Language Matters

 

One of the things that changes over time is language.

This morning I was thinking about the things that I write about, how frequently I repeat what I have to say, and how I feel like a 'broken record'.

At which point I stopped and realized that you have to be over a certain age before you might get the reference.  

And then I thought about how people learn at their own rate.  That even though I might say the same thing in a hundred different ways, not everyone will understand.  They may not have the foundation of knowledge in order to absorb the information, yet.

In other words, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

In truth, the teacher has been there all along, the student just wasn't ready to absorb the teaching.

Acquiring knowledge is a complex process.  People need to layer down the information, filling the holes in their foundation of knowledge until they can begin to build upwards and onwards from the basics.

Weaving is a complex process with a multitude of steps that must be done in a particular order.  Until a person knows and can replicate those steps it is going to be more difficult for them to expand their knowledge.

And so yesterday when I wrote yet another article with much of the same information I have written about countless times before, it was in a different format with a bit of a different focus.  At the end of the article (just over 1000 words with a word count of 1000 being aimed for) I wondered if I had actually said anything new at all.

But the point isn't saying something 'new', it is saying the same old thing but in a - perhaps - new way.  A way that might get through to someone who may have heard the same things before, but not been able to grasp the importance of what they were hearing.

I am waiting to hear if one magazine is at all interested (I suspect that they may have commissioned someone else to write a similar article and they won't want mine), but if not I have another publication I can offer it to.  Because I feel that the information is necessary and if it means that I personify that broken record, I can do that.  

Because language matters.  And language is the way we convey information

In the meantime, the words that I wrote are being ignored for a while so that when I re-read it, I can hopefully have perspective and can edit it to make sure it makes sense.  And fix any typos.  

The Light

 

One way or another, this warp will be done today.  I have nowhere to go and nothing much to do, other than finish weaving this warp.  So that is my goal.  Weave one, declare it done, or weave two.  I still can't judge on this loom how much warp is left on the beam because this beam is 14" (approximately) in circumference, while the AVL was one yard.  So I think there might be enough for two towels, but I can't be sure until I get one more woven off and then see how much is left.

Frankly I'm about ready to just let it go.  Except I really like this colour combination!  But honestly?  I am not much interested in playing yarn chicken and I'd rather cut my losses than get 3/4s of the way through a towel and run out of warp.

So I'm not too bothered one way or another.  One or two.  But which ever it is, the warp will be cut off the loom today.

And the cycle will begin again...

What a Difference

 

the end of the black, beginning of green, tube being used as a bobbin

Yesterday I started using up the green that was in the warp because I had finally used up the black.

And I really really like the green!  So much so that I kind of regret using up so much of the warp with black weft.  But oh well.

I think most people would be hard pressed to tell that both of these were woven on the same warp.  The black totally changes the look, making it more 'dramatic', while the green blends in more, softening the colours, making a more muted statement.

Both are nice, in their own way.  Both will make towels.  

But mostly?  I'm grateful (and not a little relieved) to have done with the black.

Based on this example of value, I made the decision to use up some really dark grey/blue on the blue warp I have in the queue.  The nearly two full tubes will likely take most of that warp to use up, but I think there will be a similar sense of 'drama' with the very dark value weft on the lighter value warp.

But regardless - they will also make towels.

I think the biggest freedom I feel right now is that I am not weaving for an 'audience'.  I can - and do - choose colours that appeal to me (based on what I have on hand because I'm NOT buying more yarn right now).  I am hoping to sell these at some point (and four of the green weft have been spoken for - already paid for, so now I feel pressure to get them done!) but if they don't they can also be used for gifts or donations.  Someone, somewhere, will like them enough to use them.

Yesterday I added two more speakers to the Sunday Seminar Series.  The first six months will be posted soon - I don't want to rush the guild web maven.  She's busy right now getting ready for Thanksgiving.  So I am hoping to start promoting the first six next week.

The first three of the second half of the year come from the Maritimes, Washington State and the lower mainland.

So much fun to talk to people all over the place.

Until we can safely meet in person, virtual can at least keep us connected.

In order to make that happen sooner rather than later, if everyone would please wear a mask when they go out, that would help.  Honestly.  It's not a cure, it's not 100%, but some protection is better than none.  The 'second wave' is breaking here in Canada and right now Ontario and Quebec are facing really bad numbers.  Let's all do what we can to remove ourselves and our loved ones from the line of transmission and beat this virus back.

Remembered to look up the title of the short story collection I'm currently reading:  The Games Creatures Play.  Urban Fantasy for the most part - lots of myths, magic and supernatural havoc.

The Helpers

 

Had a conversation (via the internet) this morning with someone who is of the same mind as I am - life is about lifting others up, not putting them down.

Since the rise of Covid-19, I have seen a growth in presenters offering Zoom seminars and even on-line workshops.  Since meeting in person is not recommended at this time, the Helpers put their thinking caps on and turned to technology.

Events are being offered on line instead of in person.  Workshops, seminars, guild programs.  We have the means, we have the responsibility to act.

One of the best things to come out of this pandemic has been the opportunity to re-invent myself once again.  I just now accepted the offer to promote myself as someone who will do Zoom presentations - because I can.  (Well, working on it!)

This summer we were hooked up to fibre optic cable and got a new internet router which makes it possible for me to go down into my newly reorganized studio, set up for a Zoom presentation, and not disturb Doug while I do it.

Many others are working on the same thought - that just because we cannot meet in person doesn't mean that we can't continue to learn and interact with each other.

In Canada Thanksgiving is next Monday.  Health officials and governments (mostly provincial, who are responsible for health) are urging people to stay at home, not to gather in large groups.  My goal is to be able to publicly announce the line up for the Sunday Seminars by then, too.  Something to be grateful, thankful, for.  That we can still do this thing that we love.

Yesterday I collected photos off of the internet to go with the presenters for promotion and sent everything to the guild web maven.  And this morning I booked someone for August.  So I have a good start on the second half of 2021.

Heddlecraft will be listing presenters able and willing to do Zoom presentations, so watch for that if your guild is looking for people able to participate as speakers.

Look for the helpers, as Mr. Rogers was said to have advised.  Look for those lifting others up.  Helping when things look bleak.  Smoothing the road when it gets rough.

Light a candle or two.  More light is always better than too little.

Looking for lessons?  Craftsy has Janet Dawson's Learning to Weave 

Jane Stafford's On Line Guild.

Tien Chiu and Janet Dawson's courses and Weave a Longs on using colour in weaving.

Other resources - Long Thread Media and  Taproot Video for a variety of classes/workshops.

Publications - Long Thread and Heddlecraft.  The Ontario Guild has a magazine Fibre Focus, Guild of Canadian Weavers has a quarterly bulletin, comes with woven sample each issue.

And so many more.  I don't have a listing of all the on line events so watch for announcements on line.

Stay positive.  Stay optimistic.  Stay covid alert - until we can safely meet in person again.

Persistence

 

I think there is one more shelf on this rack - I couldn't get back far enough to fit them all into the photo

Latest photo of towels made since oh, March?

There were more.  Some have been sold, some given as gifts.  And of course there are possibly some on the other rack in the storage area.  The serious stash reduction actually began in November of last year, so it's hard to remember which I wove when - pre or post covid.

People sometimes confuse patience and persistence.  You don't need patience for something you enjoy doing, although you might need persistence.  Persistence for the times when you are tired, when you don't feel like doing much of anything.  Like during a pandemic and 'interesting' political times.

But I am nothing if not persistent.  And determined.  I have helped disburse enough weaver stashes (so far) that I am determined that Doug and friends will not be in the position of getting rid of an enormous pile of yarns.  Woven textiles should be a lot easier to get rid of, should there be much left by the time I shuffle (shuttle?) off to the Great Loom Room in the Sky.  And woven cloth takes up a lot less room than yarn on tubes/cones.

Persistence is not a bad trait to have, if you are going to do any craft that is labour intensive.  Persistence gets you through the less than stellar choices.  The brain blips.  The technical glitches.

Persistence is how you figure out what is going wrong, then allows you to fix them.  Or recognize them as not the best choice to have made.  Then something else needs to kick in - do you spend the time needed to fix it, or is it more economic to write it up to experience and just begin again, this time making better choices?

Learning how to distinguish between salvaging something and starting fresh is something each of us has to learn.  And we each get to choose which approach we take.

Because we are all different.  We have different financial situations, for one thing.  For me sacrificing a few dollars of yarn if it was going to take many hours to fix?  Easy choice.  As mentioned previously, I learned early that I could always make more money, I could not manufacture more time.  Much as I would have liked to be able to do so.  Or energy.  When something is sucking the energy out of you more quickly than you can generate more, maybe it is time to give up on that thing.

Yesterday I 'finished' the weak black yarn using it as weft.  There is a small bobbin and a small tube of yarn left, which will get used up as 'waste' yarn - in headers or as cut lines.  

I wanted to get rid of it before winter and our short daylight hours.  So I pushed myself to the loom and got it done.

Today I will begin working on the bits of green, weaving directly from the tube.  Because the cardboard tubes that Brassard yarn comes on fit into Leclerc shuttles.  And I'm lazy.  If  I can just weave from the tube, I don't have to take the time to wind bobbins.  If I need more yarn, there are tubes too full to weave from directly and then I will wind bobbins.

I have been asked to talk about my life as a weaver for a guild.  As such I have been thinking a lot about my journey the past 44 years.  I'm not sure yet exactly what I will talk about, but how the books came into being was one thing mentioned as being of interest.  Except that they are only a very small part of my career.  So I am at the 'simmering on the back burner' stage of developing an idea.  However, I cannot simmer for very long.  I foolishly suggested November as a good time to do this.  And I need to figure out Zoom, too.  

So pretty soon, now, any day now, I am going to have to work on the presentation - both the content and the mechanism of presenting it remotely.

Interesting times we live in...

Webs

 

One of the things that I find enjoyable about where I am right now is that I have a lot of contacts within the weaving world.  I felt the same while doing the conference last year, and now I find myself in much the same position with the seminar series.  But this time?  This time I don't have to worry about the expense of bringing people to us physically.  And it has been great fun to contact people I would never have dreamed of contacting for the conference, and make it possible to learn from them.

Because I don't know everything and I would like to know more.  My thirst for knowledge has carried me through my childhood and on into adulthood.

I like knowing the things that I know.  But I also know that I do not, can not, know everything.  

But I have internet.  I have contacts.  I can even go ahead and message people directly in many cases.

And so I have arranged a line up of people who are already well known in the fibre world, but also?  Some who are not.  But they all have interesting stories to tell.  A different perspective to bring to the table (or the screen, in this case).

I have just now sent the list of who, when and what to the guild treasurer/web maven.  I will be posting info to the guild FB page in the next few days.  There are still details to work out, but the first six months are booked and I have begun on the next six months.

But right now?  I need to work on my own presentation and the guild room sale.

On a personal note, I will today finally finish weaving the black 2/16 cotton.  The shelves continue to slowly empty and instead of ending the series, more combinations have been pulled.  It seems like every time I get down to one warp on the loom and one waiting in the wings I pulled two more potential warp combos.  Pretty soon there won't be enough yarn left to be able to make a warp.  And then I will most likely order in more white and use up the rest of the coloured 2/16 as weft on a white warp.  But that will be later.

Because I think I have enough tea towels, especially with the three warps waiting in the wings.  Time to try something else, use up something else.

In the meantime, parcels mailed to the US in September appear to have arrived so I will once again ship to the US.  Yesterday I posted one towel to my ko-fi page (link to the right).  I will post one towel per week.  If interested, the price is $30.00 each including shipping with a tracking number.  This is more expensive, but right now I find I am not trusting USPS much so I am absorbing the extra cost.

Currently reading a short story collection edited by Charlaine Harris and name escapes me.  Urban fantasy for the most part.

Autumn Fog

 

And here we are, in October.  The usual morning fog comes and slowly burns off through the day, sometimes revealing nice blue sky, sometimes not.

The pages of the calendar turn, the days roll on.  I either achieve my goals, or I do not.  And the day, the world doesn't care.  They just keep rolling on, regardless of me or what I want.

I knew about the curse 'May you live in interesting times."  The first time I remember hearing it was back in the 1980s.  I never thought I would one day be living in 'interesting' times.  And yet, here we are.

My puny wants and desires are as nothing in the face of the larger world.  And yet.  And yet.

This week hasn't been great for a number of reasons and I am 'behind' on what I wanted to accomplish.  But no one cares, really.  Nothing I do is earth shattering.  Nothing I CAN do will change the bigger picture.

So instead I try to pick away at what I can do.  Help those I can.  Stay as positive as I can (some days are easier than others).

I mine the clouds for silver.  I extend a hand when I can (I can't always).  Light a candle to diminish the dark.

I hoard my energy and patience, of which I have too little, of late.

Gratitude is a good thing and I practice that as much as I can.

And I wait for the fog to lift.

Stay home if you can.  Wear a mask when you go out.  Maintain at least 6 feet distance from others.  Wash your hands.

{{{hugs}}}