Launch Time

It's almost launch time.  There are a few more things to add to the pile, mostly 'personal' items.  The next six weeks are going to be crammed with deadlines, mostly of the teaching sort.  It is very exciting to see the growth in interest in the Olds Master Weaving program, and the desire for weavers to understand the craft more deeply.  At least, it's exciting for me.  I hope the students also find it exciting!

The level one class beginning on Monday has 11.  Level one in Cape Breton has five, with room for more.  Level two Cape Breton has nine, possibly 10 as one more person is contemplating joining us.  The classes at Olds College proper during Fibre Week are filling - level one has 12, which makes that a full class (although I have been known to accept one or two more rather than disappoint.  Plus I have a teaching assistant in Olds, so could potentially take a couple more.)

Level two and three are running during Fibre Week as well. 

Time for me to weave a bit on the warp I dressed yesterday.  I am so grateful I am able to keep weaving and teaching, even if my energy levels aren't what they were.  And that weavers are coming through the system, ready, willing and able to take the torch and carry the knowledge forward into the future.

Mad Scramble

My life seems to alternate between the calm before the storm and...the storm.

I wanted to use a 'cartoon' I saw on the internet about what your plans are and reality.  My plans being a nice smooth path to my goal.  Reality being a mountainous up and down over and around numerous obstacles kind of journey.

But you get the drift...

This morning I was chatting with a friend about how we always seem to be juggling way too many balls, wearing way too many hats.  We agreed that if we didn't we wouldn't likely get off the sofa of a morning.  Some of us just keep having Really Great Ideas.  And then of course, someone has to implement them, right?

Also, this morning, I have been shooting off emails and messages about the conference, the classes, and a friend about the progress being made.  Oh yeah - and weaving on the above warp.

The good news is that the class manuals for WA are scheduled to be delivered today.  A Just In Time delivery if ever there was one.  Because class begins Monday morning at 9.  Sharp. 

Plans for the conference are shaping up.  Still a few details to nail down, but so far...so good.

I am looking forward to surmounting the next peak on  my path.  There won't be much time to rest when I get home, though, because I have work scheduled that has to be done in between WA and Cape Breton.

Where would I be without deadlines?  Sitting on the sofa eating bon-bons?  Nah, I'd think up something else wonderful that I just had to do...

Dark Times

In the face of - it seems - rising stress, increasing darkness, people going through tough times, I choose to light as many candles as possible.

Thoughts and prayers are just the first step.  Lighting metaphorical - or even real - candles is a first step.  The next steps are up to each and every one of us.

I try, every day, I try to choose kindness.  To encourage.  To accept that people are having difficulties I may know nothing about.

As a child I was taught that God helps those who help themselves.  So if you believe in a God, pray.  But don't pray for God to 'fix' what is broken in this world.  Pray for the strength to fix what is broken.  Pray for understanding.  Pray for those who have things more difficult than they should be.  Pray to open your eyes to inequity - and the way to make things better, even for just one person.

The world may be breaking, but we can mend it. 

Light a candle.  Be kind.  Lift up those who are down.  Build a bigger table.

Mentor

Wayne Dyer had a talk he would give on the stages of human growth.  The last one, according to him, was mentoring the next generation(s).

I feel I have entered this stage of life.  And that is why I am committing myself to the Olds Master Weaving program (almost) exclusively.  (I will, from time to time, continue to teach the local weavers via the guild I belong to.  If anyone wants to study with me, they are more than welcome to come here!  Or one of the Olds programs I am teaching.)

Being a mentor does not mean you have reached a certain chronological age.  Rather it means you have reached a stage where you have a deep level of understanding that you can convey to others.

People tell me I can do this.

More importantly, I feel I need to do this.  

After being in this business for 4+ decades I have a great deal of experience.  I also have a sense of what new(ish) weavers need to learn, even if they don't know that they need to learn it.  It is one reason I keep blogging, frequently repeating the same message over and over.  Because not everyone grasps the message the first or second (or 10th) time they read it.

Sometimes people have to have developed a certain level of knowledge to understand what I am trying to convey.

And sometimes it isn't something they need to know at the time they hear it so it slips on by.

People sometimes ask what it takes to host the Olds program in their locality.  The Gaelic College is one of the locations I am teaching.  They have a fully loaded studio and a weaving instructor who was willing to get things set up.  However, you don't have to have a fully loaded studio.  The Olympia Guild had a person who was willing to do the ground work, located a facility large enough to hold the class and could be booked for five days.  She managed to locate a loom for me to use for the group warp, and acted as liaison for me and for the students.

The college does the registration, sends out class manuals, hires the instructor (in this case, moi) and pays the instructor.

I have informed Zach that I will be devoting my teaching efforts to the program and am willing to pick up more classes.  (Just in case it's moi a group is interested in!)  He said that a couple of guilds had been in touch, and who knows, the program may be growing even further.  Generally the minimum number of students is 8, maximum 12.  Since some people have Life Happen and they drop out of one level or another, having the maximum for level one means the likelihood of continuing through the other levels is higher.  OTOH, one of the benefits of the program is that, having taken level one at one location, it is possible to take the next level at a different location.

If a guild should be interested in hosting the program, they can contact Olds College and talk to Zachary Webster.  (Don't you love that the person overseeing the program is called Webster?)

Different Strokes

People adapt their processes to suit their personal preferences, the yarn they are using and their equipment.  I tend to weave within a fairly narrow range of yarns.  I'm very comfortable with them, know their limitations, how they will consistently behave.  (Doesn't mean they are always the same, just reasonably consistent!)

The above photo is an 11 meter long warp.  Half of it, actually.  The finished warp will be 24" in the reed.  With such a width, I only wind half of it, or 12".  The max width I will do on this warping board is 15" at 20 epi +/-

I tie off the four 'arms' of the cross, not the waist.  I used to just tie the waist, then would fight to find the waist and deal with how the threads became compressed.  So I take an extra few seconds and make four ties to save that PITA level I mentioned in yesterday's post.  Extra time at one stage to save time and PITA levels at the next is not wasted.  IMHO.  

Notice that I also do not tie this yarn every single yard.  This 11 meter long warp has the choke tie near the cross, the counting string near the end and just two more ties along the length of the chain.

Nor do I crochet the warp.  Here are the two chains for the next warp which will go into the loom later this afternoon.  Once the chain is tied off I take out the peg at the bottom of the board (the end of the chain, so to speak) and simply carefully drop the chain into a box or bin.  In this case, because two warp chains will go into the same container I use a larger plastic bin.

The bin is then taken to my work table (where I stand to work - otherwise I'd be sitting way too much - sometimes working standing up is A Good Thing to do).  The lease sticks and reed are set upon small boxes which raise the reed to a comfortable height for the rough sleying.

I also use really thick ties.  They are easier to see, tie and untie than a single strange of, say, 2/20 cotton.

This whole set up is now ready for me to remove the four ties securing the cross and to begin rough sleying.

Check the links 'rough sleying' or 'reed as raddle' for more info on this process.

PITA

It seems there is nothing like a group of weavers discussing how to dress a loom to create controversy!

There are the front-to-back and then the back-to-front disciples.  Both are absolutely convinced - it seems - that their method is the best thing since sliced bread.

When I learned how to weave we were taught to use a raddle to spread the warp out to it's weaving width.  I did that for a while until I was shown how to use a reed to rough sley.  For a year or so I followed that process.  I got pretty good at using either a raddle or a reed.

Then I started beaming front-to-back and did that for a couple of years.  It worked ok with some limitations.

Until.

Until I changed what I was doing and it no longer worked.  Well, it did, but the 2/20 mercerized cotton I was then using for warps snarled and tangled and it took literally hours to beam a 10 or 12 yard long warp.

At that point I switched to sectional beaming and never looked back.  For literally decades.

Sectional beaming is great for a warp that is long/wide/has limited colour changes.  And that is how I usually approached my weaving designing while using sectional warping. 

But then I changed what I wanted to do and started winding warps with lots of color changes.  Not exactly efficient when beaming sectionally.  I was also making much shorter warps than what I did for the AVL. 

After trying and selling on several small looms I found a Leclerc Fanny, which turned out to be perfect for my needs.

Now rayon chenille is not one of those yarns I would willing beam front-to-back, and I didn't like having 8 ends in a 1/2" raddle, so I grabbed a reed and rough sleyed it - just like I had done all those years ago.  With just two ends in a dent, the rayon chenille behaved much better.  And the Pain In The Ass quotient went down considerably.

Rough sleying also worked 'better' with finer yarns, like 2/16 cotton, or Bambu 12 (about 2/16 cotton thickness).  Rough sleying also worked 'better' with 2/20 mercerized cotton.  And linen.

This is not to say I wouldn't ever beam front-to-back at some point.  Perhaps.  But there are many fabrics that I would avoid using front-to-back.

An incomplete list:

Any singles yarn, of any fibre.
Rayon chenille.
Any dense cloth - like the fine wool, set at something like 72 epi.
Any textured yarn such as a boucle.
Any grabby wool

Now I am quite sure that someone, somewhere, has successfully beamed a warp front-to-back using a yarn from the above list.

Great for them. 

For me, those yarns open up a world of PITA that I'm simply not willing to deal with.

I am known as an efficient weaver.  I have worked for decades to become efficient.  I am not interested in taking hours to beam a warp when my methods work for me and I can beam an 11 meter long cotton warp in about 10 minutes.

But for those who prefer front-to-back?  Do what you love.  I don't love that process much anymore, so I don't do it.

My advice to students is to pick an expert.  Learn everything they can teach you.  Learn enough to become your own expert.  Avoid PITA situations.  Because weaving should be pleasant, not a pain.  If you are happy and getting the results you want, you don't need to change a thing.  If you are not?  Then you might want to check out some different processes.  Or equipment.  Sometimes the equipment just isn't a good fit.  Because we are not all the same.  We are not the same height.  We are not the same in terms of manual dexterity.  We do not necessarily learn the same way.  Find what works - for you.

Live long - and prosper!  And weave the way you want.

Thoughtful Thought

I have never been one to rush into a decision.  Well, hardly ever.  So I spent a lot of time thinking about the post I wrote yesterday.  Thinking about how much energy I may - or may not - have in the coming years.  How most people my age have long ago retired from their job/career.  About what I want to accomplish, really, and truly, with the rest of my life - however long that may be.

The past few years I have cut way back on my teaching.  I have threatened not once, but several times, to quit teaching altogether.  But then my health would take an uptick and I would look at my dwindling bank balance, check my energy levels and think, oh sure, why not?  And book another date with another guild.

But after writing out just the next four months of my year with all that is scheduled?  Looking in the mirror and seeing someone who has fought the good fight, but who is getting tired?  Who would like, once in a while, to not have rolling deadlines?

I thought about where I want to spend my time and energy. 

Recently I told someone I wanted to teach myself out of a job.  I was, at the time, referring to the Olds Master Weaving program.  And I decided that if I really want to do that, then I need to conserve my energy for that program.  To help create weavers who can receive the torch and continue to teach more weavers, on into the future.

At this point I have zero contracts for anything beyond this year.  I have had one inquiry for possibly doing a 'remote' video class sometime in the new year which may, or may not, materialize.  But other than that, no contracts.

Every other time I have threatened to quit teaching for guilds I have been at the low part of the 'poor' health trough.  But right now I'm not.  I'm not exactly healthy, but it is being managed. 

So I feel as though I am clear headed enough to be making a significant decision affecting the rest of my life.

The older I get the less and less I like the dark o'clock departures to go anywhere.  The less and less I enjoy the stress of traveling long distances (even though I'm delighted when I arrive).

The older I get the less inclined I am to hare after the rolling waves of deadlines. 

So.

Drum roll please. 

I will not be accepting any more engagements for teaching for guilds.  I will be concentrating on the Olds Master Weaving program as my venue of choice for teaching. 

I will continue to work on stash reduction.  I aim to 'retire' from doing craft fairs at the end of 2020 although I reserve the right to continue doing one or both of the local fairs.  But I'm done driving pell mell through winter weather to attend craft fairs far far away.

I will finish The Book,hopefully before the end of this year, primarily because I'm sick of the whole project hanging over my head, but also so that I will be able to sell it at our conference here next year.

No, I won't be teaching at the conference, I will be one of the worker bees running it. 

For those of you who, at times, email me to say they really want to learn from me, keep an eye on the Olds College  website.  Because I will travel places to teach the college program. 

I will continue to contribute to Handwoven when their theme matches my interests - and they want what I have to contribute.

I choose to limit my activities in order to encourage serenity.  Who knows, maybe I really will drag my bobbin lace stuff out again.  Maybe I really will read all those books sitting on my hearth.  Maybe I really will make those jigsaw puzzles I've accumulated and had no time for.  Anything is possible?

Currently reading Island of Blue Foxes by Stephen R. Bown