Small Steps

Yesterday I finished beaming the next warp.  The warp has three 'main' colours - this emerald green, a turquoise blue and a rose (made up of two shades of rose/pink).

Of the emerald green, these tubes are what is left from warping.  I have a few more tubes with a little more yarn on them, but in total there really isn't enough to use as warp again.  So the emerald green tubes will go into a box for weft use.  There should be enough for two or three towels.  Maybe a fourth.

But using up stash isn't just about the yarn - it's also about the supplies.  The last bout of warp pretty much used up the last of this roll of masking tape.  There was just enough left to tape the stick with the bouts to the loom.  (I tape the stick down so that it stays in place during threading.)

This warp will have black as weft which should make a pretty dramatic cloth.  It wasn't my first choice - I had intended to use another, nearly the same, green.  But the black wants using up, and I want it gone. 

There is enough black to finish this warp, plus some for the next. 

Like I say - you get a lot of play time from fine yarns! 

The warp is 24" in the reed at 32 epi.  Each one inch section is filled with about 20 yards of warp.  That means approximately 15,500 yards of yarn for the warp.  Each warp takes almost 2.5 pounds of yarn.

Each towel is woven approximately 40" at about 32 ppi for about 950 yards of yarn for weft for each towel.  Or less than 1/6th of a pound.  At about 420 yards per ounce (again, approximately), that makes around 2.5 ounces of weft per towel.  A bit less, but I'm trying to show how much yarn it takes - and how much more I have to use up!

After wet finishing the towels are smaller in dimension, of course, so you have to go with the dimensions as they are in the loom.

I haven't weighed the towels yet - maybe I will another day, but according to the math, the towel (100% cotton) is about 5 ounces.  A little less because I've rounded up in some cases.

However, last night my back went into full on spasm, bad enough I dug out the strong muscle relaxants.  I am not to the point of weaving because I still have to thread the loom.  Just sitting isn't good for my back, so I'm going to get dressed and gingerly get myself set up to thread.  But I won't push through the pain this time. 

It is long past time for me to be doing that.  So I will give it a try and see how I feel.  After I take another Robaxacet and let it do it's job.  I'm hoping that the threading posture will be a bit of a 'stretch' for those tender muscles in my lower back.  And if not, I will try to find something else to do.

Since the sun is currently shining in a blue sky, who knows, maybe I'll go for a walk. 

Road to Recovery

Thursday I had a massage treatment and while observing that I was doing really well, the therapist suggested I tweak what I was doing at the loom.  Well, I did, and today I am in quite a lot of pain.  So I don't think that tweak is going to work for me.

The good news is that I won't be weaving for a couple of days so hopefully things will settle down and I can carry on with my recovery.

But it is very discouraging and frustrating, dealing with a body that was rode hard, put away wet, far too frequently in my life.  I ignored most of the warning signals and pushed through the pain.  Now that I'm retired (for certain values of) I am trying to pay attention and listen to my body.  I still need it to carry me through another decade or so.

But that's the thing.

Not everything we try will result in 'success'.  Not everything we do will result in 'perfect'.  Not everything we attempt will be what we want it to be.

We don't know until we try.  We just don't know how things will turn out.

And that is the story of life in so many ways.

We keep going.  We keep trying.  We accept the results and move on.  Sometimes we are pleased, sometimes, not so much.

So I'm not a happy camper today.  But I'm working on dressing the loom, which probably isn't going to help much, but I can take breaks.  I'm taking the pain killers.  I'm going to do the exercises that the therapist suggested.

And I'm going to hang onto hope that this too shall pass. 

For everyone struggling today?  I send love and light and hope that things will eventually get better.

Transitions

So today I expect to finish weaving the red/black warp.  I will weave one more towel, then cut off the warp.  Finished - for certain values of 'finished'.  Because weaving - like life, really - is full of endings - and beginnings.

We transition from one day to the next, one season to the next, one warp to the next.

Every ending brings a new beginning.

Human beings are confronted with endings and beginnings every day.  A book we have been enjoying ends.  The CD on the boombox ends.  The TV program we have been enjoying ends.  These are all little endings and rarely do much than cause a blip on our personal radar.

A warp ending is a somewhat bigger ending.  A lot of time and effort goes into setting up the loom and sometimes people feel a little bit anxious about getting their next warp into the loom.

When I changed looms I had to change my approach to dressing the loom.  The Megado has some different features, one of which is a much smaller diameter warp beam.  It has other things that are different from the AVL and it has taken me a good year to slowly get comfortable with the new loom.  I'm still not quite there in terms of 'comfort' because I miss some of the features of the AVL.  But the Megado is going to let me keep weaving for a few more years, so I have to make friends with it.

But today I will cut the red/black warp off the loom.  The next step is to cut/serge them, then run them through the washer/dryer, then press, then hem, then one final press before they are done, done.

During that process of 'finishing', however, the next warp will go into the loom.  It will be the same threading draft but a different colour.

My goal of weaving down my stash continues.  I'm a long way from 'ending' but it is with a small sense of triumph that I empty a tube and put it into the recycle bin. 

And begin using the next.

Obscured

As September creeps by, the weather changes and we are having foggy mornings.  As I looked out my window this morning, I could barely see the large hill out back as it was obscured by the early morning autumn fog.

I thought about how we live in our 'bubble' of what is 'normal', what we can see, what we cannot, but what we know is there but not visible.

I suppose part of my musing is my advancing age, but really?  I've always thought about such things.  Maybe it was how much I read as a child.  Or maybe I read because I thought about such things.

I wonder about how other people live, what their experience is like, how they deal with the vicissitudes of their lives.  I wonder about what is going to happen in the coming months, years.  I think about what I would like to do with my life, in the time I have left.  I suppose that last one is age related...

The past six months have been a time of 'pause' for most people.  Personally I was already dealing with a major life change - retirement.  Of a sort.  It was a time for me to think about what was to come.  What I wanted to happen.  What DID I want to happen, anyway?  And not really knowing the answer to that question.

I knew I wanted - needed - to keep weaving.  But my body was objecting.  I tried a few different things, each of which helped - to a certain extent.  But my personal horizons were shrinking and I had to sit with that reality for a while.  So, staying home to reflect on the changes happening was helpful, I think.

Conclusions?  I have none.  But there are questions I think about from time to time.  What does the future hold is one of those questions and I never manage to come up with any kind of answer.  Because we don't know, we can't know, until it arrives.

So I make plans.  I hope.  I try things.  Some of them work, some of them get abandoned along the way.

With the coming of autumn (in the northern hemisphere) the cycle of life is generally a gearing up of the 'usual'.  School reopens.  Various programs, dormant for the summer, are renewed.  We make plans.  We hunker down for winter.

After six months of staying in a very small bubble, I find myself restless.  I know I am not alone in this, but it is not safe to expand bubbles very much.  In my province the numbers of covid-19 are rising and the second wave that was predicted appears to be set to arrive.

For those of us with internet access, there are a growing list of opportunities to learn on line.  The challenge is to convey information which is normally taught in real life, hands on, interactive with the instructor.  On line is remote and there is difficulty in showing students what they need to see.

For myself, I have several topics which can be done remotely, and after some brainstorming yesterday, I managed to come up with three topics which could be done as a three part series, or individually.  They are based on guild program topics that I have been asked to do in the past, lecture style, a conveyance of information rather than practical physical skills.  More theory, more information rather than skill building and feedback.  Because while I might be able to show what to do, it is much more difficult in a Zoom meeting for me to see what each person is doing, then put my hands on theirs to tweak position or posture.

My new massage therapist has been great to work with.  He frequently pulls out his anatomy book to show me exactly which muscles I need to work on and seems to understand what I'm doing with the loom.  Yesterday we talked about a tweak I had tried and which had failed.  He talked me through what I had done and gave me solid advice for me to try next.

And that is pretty much life in a nutshell.  We keep trying things.  We keep looking at what we are doing, what we might change, analyzing the results.

Just like in weaving (and spinning, felting, all the fibre crafts - all the crafts, really).

Yesterday I also talked with a couple of people about my brother and his vision for the railway museum here in town.  I was touched that, even though neither of them had known Don, they assured me that his presence is still very much in evidence and that he is still well respected there.

This morning when I looked out the window, I could not see the hill that I knew was out there.  And I thought about how the future is also obscured.  But it is out there.  We have to live as though what is obscured will be revealed.  Work toward making the world a better place.  Extend a helping hand to others who may be dealing with things we know nothing about.

Because right now?  We are all flailing about trying to live our lives in the best way we can. 

Dr. Henry has been trying for six months to keep us safe.  As more information about the pandemic comes available, advice may have changed and may change again.  But the theme of staying safe remains the same - try to remove yourself from the line of transmission - stay away from crowds of people.  If you have to go out, try to maintain safe social distance (at least six feet - or one hockey stick if you are Canadian), wear a mask if you can't, wash your hands when you get home.

The numbers of cases increases daily.  The number of deaths increases daily.

Stay safe and well my lovelies.  And be kind.  No one knows what another person is dealing with.  And no one knows what the future holds.  That doesn't mean we stop trying, stop planning, stop learning.  It just means that we don't know and can't know, until it is revealed.

Do the best you can.  When you know better (more), do better.

Grey Day

Here we are, in September. 

After a summer of wet, grey, dreary days, we are entering into a wet, grey, dreary autumn, it feels like.

OTOH, the weather forecast says that after today we should have some nicer weather.  One last kick at the can for some 'summer', maybe.

The past six months has been difficult for everyone.  People are out of work.  Children have been kept from school, but are now being put back into school.  Parents are worried.

We have been fortunate here with a low case count, and while I feel quite safe, it's mostly because I have the privilege of being able to stay home, not go out to work.  In fact my 'retirement' seems to have been perfectly timed because I had already taken measures to protect myself against the coming lack of income from teaching due to 'retiring'.  Therefore the cancellation of classes and fibre events didn't impact me all that much.  Not compared to some.

Fibre folk have been scrambling to rescue themselves by thinking creatively.  A few had already been working hard getting classes on line and they have been able to launch those.  More will be coming down the pipeline as the weeks progress.

I have been approached to do something on line as well.  My initial response was to say 'no', but then I thought about it and began coming up with ways to actually do a guild program remotely.  Last night I tested my laptop and it does have a webcam.  I've asked the person requesting me to do it to test Zoom with me to make sure it will actually work.  Because I've never done Zoom and I'm a dinosaur.

But as I lay in bed last night trying to get to sleep I thought about how I could set up my studio to do it.  And immediately thought again about how all the work we did the end of last year, beginning of this, makes it possible for me to even consider doing it.

When 'normal' becomes impossible, we need to think about other ways to accomplish things.  Seems this on-line stuff is going to become more and more 'normal'.

Even the building where the guild room is has gotten on board and will be providing improved internet access.  We are already investigating on line presentations for guild members.

Our province, our country, is preparing for the second wave.  The virus isn't done with us yet.

Wear a mask if you need to go out.  Maintain safe social distancing.  Wash your hands.  Stay safe and well.

Mystery Loom

Yesterday I posted a photo of a pile of sticks saying it was a loom and the magic of the internet provided me with a maker - Hammett.

Looking at the photo and drawing I found with a simple 'Hammett loom manual' search, I'm pretty sure that the loom is, in fact, a Hammett.

I printed out some info for the new owner and someone else said they might have a crank that would fit it.

And this is why, in spite of all the negatives about it, I love the internet.  The World Wide Web.

Without it, that pile of sticks would have remained a mystery.  Instead we have photos and a possible site for more info  should the new owner wish to follow up on it.

The Hammett is not a loom I have come across before although I remember seeing ads for it in old weaving publications.  I had no idea one would have been in storage for a decade in a tiny village just a couple of hours drive away.  Would love to know the story of that journey.

Other reasons to love the internet - staying in touch with friends far away.  Being able to access resources that would have been out of reach without it - like http://handweaving.net

The Mary Black archive.

Special interest groups.

We live in 'interesting' times.  Some of those times are beneficial - others not so much. 

But I will continue to try and lift people up, help them when and where I can.  I will stay at home as much as possible - for months if necessary - because I still have stuff I want to do, even if that doing will be at home.

My local guild is working on expanding programs by looking at internet options - on-line seminars.  A number of teachers are beginning to offer seminars and classes on line.  Why so long?  Because it takes time.  And money.  And good internet.  Not everyone has the technology skills to pull it off effectively.  You only have to take a gander on You Tube to see some less than helpful videos.

Speaking of which, I need to share my You Tube channel with you - I have about 24 short clips about various aspects of weaving.  Remember that I am very much an amateur when it comes to video making - be kind! 

Long Thread Media purchased the DVD collection back from Interweave when F&W declared bankruptcy and now has them as on-line classes.  The above link is to 'just' the weaving ones.  I got an email yesterday from them indicating that I might actually have a royalty payment coming, so thank you to those who have taken a 'class' with me remotely.  :)

Yes, we live in 'interesting' times. 

Stay safe.  Stay well.  Keep weaving/spinning/etc.

Looking for a Home

This loom has been claimed.  :)

The Prince George Fibre Arts Guild was given the above loom (yes, it's a loom) and we had intended to assemble it and have it available for members to use.

And then the pandemic arrived and the studio building was locked down.  Now we are faced with trying to re-arrange the guild room to provide extra space for drop ins and other guild activities and we have zero room to put up this loom plus another that arrived about the same time.

We never did manage to assemble it, but Doug received it and says it looks like all appropriate parts are there, except the crank for the warp beam.  If anything is missing, a competent woodworker could most likely make a replacement part.

It is a four shaft, six treadle, roller type counter balanced loom, with no maker's mark that we have so far found.  It looks sturdy and the beams all look to be straight, not warped.  The warp beam has sectional dividers, but those could be removed and the warp used as a plain beam.

Weaving width is about 40" but could probably be pushed a bit wider.

We need to re-home it by the end of the month.  Our current meeting arrangements may end very soon so we need to get the guild room more functional for the fall.  We are planning on having a guild room sale to try and make up for the income we usually get from the guild booth at the local craft fair, now cancelled for 2020.

It needs to be picked up, sooner rather than later.  If a local is interested, I can offer assistance in assembling it (either Doug or me, or both).

We are offering it free, as is, where is (stored under a table in the guild room) although a small donation would be welcome.

There are other equipment items that may be offered for sale as well.

The guild AGM is next week and people can attend by Zoom or in person at Studio 2880 in the Jack Bryan Room which is on the main floor.  If you are already a member, you should have received an email with details last night.  Membership dues can be paid now.

The guild website has been updated with a new rental page and as we inventory the equipment the things that can be rented will be listed.  The guild has several table looms including a 16 shaft loom which is great for sampling or small items, and a small Norwood four shaft loom with about 18" weaving width.  We are now allowing these items to be taken home as they are small enough to get up and down the stairs without too much difficulty.

There are also spinning wheels which may be rented and taken home.

The guild website will be updated over the coming weeks.  There is a gallery of work by some of our members done during the pandemic and photos from the conference last year.

There is also a Buy and Sell page with a few items listed and we will list more of the guild equipment as decisions are made.