Endings, Beginnings

Another failed attempt to get a photo of the Swedish Snowflake as Blogger insists on washing out the red.  Nothing like technology to keep one humble?

While I more truly consider the solstice to be the end/beginning of the year, I haven't much liked the way the 'new' year has started so I'm going to go ahead and join with the rest of society and proclaim that midnight tonight is the end of the year and the beginning of a brand new one.

Beginnings are always so...optimistic.  Nothing has gone wrong - yet.  Everything is shiny with promise.  We get a chance to try again and this time, maybe, things will go 'right' instead of 'wrong'.  The great cycle of life has turned one full rotation and we are ready for the sun to return, for life to spring anew.

This is a time for hope and optimism.

From our house to yours - may you have everything you need, looms and wheels etc. that behave, yarn that inspires, creative ideas that keep you excited about each and every day.  May we all have a very happy new year.

27 Yards +/-

Hmm - Blogger doesn't seem to 'get' red.  While this wasn't a great photo to begin with, it wasn't washed out until I uploaded it to here.

At any rate.  This is what 27 yards, more or less, of 2/16 cotton warp with 20/2 cotton weft at 32 epi/ppi looks like.  The 20/2 is is most likely open end spun.  It's much weaker than my 2/20 mercerized cotton and much fluffier.  In fact it's comparable in terms of grist (or thickness) to the 2/16 which is ring spun.  So I didn't adjust the density when I switched to the 20/2 cotton but treated it as though it were the same grist as the 2/16.  And it seems to be quite happy.

Although the weaving is done, the cloth is far from done, done.

Next step - inspect and repair, then measure, cut and serge, then wet finish, then hem, then final 'finishing' press.

In the olden days professional weavers just wove.  All the rest of the things that go into making a web into real cloth was done by other professionals.  We don't have that system in the 21st century.  Sometimes I really wish we did!

Not entirely sure what will go onto the AVL next so I may just weave on the small loom for a while.  It's all weaving, after all.  There is a red warp ready to go with another in the wings waiting for weft to arrive.  So if I finish the red one - which I ought to do - I will likely put the blue one on the loom.

There are still 8 scarf warps to be wound and shipped to the dyer before I leave, too.  But one by one I am crossing things off my list.  And that's a very good feeling, yes, indeed.  Even if it means I have had to shuffle the order somewhat.

Continuing the Red

one end of the studio - red on the loom and on the mill

the other end of the studio - red warp in the bucket, red being rough sleyed on the table, red on the loom

The only problem is that I'm running low on red to go with the cones of cotton flake from Lynn's stash.  While I might be able to wind warps, there won't be enough for weft.  And so another yarn order has been sent in.  It won't get here before I leave, but it will be by the time I get home.  And then it will be full steam ahead?

In the meantime I found some medium value blue which will be 'ok' with the cone of blue/purple/green cotton flake and started winding that.

The red warp on the AVL is almost finished - the plan is to get that off the loom tomorrow and then concentrate on the towel warps on the Fanny.

The suitcases are out, ready to be filled.  My ledger is almost ready to take to the accountant.  Just waiting to see if there are any more bills that need to be paid before the end of the month.

And if you haven't already participated in the poll, I am looking for feedback on what my 'next' Big Project ought to be.

I must be mad thinking about doing another book, but this time it will be digital (if I do it at all) given how much postage rates have risen and are threatening to go ever upwards.  I fear Canada Post may become as extinct as the do-do bird in a few short years.  By which time I really hope 'they' have a matter transmitter - that actually works.

Digital files are well and good, but textiles really need to be handled.  Speaking of which I still have a few copies of A Good Yarn:  Cotton and far too many copies of A Good Yarn: Rayon left.  Good idea to buy now before postage rates go up again, typically mid-January....

A Special Anniversary

Who would have imagined that when I chose weaving as a career it would span 40 years - and hopefully longer?  I'm not quite sure what I envisioned when I made that fateful decision around March of 1975 to become a professional/production weaver.

But in a little over a year, it will be the 40th anniversary of that decision.

Don't ask me why I'm thinking about this now with so many other critical deadlines on my plate, but other people, other businesses, do something to mark a significant anniversary.  So I'm thinking I ought to do something, too?

If I can figure out how to load a poll onto the blog, I will ask you, dear readers, for feedback on what that something special might be.

Nothing like having Another Big Project in the works for when the next one is done come May?

Making Maps

another red warp using up Lynn's yarn (the variegated - red/blue/green)

I love maps.  I like to pore over them, putting myself in context with where I am, and where I want to go.

I use things like lists and outlines to help define my goals and what I want to accomplish.  Most time I don't have actual written down lists, just mental ones.  But at times a project becomes so big I can't quite capture it all in my imagination and then I need to use real written down lists.

Being self-employed most of my deadlines are self-imposed.  It took years for me to realize that if I missed one of those it was not a big deal.  I just tore up my out dated list and made a new one, or revised my deadline to reflect Life Happening.

So while I didn't get the experiment for Handwoven done when I wanted to, I'm still well ahead of their deadline.  It's all but ready to package up and mail (samples, cd with file, etc.).  Just waiting to hear back about a couple of questions I would like answered before I send.

There is a yarn order on my desk, which I intend to send tonight, a conference proposal I'm not sure I'm going to apply to teach at, and then...then it is the turn of the formal outline for the Project That Cannot (Yet) Be Named.

The magnitude of this project is such that I have to work with a team and, since they can't read my mind or tap into my imagination, the only thing to be done is to draw up a real written outline - a blueprint we can all follow.  Then once we are all on track I can proceed with my end.  But time has gotten very tight given all my other committments and I am going to have to stop working on generic stash reduction and start on the woven samples for The Project.  Once I have my 'map' I know what road to take, so to speak.  After all, if you don't know where you're going, any road will do.

Currently reading The Gates of Sleep by Mercedes Lackey

Fire-y Red

Beginning of the red warp showing the header where I checked for threading/sleying errors, decided on a treadling and just generally made sure the loom was behaving.

Red on Red Swedish Snowflake motif used as a border on each side of the warp.

I fiddled around with the motif and centre field to make it fit the number of ends in the warp (24" x 32 epi) and wound up with a few extra ends which are hanging off the back of the loom.  These threads will not be wasted but given to a friend who doesn't mind taking some time to sort them out for her own use.

I'm not entirely sure I'm happy with the white weft on the red - the contrast in value is a little 'extreme' for my tastes.  But as towels?  I'm sure someone, somewhere will be happy to have them.  They just wouldn't look great in my kitchen.  Since I rarely weave for my own use, though, I'm happy enough with them and they will go into inventory.  Plus that cone of half-bleached singles linen is now officially used up.

I love fine yarns, but they do go on for a very long time.  You certainly get your play value out of a cone of fine yarn!  The 20/2 red I'm using for weft has a bazillion yards per pound (20 x 840 = 16,800 divided by 2 = 8400)   I should have weighed the cone before I started winding bobbins, but I expect it is around 2 pounds.  It will probably outlast the 30 yard red warp currently on the loom.  Since I have lots of the 2/16 for warp, another one may be in the cards.  I'll change the design, but there will no doubt be lots of inventory of table runners and/or towels in holiday season red for next year.

Seeing Red

Three warps.  Three red warps.  Turns out my stock of 2/8 cotton is much more depleted than I remembered and what I have the most of is red.  So the next two towel warps on the Fanny will be red based.

It's really hard to tell from the photo but the top most warp has two different dye lots in it.  One half of the warp is going to be a more intense 'lipstick' red, the other half a more scarlet red.  I'm sure that it will be quite subtle, but if not, it's a design feature....(s'my story and I'm sticking to it!)

The warp on the AVL is 2/16 cotton in a scarlet red.  The beginning will be woven off with the last of the singles 16 half-bleached linen, which will use up that cone of Lynn's yarn once and for all.  The rest of the warp will be woven with a very softly spun 20/2 scarlet red from Lynn's stash.  This 30 yard long warp may not use up the entire cone of that but it should put a good dent in it.  :)

I have made a pretty good stab at staying on top of the administrivia, but will have to balance my ledger and cheque book so my papers can be delivered to the accountant before I leave.  Since I'm up to date on my entries, though, that task should not take too long.  She says, optimistically!  And there is the writing for Handwoven to do, too.

There is a call for instructors for a conference I'd like to apply for - that also has to be done before I leave. There is the planning for the Project That Cannot (yet) Be Named.  I'd hoped to have done that before now, but other things have gone 'critical' and needed to be dealt with immediately.  But it's time to get cracking on that project because I have a bunch of weaving to do for it.

I have also been spectacularly unsuccessful at losing weight over the past 6 months.  The best I can say is that I haven't gained any.  :(  Since my weight had been climbing, I suppose I can rate my efforts a partial success?  But I had really hoped to peel off 15 pounds - guess that will go back onto my list of goals for the new year?

Christmas will be a low-key affair - lunch with mom, then come home and weave?  Sounds good to me!

Currently reading The Dark Vineyard by Martin Walker