadian Weavers master weavers.

GCW recently transferred what I had done on slides and a transcript onto CD. It is for sale at a very reasonable price. If you are interested in a snippet of the history of weaving in Canada, the profiles of these women (for they are all women - so far) you'll find lots to inspire on the CD.

Some of the people who achieved the GCW Master certificate: (The) Mary Black, Dini Moes, Linda Heinrich, Jane Evans, and of course, moi, along with many others.

I'll find the URL and put it on my list of links to the right.

Threading For Blue Warp

Not exactly a snowflake, but this threading fits precisely into the number of threads I wound so how could I not use it? This is how it looks woven as drawn in. No doubt I'll play with the treadling, although I think I'll use this one with the singles linen. It should be very pretty.

I started running out of threads on the spools, so this warp is a little bit narrower than what I've been doing for tea towels, but oh well. The warp will be 17.5 inches in the reed - smaller than I prefer, but when the yarn starts running out......

The warp could have been shorter, but hindsight is 20-20!

The bad news is that there is more 2/40's left than I'd hoped - dang that yarn is fine! So I may wind up doing one more warp with the 2/40's and 2/20's. It won't be nearly as long - maybe 15 yards instead of 30? We'll see.

With my first trip coming up so quickly, I doubt very much I'll get this one woven off before the end of January. What I really need to do is deal with the 3 cloth storage rollers with 20-30 yards of woven fabric on them. But first I need to do the warp yarns and instructions for Birmingham and Columbus. A job for tomorrow.

B-b-b-blue Christmas

When I moaned about how long it was taking to use up the the red cotton, I had obviously forgotten how much blue I had! It seems like I've been weaving predominantly blue for a long, long time. Of course, such fine thread weaves for a long time, so.....

This won't likely be the last blue warp as there is easily enough to do one more. But I think this is the last warp that will combine the 2/40 and the 2/20 - the 2/40 should be about used up on this warp. The dark blue is about as used up as can be - what's left will go to my lace buddies for making lace. While 2/20 is considered fat in the lace world, it suits us just fine! :^)

I haven't chosen a threading yet, I am just going ahead and beaming the warp wide enough for tea towels. Probably I'll use one of the 12 shaft drafts from ARS Textrina. Something 'fancy' - snowflakes?

We kept a very quiet Christmas, having an early dinner with mom. Then we came home and I started beaming this warp.

The best Christmas present is the fact that since I took myself off the Crestor (statin) about 10 days ago, my bp seems to be settling down nicely. I had one day last week with a small spike, but am suspicious that it was due to an allergic reaction and/or the fact that I didn't weave for three days. Anyway, since that small spike, my bp has been just about as perfect as one could hope for. Very reassuring as I set off on my teaching schedule in a couple of weeks.

When I saw the doctor on Monday, he agreed that I could just stay on what I am taking now for the next month - he didn't try to increase the Ezetrol (the other cholesterol medication) - for which I am grateful. It has equally nasty adverse effects, and I really didn't want to increase the dose. No doubt we will check my cholesterol levels - and liver - in the near future (the pharmacist said about 3 months was usual for cholesterol).

Since my cholesterol was not particularly high to begin with, I'm hoping that they won't get all firm about getting it way down.

Hope everyone is having a good holiday and finding a little time for some fibre activities.