Inching Along

 

Down to the last two scarves, thinking about the next warp, picking up the various 'pieces', turning them over, looking at them from different angles.  Trying to decide.

So, the yarn I was planning on using was not, after all, 2/20 or even 2/30 silk, but...2/60.  I quickly re-calculated the epi to accommodate the different size, factoring in the weft I was going to use and then developed a threading that wasn't exceptional, pretty plain, really.  But it would do for a first warp.  Because it was clear there was enough of this yarn for at least two warps (about 20 or so yards long).

But a friend is also making scarves and we had been bouncing ideas off each other and over the past few days while I worked on fringe twisting and getting ready for the upcoming sales, I thought about the silk/cashmere I was planning on working with.  And found myself dreading fringe twisting 2/60 silk.

Sigh.

I mean, I could do it.  But I donwanna.

I also donwanna do on loom hem stitching.  

The alternative was woven hems.  The more I fringe twist these 2/20 silk scarves, the more I'm leaning into doing hems on the silk/cashmere.

Now I need to figure out what weave structure.  Because the draft I came up with doesn't do a true plain weave.  It will be back to the drawing board (software) to generate some treadlings, some variations, see what seems the best approach.  Right now I'm thinking a 2:2 tie up and a straight treadling, but until I see it on the screen, I'm just not sure.  I may also need to dig in my stash to fine a heavier silk to use for the hem.  Or just use the cashmere.  Not sure right now.  Could go either way.

In the meantime, I continue to pick away at the fringe twisting.  My new press should be here on Friday so there is some expectation that I might be able to deliver some to the guild craft fair booth.  OTOH, I can wait until I see it more or less set up on Thursday - see if there is room for some silk scarves.  Or just wait until the sale in the guild room.

But never mind.  Progress has been made.  And will continue to be made.  Even if it is just one inch at a time.

Currently reading A Conspiracy of Bones by Kathy Reichs

Slow and Steady

 

I have made slow but steady progress on the fringe twisting pile.  I think there are five scarves left to be done, which still seems like a lot, but one bite at a time.

While I know lots of people love their battery operated twisters, or do it by hand, I have issues for which neither of those is a good option.  So yes, I know about the battery operated twisters, and no, I won't be spending money on one.  My preference.

But that's the thing about weaving.  There is almost always more than one way to do anything related to getting a textile created.

Some people call me an 'expert' and I will accept that (now) for certain levels of 'expertise'.  But what I am most expert about is how to do things for me.

That said, if someone likes my results, they might like to take a close look at what I do, just in case what I do resonates with them.

What I can say is that from the feedback I've had from people, a lot of what I do does resonate with other people, and yes, some of them have further tweaked how I do something to better serve their own needs.

And all of that is completely valid.

Someone recently asked me who my mentors were.  I had to stop and think, not because I didn't know who they were, but because there were so many.  Pulling the memories of my interaction with those people was a lovely meander down memory lane and I very much enjoyed sharing with the person who I had learned from.  Sometimes those lessons had nothing at all to do with creating a textile, except that the lesson was so applicable to living, it turned out to be a most valuable lesson in how to proceed through my life as well as weaving.

So I listed the people who had an ongoing influence in my life, not just a seminar or a two day workshop (although there were a couple people whose off hand comment proved to pave the way to enlightenment).  In the end I said that the entire weaving community had, in it's way, nurtured and mentored me.  

Now that my body is insisting that I 'slow down, dammit' I have been having lots of time to think about what lies ahead for me.  No conclusions yet, but hopefully the upcoming on line classes will prove to be helpful to others.  And allow me to encourage and support new weavers for some time to come.

Slow and steady.  Works in so many ways in life.

Wrong

 

required pretty picture

Dare to be wrong.

There.  I said it.  Dare to be wrong, sometimes.  Dare to admit you were wrong.  Choose to accept that you were wrong.  

And then choose to make it right.

One of my mentors always greeted me with the question - what mistake have you made lately?  

She taught me to embrace my mistakes.  My 'wrong-ness'.  She showed me that being wrong is not terminal, it's just another stop along the road of learning.  Of becoming more fully human.  Of how to accept that not everyone is right, all the time, and from being 'wrong' we can learn to become more 'right'.

Somehow we have evolved into a society where no one dares to accept they were wrong about anything.  The more they refuse to accept their wrong-ness, the less able they are to change and grow.

I had to confront a young person once who did me a 'wrong'.  Somehow she had never learned in her 19 years to date, to accept responsibility for when she did something wrong and work to make it right.

I was just upset enough, angry enough, I quietly and calmly (in public so I wouldn't shout) pointed out all the ways she had been 'wrong' in the previous few weeks.  Pointed out her absence of sense and how her bad choices had caused actual harm to me.  And I kept pushing until she started to cry.

Ah-ha, I thought.  She's learned over the years that if she starts to cry, everyone lets her off the hook.  And then she continues to make bad choices, knowing she won't be held accountable.

As she quietly teared up saying how sorry she was and how bad she felt, I let her insincere apology (because it was, in that moment, insincere) run down.  

Then I said 'Fine, feel bad.  Feel bad all you like.  But what are you going to do to make it right?"

That startled the tears right out of her.  "What?!"  I repeated the question.  "What are you going to do to help make the harm you have caused me 'right'?"

For several seconds she sat there with you mouth agape, while I quietly sat, waiting for an answer.

Finally she stammered "I don't know what I can do!"

So I told her what she could do to help make things 'better'.  

We came to an agreement and a few days later she left.  As it happens she did not complete what I had set out as what was required to make things 'right' and I dusted off my hands and let it go.

Interestingly enough, I got an email from her about 10 months later, thanking me for all I had taught her.  I doubt she was referring to just the weaving.

I wish her well, and hope that she learned that mistakes are just mistakes.  That we can learn and grow.  And choose to make different choices.  Cause less harm.  We are all human, and life is a journey.

So, don't get too bent out of shape if you run into problems.  If you make mistakes.  Learn and grow.  Embrace your mistakes as the learning opportunities they can be.  If we just allow them to teach us.

Slow

 

At times it feels like I never actually *finish* anything.

So it was today when I did finally cut the 'last' silk scarf warp off the Leclerc and carried the 'last' two scarves up to the dr table and add them to the heap of scarves to be fringe twisted.

It may not look like much, but there are a bunch of scarves that are 'next' in line and some over the back of the chair at the end of the table which have actually gotten done, little by little.

My wrists aren't much liking fringe twisting these days so I can't just power through the stack.  Nor my neck.  Or my back.  Et bloody cetera.

But I'm also 'retired' (for certain values of) and really if these don't get done in time for the guild booth at the big craft fair?  They'll be done for the guild sale that follows.  

Plus my new press is supposed to arrive on Nov. 5 which just happens to be the first day of the craft fair.  So if it comes early enough there is the possibility that I could get a few done in time to be delivered to the booth on day 2.  Or I could use the old one as soon as I have a load of scarves ready - and hope it keeps working.  Something I'm not really wanting to test.

We will see.

In the meantime the weather continues to morph into full autumn.  Today we have a rare taste of sun with lots of dark clouds in the other half of the sky.  And the wind is gusting.  There are almost no deciduous leaves left on the trees and what few are, are looking pretty dull and tired.  Winter is not so far away.

As usual my dr table is cluttered with stuff.  With the pandemic, it seems like boxes of masks and wipes have found a home there, along with a big bag of Hallowe'en treats.  Doug is making a door 'cover' to dispense the treats again this year.  Last year it was quite chilly out and it really helped to have the plastic sheeting up, preventing the cold air from coming into the house every time he opened the door.

So he's tweaked it and will install one again this year.  The kids all seemed to find the mode of delivery intriguing.  :D

I know we are all sick of the pandemic, tired of the restrictions, and longing for more social interaction with friends and family.  We just need to be a little more patient.  If we all do the right thing, we will get through this.

Yearning Towards the Light

 

This morning I was informed by Facebook that this post contravened their standards on hate speech.

It appears that their AI screening of language objected to a word I used that some people use as a racial slur.  I apologize to anyone who was offended by the use of that word and I have changed the word to something else.

Of course if an actual human being had read the post they would have noticed that this post had nothing whatsoever to do with hate or a racial slur.  This is the single most powerful argument I can point to about AI taking over from actual human beings - they miss context.

After days of overcast dreary days, yesterday the setting sun found a crack in the cloud cover and the little mountain ash a few doors down the street basked in the glow.

The photo doesn't do it justice, truly.  You could feel the intensity of the sun as the leaves drank up the light.

And I thought about how so much of what makes life enriching is so often unseen.  Or unnoticed.  I just happened to be in the right place, at the right time, and noticed the scene from the corner of my eye.  

The amount of time the scene lasted was but a few minutes.

And that is how life is, so frequently.  A chance moment in time.  One that could be missed, or not noticed because we weren't looking at the right place at the right time.

This morning I get to talk to some people about weaving, more specifically about ergonomics/efficiency.  When I reviewed the Power Point last night, I realized how little actual 'do this' or 'do that' I was going to tell them.  Because it depends. 

Each person needs to pay attention to themselves, to their equipment, their processes.  Find the path that is the correct one for them.  But first they need to be paying attention.  So much of what I will be talking about is the mindset that looks, that attempts to see.  Only by paying attention to the little things can we make meaningful changes to improve our practice.  Our lives.

Change can happen - if we not only allow it, but encourage it.  The first step is to be aware.  Pay attention.  Then start asking questions.  Trying different things.  Be willing to change, even if it isn't - at first - successful.  We need to be willing to not succeed in our first attempts, but pay attention to why and what needs to change to come closer to our goals.

We need to yearn towards the light.

School of Sweet Georgia

 

Felicia Lo of  Sweet Georgia  has done a bunch of podcasts including this one from 2018 (I think).  If anyone is looking for a podcast to listen to, there are now 70+ to choose from.  She also does a vlog where she talks about her own personal journey in textiles, available on You Tube.

I noticed that the website now has my classes listed on their 'road map', The Intentional Weaver to launch in January, Magic in the Water in February.

With internet supports like Zoom, I can spend some time with students, answer questions, give feedback, give fuller explanations.  Because everything about weaving 'depends' - on your loom, your physical build (short? tall?) your physical limitations (eye sight?  manual dexterity?) your equipment (which loom?  Is it the 'right' loom for you given the previous...)

Since the pandemic seems to be in no hurry to depart, we have to embrace what IS possible, not mourn what isn't.  So while in person learning may be the 'best', on line might have to do - for a while.

My original DVDs with Handwoven are still available through them but these two new classes come with follow up contact with me - if that is of interest.  If not, I stand by the DVDs now streaming workshops on the Long Thread/Handwoven web site.

One of the advantages of the move to internet learning is the accessibility.  SOS (School of Sweet Georgia) is working hard to make the classes as easy to use as possible.  Closed captions can be activated, the classes are broken into shorter sequences and clicking on the 'chapter' headings will take you directly to the segment you want to watch without having to scroll through content to get there.

Personally I'm getting more comfortable doing Zoom presentations.  I still have no interest in teaching techniques per se, but conveying principles.  I will do that tomorrow for the Ontario Handweaver's guild conference where I'll talk about ergonomics/efficiency.  

I have recently been contacted by several guilds to do programs, and so long as I can talk principles, I have been taking bookings.  

My guild programs run about 60-90 minutes (because I have So Much to Say!) and right now I'm charging a fairly low fee of $250.  If anyone is interested in hearing from me about weaving things, I have 11 topics, most of them can stand alone, a couple are essentially two parts of one aspect of weaving.

The following list of titles sets out what I feel is important for weavers to know about and understand:

A Good Yarn; fibre characteristics

The Efficient Weaver: considering how to reduce fatigue and improve performance

Weaver's Toolbox: a look at equipment weavers use

Goldilocks Zone: good tension, bad tension

The Full Spectrum:  a look at the variables and why nearly every answer to a weaving question begins "it depends"

Form Follow Function: a place to start when designing - what function is your cloth to perform?

Colour Considerations: basic colour hints/tips

Decoding the Code: weaving drafts including profile drafts and 4 shaft twill variations

Looking at Twills: 4, 8 and beyond

Looking at Lace: Huck, Swedish and Bronson Lace

Wet Finishing: it isn't finished until it's wet finished

Contact me at laura@laurafry.com

Islands

 

'No Man is an Island' No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

This poem, written by John Donne a very long time ago, seems to be becoming more and more relevant as the world continues to deal with a viral pandemic.

The poem is a really good reminder that ultimately we depend on the assistance of others for our survival, as an individual, but also as a species.  

As a weaver, I have been helped, and try to help others.  Life is too big, weaving is too big, for one person to go it alone.  We get better, we do better, in co-operative groups.

My local guild has shrunk due to covid.  People just aren't going out - and I don't blame them.  I've barely attended drop ins myself.  

But we also need to look to the future.  How we can continue to grow the crafts, be supportive, help each other. 

Next month the guild will have a booth at the large craft fair, then for the following five weeks will set up 'shop' in the guild room for public days Sat/Sun and by appointment during the week.  After that, there will be a 'pop up' boutique at the shop run by the Community Arts Council.  I'm still waiting on details for that last - it only just happened and I'm focused on the other things right now.

Not all of our members make things to sell, but some of them do and this is one way we can help our members, and the guild because the guild charges a small consignment rate on sales.  We have rent to pay, magazine subscriptions to renew and so on.  

We are looking at setting up a 'buddy' system (each one teach one).  And again, still sorting out details, but hopefully we can get the ball rolling on learning again. 

We will get through this, and life in general, with a little help from our friends.  In the meantime, follow the covid protocols and if you haven't yet, get vaccinated.