Decisions

I decided to stop dyeing yarn to re-sell - after I'd bought a bunch more yarn in order to dye.  What with all the kafuffle with mom's surgeries, it took a while to get the yarn skeined but I finally got it done over the weekend, soaked the yarn out and spent the better part of 4 hours at the guild room getting this last dyeing done.

While there are still some things that need to be dyed, I have little dribs and drabs of dyes which will do for those small batches.  I have a customer interested in the bulk dyes and I'm hoping she takes all of it.  There's no point my hanging onto it when someone else could get good use out of it.

Today I guess I was mostly in a blue/green mood although there is a little purple in there, too.  If the yarn doesn't sell, it will make nice shawls.  It's BFL and feels quite nice.  I have one skein for sampling with and thought I'd knit a small bag and full it to see how well it fulls.  There is so much non-fulling wool available now people are interested in yarns that they can either knit up or weave and full.  The question is, will I have time before the Alberta conference?

Well I've got lots of taped tv still to catch up on so once the hemming is done, it sounds like knitting will be in order.  :)

Knowledge and Confidence

Rather messy looking?  Yes, but after only a few minutes....(as in less than 5)

the loops are untangled and the warp is ready to be beamed.  Knowing that the mess is really not much of a mess makes tackling it less traumatic.  Also knowing that a thread under tension is a thread under control means that there is less trepidation when beaming a warp, even one of 2/16 cotton at 32 epi, 13 meters long like this one.

The warp is 24.5 inches wide (or so) and it was wound in two sections.  Each section is weighed with its own weight.  The warp took less than 45 minutes to beam, including stops for phone calls and setting a bunch of wool skeins into the washing machine to soak for the upcoming dye day tomorrow.

currently reading Intruder by C. J. Cherryh

Pure Potential

Two mostly empty looms.  Wondering if I'm going to actually get some weaving done this week?

Lucky

Sometimes you get lucky.  So it was with the knot in this warp.  Since the cloth was going to be cut up into samples I didn't feel like taking the time to fix it - instead I just marked it with a contrasting thread intending to toss it.  But instead the knot fell in the 'waste' area of the samples so I didn't actually wind up losing it.

And here they are - 300+ mug rug blanks, aka samples.  They are far from done as the intent with this sample is to show how I do a fringe on all four sides.

With colour and weave it's time consuming to deal with the constant colour changes, so rather than worry about the selvedges and weft loops I just left the colour that wasn't being woven run up along the side of the cloth.  No doubt several of the blanks will be 'lost' as I work out how many threads to use for the fringe length but I have a half dozen where the dye lot changed in the middle so I'll use them to work out the details.

This post could have as easily been titled "Time is the most valuable commodity you have".  After all, there's no making more once you've 'spent' it.

When developing a publication with actual samples, the amount of time involved is enormous.  For example, just to cut the above bucket of samples took over 3 hours.  The finishing (sewing, wet finishing, pressing, trimming) is going to take hours more.  And that's not counting the weaving.  I'm intending to have 10 samples (before and after) so multiply that by 10.  And then add in the assembly - stapling the samples to the pages, collate the text and sample pages and package them up.

And then there is the writing.  One reason I haven't quoted a firm price yet is because I haven't started the writing so I don't know how many pages of text there will be; therefore I can't even begin to calculate how much the printing is going to cost.

One thing I can share is that Magic in the Water; wet finishing handwovens had 20 before and after samples.  Someone in the textile industry saw it and said that a comparable publication made for the textile industry would have been valued at $3000.00.

Finished reading Coffin Man by James D. Doss this morning, started Let's Play Dead by Sheila Connolly this afternoon

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

A Healthy Ego

bag full of potential

My yarn order arrived today - it's primarily the yarns for sample #7 for AGY:Cotton in it.  Still haven't actually designed the sample, just decided on the colours and actual yarn so right now it's still potential.

But I started thinking about how I got to where I am today.  What on earth possessed me to think that people would even want to buy my designs/products in the first place?  What leap of faith caused me to quit my rather well paying (but incredibly stressful) job and plunge into the deep end of the pool, so to speak, and become a weaver.  Not just a weaver, but one with aspirations.  Dreams of creating textiles that would add beauty to people's lives, that they would be willing to pay a premium for, that other weavers would be interested in my viewpoint, hire me to travel to them to teach, or buy my writings?

Obviously I had to have a pretty good ego!

But too much ego can get in the way, too.  If you think too much of yourself you don't allow yourself to hear what other people are telling you.  Sometimes you need feedback, the negative as well as the positive, in order to refine your dreams to make them be more successful out there in the cold cruel world.

In addition to having a certain sense of self-worth, believing that I did, in fact, have something of value to contribute in terms of my designing, writing and teaching, I had one other factor that gave me the courage to try - a knowing that I simply had to have some form of creativity in my life or I would wither and die spiritually.

This journey has taught me many things.  It has affirmed that there are a certain number of people who do value my contribution, who are willing to pay me to be a creative person in this time, in this place. 

It has also taught me to keep my ego healthy - strong enough to know when I need to stay the course in spite of negative feedback, humble enough to recognize that at times I need to change what I'm doing and let some of my dreams go.  In the end, I've had a lifetime of creativity, and for that I am truly grateful.

Another Milestone - sort of

It's been a long road but I am at the very end of the tunnel - not quite out of it - yet - but nearly.

The intended print run for Magic was 1000 copies.  When I ran into some technical issues I capped that at 900, plus 100 abridged copies.  The complete copies are all gone and the abridged copies are just about gone, too.  Technically I have one abridged copy left - in reality there are two.  I was going to keep one, but I have a complete copy so keeping an abridged copy seems...redundant.

There are also a couple of sample packets left - 3 of the supplemental samples for Magic and 2 of the sample packets I put together for CD Weaver III.

Since I also have a few more CD Weaver cd's, anyone who wants the cd plus sample packet can email me (laura at laurafry dot com).  Once these are gone, there will be no more.

On the other hand, the next publication with samples is still on track.  The yarn for sample/project #7 should be here by the end of the week.  Shall I commit to a July 9 publication date?  Again, email me if you are interested.  This publication will be called A Good Yarn:  Cotton.  It will discuss the fibre characteristics of cotton, how preparing it for and spinning it will affect those characteristics, and how weaving the yarn will further affect the characteristics in the cloth.  I'm aiming for 10 projects (yes, there will be before and after finished samples - how could I not?).  The print run will be 150.  The publication will come in loose page format, partly to keep the cost of publication down, but also to keep shipping costs down.  Why pay to ship a heavy binder when most people can get their hands on a 3 ring binder?  With the costs of shipping increasing amost daily, it is probably cheaper to buy a binder locally than have me ship one!

Again, once these 150 copies are gone there will be no more.  If demand warrants it, I might possibly go digital with it but since digital Magic hasn't exactly been flying off the shelves it seems like a waste of time, energy and money to keep going that direction.

There are very good reasons to produce publications digitally, but others seem to have that market sewn up and since I am primarly a weaver, seems like I ought to stick with what I do best - and already have the equipment for since producing Magic.  :)

PS - for those of you who have Magic or other of my publications and want to be supportive, I can always use a little 'word of mouth'.  I know I am on the internet a lot and people might not think I need any help with getting the word out, but not everyone is on the internet and self-promotion is always a little....suspect?  To be taken with a grain of salt?