Unforeseen Circumstances

So now my worktable is acting as a surgical gurney.

The 10 minute fix has turned into several hours of loom downtime.  It's been a few years since one of the fly shuttle foot switches required repair and it took a lot longer to remove the switch from the protective housing under the loom than anticipated.  And then Doug got called away to work for a couple of hours. 

I'd gnash my teeth at the delay except that he promises that it should be functional again by around 2 pm which ought to still give me sufficient time to finish weaving both shawls today.  And if not, tomorrow for sure.

So I'll drag my suitcase out and start packing for Quebec, something that was on my job list for tomorrow.

I'm practising flexibility......

The Good, The Bad....

and the ugly?

This is a shot under the breast beam of the loom.  The box houses the two foot switches that activate the fly shuttle pickers.

The good thing about having a loom with lots of mechanical assistance is - well - the assistance.  The bad thing about having a loom with lots of mechanical assistance is that it breaks down.  Periodically.

So it is with the left foot switch.  I noticed yesterday that every once in a while the throw was wimpy.  The fly shuttle wasn't always making it all the way across the shuttle race from the left hand box to the right hand box.  It wasn't often and I just figured the shuttle hadn't seated properly for a good throw.

Well, today it became more and more frequent and I finally realized that it wasn't going to last much longer.  I barely made it to the end of the second shawl of the day due to the frustration of having to stop and shove the shuttle all the way into the right hand box.  But I persevered and I'm really hoping that Doug will have time tomorrow morning before work to fix the switch.

The repair doesn't take long - it's normally a simple 50 cent O ring that fails.  We keep them on hand so that when a repair is needed on the weekend or late at night it can be done without waiting for the hardware store to open.

Since I haven't been using the fly shuttle a lot the last few years, it's been quite a while since one of the switches needed to be repaired - so I really can't complain too much.  Except that there are just two hours of weaving left to finish this warp and I'm really really anxious to get it done!

As for the ugly?  That's in reference to the dust buffalo from the lint shedding from these shawl warps.  I have purposefully not cleaned up knowing that it's just going to continue until the yarn is all used up.  Another reason I really want to finish these warps tomorrow - so I can run the vacuum cleaner around and pick up as many of the herds of dust buffalo as I can.  And look forward to coming home to a - for me - relatively clean studio!

A Simple Life

threading the last shawl warp in this series - the end is in sight!

Generally we live our lives as though we will live forever.  Intellectually we know that no one gets out of here alive, but emotionally we think that our time is for much longer than we have any right to expect.

We also think that we'll have good health for so long as we do live.

Sooner or later, most of us find out that this is a nice fantasy with no bearing in reality.

When I chose weaving as a career, one of the reasons I did was that I knew in my heart that I had to have work with some component of creativity in it.  It could have been any number of crafts or other endeavour, but weaving found me and sucked me in.

I live a pretty simple life.  Oh, yes, there can be complications - no life is without those!  But pretty much every day I work several hours in the studio or on studio related tasks, read some, spend (too much) time on the internet - and do as little housework as I can possibly get away with doing.   I'll never win the Good Housekeeping Award as anyone who has visited me can attest.  I call it creative chaos and no longer feel terribly guilty about it.

I'm an introvert so I happily spend my hours alone.  In my life I've rarely had more than a handful of friends that I hang with.  Since I travel and spend so much time on the internet, many of the people who are dear to me are not near to me.  Unless I travel to visit with them I rarely have the opportunity to hang with them.  Much to my regret. 

Since I have been handed a ticking clock I have spent some time thinking about how I want to spend the rest of my years.  I'd like to teach more but since my diagnosis is "chronic" (meaning it will recur, on a regular basis, as often as every 2 years) do I dare apply to conferences which generally book 12-18 months in advance and risk having to keep cancelling because I'm doing the chemo cha-cha?

Do I agressively seek bookings with guilds which also book 6-12 months in advance?  Will I even be able to get travel medical insurance?  And if so, at what cost?  It already jumped by 4 times last year - turning 60 no doubt had something to do with that little (ahem!) increase.

I'd love to pass on some of what I know but books don't seem to be the technology of choice these days.  With the rather abysmal failure of CD Weaver, that doesn't seem the way to go either.  And I don't have the resources to do DVD's. 

Ultimately, do present day weavers even want to know what I know?  Or should I go the pattern route and sell instructions for projects?  And would enough people buy those instructions to make it worth my while to spend the time designing, weaving the project and attempting to market them? 

Magazines, whether hard copy or on-line seem to be struggling and while I try to regularly submit articles to Handwoven, that market is limited - 5 issues a year and narrow constraints on what they are interested in for content.

A few years ago I had individual students who came for 3-5 days each.  That seemed to go well, but I live in a geographically isolated area - it's not exactly a tourist destination - unless you like hunting, fishing, hiking. 

In mulling things over I do have a couple of topics that could be turned into publications.  I started on one but work on that came to a halt with everything that's been happening.  Time to start work on that again?  There is a possibility of doing an on-line publication that people can buy and download, which would be the most economical format in terms of publishing.  But have weavers accepted this format yet or are they still wanting to buy a 'real' book?

Without a strong marketing arm, could I even sell enough of these on-line 'books' to make it worth my time writing/producing?

Given my over production of inventory the past few years there is little need for me to continue to produce in the quantity that I am capable of and have been doing.  (58 shawls in the last 45 or so days)  I could instead turn my weaving time into prototyping textiles for others - either stand alone projects or for publications.

I could also weave for others - be a ghost weaver - but there isn't much call for that, either.....

Lots of questions - no answers - yet.

Just finished reading Dead Man's Tale by James D. Doss and started The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny

Work Space

Even though I have what might be considered a relatively large space for my studio, there is never enough room for everything that needs to be done.  At one point, to facilitate production, we decided that it would be most effective if one of us wound warps outside the loom while I was weaving the warp off in the loom.  Doug therefore built a free standing rack that would allow the beaming to be done off loom on a 2nd warp beam.  Since space in the studio was at a premium, the stand had to do multiple duty and also became the inspection/repair space.

Eventually when we were no longer required to be that efficient, the table morphed into a general workspace.  And clutter collector.

Here is the table from behind.  The wood thingee in the foreground right is the back of the loom - the AVL tension box rail.  The upright of the stand has a groove into which one end of the 2nd beam sits and you can just make out the caster at the back corner.  The table needs to move in order to make room for beaming the warp in the loom and various other things that need to be done.

Click to biggify the photos.

Showing the table top and shawl warp #10 in the process of being wound onto the spools, with boxes of weft yarns waiting to be used on the shawls.

The stand from the front.  The table top is a cheap door.  Doug made sure to get one that was level.  It fits onto the uprights and is held in place with brackets and hooks.  I covered the door with thick plastic but  found that scissors didn't slide very well on it so then covered that with heavy cotton fabric.

The front cross brace has a groove for the AVL tension box.  The stand is made from large lumber, put together with bolts and nuts and very sturdy.  A power bar mounted to the front allows me to run my Chickadee electric rotary cutter, the ball winder, extra light, vacuum cleaner or whatever is necessary at the moment.

The back of the stand showing the two uprights where the beam sits.  Down below you can just see the cloth storage roller waiting to be inspected/repaired.  The cloth comes up over the back cross brace and onto the table top.  Doug made a few extra rollers so that I can cut the apron out and move the woven web to the plain rollers which then get put into the stand at the back like this one.

BC Generations Project

Recently I was contacted by the BC Cancer Agency to see if I would be willing to participate in a research project called BC Generations Project.

The goal is to recruit 40,000 British Columbians, study their genetics and health issues and try to figure out if there is a genetic component to disease - mainly cancer but also other genetic health issues.  Since I now have two of these diseases (coronary artery disease and cancer) I decided to participate. 

I registered online http://www.bcgenerationsproject.ca/ and will shortly be receiving my questionnaire.  Then I'll provide samples for the study. 

Even though I don't have children so I'm not passing on my particular set of genetics, I thought that this was a worthwhile study.  With all the 'challenges' I've had with my health for the last 3 years, someone, somewhere, ought to derive some benefit from whatever they can find out about my particular genetic soup.

If you are in BC, I urge you to consider participating.  They have just over 10,000 people registered so far.  The study is also taking place in other provinces in Canada - check it out and see if you feel able to participate, too.

Too Much Information

In which I share what's been happening with me in terms of the chemo - not necessarily for those with sensitive tums...

shawl warp #9 on spool rack, shawl warp #10 being put on spools....

When I was 19 I travelled from Montreal to Oslo by freighter.  My father had travelled from Canada to England during WWII and had his own sailing and sea-sickness story, the moral of which was that you'll fare much better if you keep food in your stomach.  So between his advice to eat something and head for the deck where I could focus on the horizon when I started feeling queasy, plus the cabin steward's insistence that I never miss a meal, I pretty much ate my way across the Atlantic.  And never once did I get truly sick, although my cabin mates did suffer somewhat.  We were lucky as it wasn't a particularly rough crossing, even though we did, for 3 days, have to have the table and chairs anchored down and the 'fence' installed on the table to prevent our plates and cutlery from sliding into our neighbour's lap.

Years of dealing with food allergies that hit me in the GI tract have taught me that when I'm battling nausea I need to eat.  Getting food into my stomach does one of two things.  A - it settles my stomach so that the nausea is bearable.  B - It gives me something to heave if that is necessary.

When the doctor in the ER told me that the reason chemo patients are having nausea is because the chemical cocktail attacks the lining of the stomach, that just meant to me that I was going to have to eat my way through this, too.

I'm truly lucky to be going through this, now.  Advances in treatment of cancer mean that the chemical cocktails have gotten very specific.  I'm also fortunate in that I'm not getting the most aggressive form of the cocktail.  There were two patients in the clinic last time that need to wear cold 'mitts' during their treatment so that they don't lose their fingernails.  :(

I'm also very lucky in that anti-nausea meds are well known and freely given.  The clinic staff have been empathetic and supportive, concerned with making this process as painless as possible - given that we are essentially poisoning the host to kill off the rogue cells.

As for my hair, every day I lose a few more but so far there has been no critical loss.  One of the sites I referred to about the chemical cocktail I'm taking said that I may only experience 'thinning'.  I'll bring the wig with me to Quebec, just in case the loss goes critical while I'm away.  :)

I'm over the worst of the 2nd treatment now.  It takes about a week for the process to work it's way through.  Partly it's the sterioids, too - I'm finding it almost impossible to sleep during the 5 days of treatment with those and that lack of sleep leaves me reeling from exhaustion.  But once that clears up I start feeling better.

One of my concerns is that this whole process is going to get prolonged because my white cell count doesn't recover quickly enough.  So I talked to a friend who has done a lot of investigating into nutrition and helped family through the chemo process about what I can do to help and she gave me some feedback on what I can do.  More eating.  Heck, I can do that!

Currently reading Tales of the Otherword by Kelley Armstrong

Makin' Tracks

As anticipated the shawls woven with the singles exotics have tracked beautifully.  The medium brown is a 100% alpaca, the white weft is a mohair, wool, angora blend.

The alpaca is much stiffer and hairier but after a good hard press feels quite nice.  The mohair/wool/angora has a lovely soft feel.

I'm really pleased with the results over all and hope the customers will be, too.

Now to finish fringe twisting allllllll the rest!  :^)