Easy

next mat warp, beamed, lease sticks ready to be transferred behind the reed

Dad had a phrase he used when he saw someone do something particularly skillful.  It might be a man keeping 20 plates spinning on sticks on the Ed Sullivan show, the logger sports at the fall fair or the RCMP Musical Ride.  He would smile his gentle smile, shake his head and say "Watch out for someone who makes something look easy."

When a friend would comment on something mom had made, a cake she had baked and decorated, a garment she had sewn, a sweater she had knitted, he would draw himself upright and say, with just a tinge of pride, "My wife built it."

Dad died the same month I started weaving.  He didn't live long enough to see my brother Don grow into a successful man, turning his childhood dreams into reality.  He didn't see me turn weaving into my career, my passion, my life.  He wasn't able to enjoy my travelling around North America, even as far as Europe, Great Britain, Scandinavia several times.  He wasn't able to see the publication of Magic in the Water or any of the Big Projects. 

I hope that if his spirit checks in to this reality from time to time that he will drop by when the latest Big Project goes public, draw himself upright, smile his little smile and say "My daughter built it."

An early Father's Day post...

Endings, Beginnings

From time to time a newbie will declare that they are only ever going to put loooong warps on so that they don't have to warp their loom.  Or one will declare that they are going to 'invent' a way to have continuous warps so that they don't have to warp their loom again.  Ever.

Got news for you.  All yarns end.  That half pound of cotton?  Ends.  That pound cone?  Ends.  That kilo cone?  Ends.

At some point, everything comes to an end.

Not that I'm not saying you shouldn't put long warps on.  I do, after all, have a 50 yard long warp on my AVL.  And that isn't the longest warp I've ever done.

The thing is, if you never get proficient at beginnings, then endings are always going to be traumatic, or stressful, or unpleasant.

Rather than avoid them, then, I recommend that people embrace them.  Lose your fear of them.  Understand that it is a cycle, just like life.  Things begin, and they are exciting and wonderful, but they do come to an end at some point.

To not want to learn how to dress a loom would be like a knitter professing to never wanting to cast on.

For new weavers I recommend putting short warps on, doing as many as you can in as short a time as you can so that you become proficient at it.  And then when a warp ends, you won't have separation anxiety.  You won't be afraid of the process.  You will look forward to changing the warp - using a different yarn, a different epi, a different weave structure.

We no longer need to weave (most of us) to put food on our tables or keep a roof over our heads.  We can explore different yarns, different weave structures.  Knowing how to efficiently get a new warp beamed gives us the freedom to do different things, create different kinds of cloth.

Endings and beginnings are to be celebrated..

On the Mend

After a few uncomfortable days, my back is settling down and I was able to weave for more than a few minutes today.

My loom looks very sad with all the things dangling off the back of it, but it's working and that's all that matters.

While I always strive for perfection, the fact is that no one and nothing is perfect.  Or at least perfection is so rare as to be almost impossible to obtain.

We all have battle scars from Life Happening, but we carry on.  It is one of the mysteries of life - what's it all about, anyway?  That we don't know, truly, why we are here, we just know that we are.

We have our dreams and goals and we work towards them as best we are able given our talent and determination and we keep trying.  We keep trying in spite of our scars, our imperfections.  We carry on, despite our 'disabilities' - our wonky backs, our arthritic hands/feet - or whatever it is that ails us.  We forge ahead regardless of the obstacles in our way.

In the end - the journey does come to an end, after all - we will be remembered for how well we traveled on our journey, how much we helped others on our way, how much grace we brought with us.

In memory of two more local weavers gone on to whatever is next.  

Void, Voided

click photo to biggify

So much for a nice stretch of purely studio deadlines.  Between my mom and both of us, we are having Life Happening.

It started with Doug's surgery to fix an annoying problem, then my putting my back 'out'.  Mom is having some health issues and between the three of us we are running around with multiple health related appointments.

After a nasty couple of days I woke pain free this morning and since I'm supposed to walk more than I sit, decided to try weaving on the AVL.  The first session wasn't an unqualified success but after icing it and winding a warp it settled down and I was able to finish the first towel.

Warp winding isn't walking as such, but with the constant change of body weight from foot to foot with each pass of the yarn on the board, it mimics walking and I've actually felt much better doing that than sitting.  I've managed to wind 5 place mat warps and started storing the weft yarns in the bin with the warp to be woven off later.  (foreground stack of bins)

There are still a couple of bags of yarn on the work table which will have to be put away - once my back is feeling better.  Carrying heavy stuff really isn't recommended right now.

Oh yes - in case you are wondering how I dealt with the missing 6 threads in the warp...you can just see the 6 replacement tubes dangling off the back of the loom.  The rod in the ceiling I use for a valet originally began life for just this sort of thing - hanging repair ends.

I let them down nearly to the floor, then when they get close to the rod I let them down again.  I can weave about 1.5 yards before I need to deal with them, which is just about exactly one session worth of weaving.

Gimpy

After a trip to the chiropractor this morning I'm much more mobile, but still feeling 'fragile'.  Her advice was to walk more than sit, so I wound warps.  I've got all that yarn that needs to be turned into place mats, after all!

So once again showing my warp winding 'station'.  Tubes on spikes feeding off the ends, winding off the spools counter clockwise (no particular reason, just being as consistent as possible) traveling up through the reed laid flat at the bottom of the board, over head spotlights on to brighten up a somewhat dim part of the studio under the stairs above.

So far I've managed two warps, but I'm also waiting for Doug to check the mail and see if the order from Brassard has arrived so that I have the yarn necessary for the warps for the pounds and pounds of yarn shown in a previous post.

For now I think I'd better work on the next Craftsy blog posts.  

Best Laid Plans

Best Laid Plans

Things started fairly well this morning.  I read for a while finishing a library book that needs to go back soon, then went to the bank with mom, came home and started on that 50 yard warp on the AVL.  

My back has been dodgy ever since I fell in March and after the weekend I felt it was a bit 'off' but the soonest I could get in to have an adjustment was Friday.  In the meantime I carried on...until I went to get up from the loom. 

The rest of the day I've been taking muscle relaxants and alternating between hot/cold packs.  

And hemming.  There's lots of that to catch up on!

Currently reading The Dead in all their Vaults by Alan Bradley

Queueing Up

So here is the queue of yarn to be used as weft for place mats.  That big cone of blue/green?  It's nearly 5 pounds.  The rose cone at the back?  I used up 1 pound 4 ounces as weft on an 11 meter long warp.  In other words, there is some serious weaving required to use up this yarn...

I'm waiting for more 2/8 cotton to arrive so that I can use up most of this yarn.  I had enough beige that I was able to wind a 'short' warp (9 meters) which should use up that pale beige beside the blue/green.  It's only just one pound.

However I'm also waiting to hear back from the designer at which point I will have to leap onto the AVL to get her proto-type 'samples' for photography done.  If I can manage 5 yards a day it will take 10 straight days of weaving to get that warp woven off.  And of course, that's an optimistic goal.  :-/  Life has a way of happening, after all, and I do have other obligations as well as the weaving.  (Yes, I do have a life.  Sort of.)

But the good news is that the level 2 class at Olds is a 'go'.  Which means I also have to do my teaching prep.  And 4 more Craftsy blogs.  And outline another 'big project' for someone else.  Although my involvement in that project may be more input than actual performance, so to speak.  That is embryonic, and not my idea, I'm just sticking my two cents in.  :)

I also offered to transcribe some files, so I will have to fit that into my schedule somewhere.  It's looking like my 'leisure' time won't happen any time soon.  And that's just fine with me, really.  I had a lovely weekend away with my mom visiting with family friends at a 60th wedding anniversary and I'm actually looking forward to some of these 'new' projects lining up for the summer.

Currently reading Night Broken by Patricia Briggs