Two Faces

 

It might be a little hard to tell in this photo, but the current scarf is showing off the distinct differences in the faces of the cloth.

There are fewer shafts being raised than left down for each pick, which means there is more warp showing on the underside and more weft on the top.  When you combine that with high contrast between the warp and weft, with a smooth yarn, the weave structure shows up a lot more.

I hesitated a bit before trying this colour, but in the end I'm pleased with it.  There is some purpleish yarn in the warp about the same shade and wasn't sure how that would look.  Sometimes you just have to weave it.

This is scarf number four of this warp.  I'm using a smooth 2/8 Tencel in this shade, then an egg plant purple, and then a dark green which is also in the warp.  The effect will be more subtle for both of those since the hues and value of the next two wefts is more in line with the warp.  The pinkish/purple stripes in the warp will likely show up more.

The last three scarves will be done in a finer slightly slubby rayon.  I haven't checked the bin yet, but pretty sure I have three candidates that will work as weft.

And I've decided on the next warp in this series - 1/3 green, 2/3 black.  Because I have that and plenty of it.  The choices are getting a little harder as my options reduce, both in candidates for warp, and for weft.

Today we have had some 'weather' and I have been happy to stay home.  Tomorrow isn't going to be much better so the plan is a repeat of today - weave two sessions, potter around the house.  Plus a 'new' library book just came home from the library.  It might be a good idea to sit and have a pot of tea and a long read.  

The Little Things

 

In my self-challenge to use up stash, I'm working with a bunch of different rayon yarns.  The photo I posted yesterday was of a weft yarn that was a flake, but not a very smooth yarn, overall.  As such, the fuzzy surface of the yarn tended to obscure the weave structure.

This morning I changed to a different rayon flake.   This brand is a bit thinner but also a lot smoother.  As I wove I could more clearly see the design beginning to reveal itself.  The weft is a very dark, nearly black, navy blue and that coupled with the navy blue and forest green in the warp creates a background where the lighter value warp colours begin to show through, not unlike an oil slick on rain puddles.  I'm quite liking it.  Enough to do another one with this yarn?  Probably, but I will change the treadling so that it isn't identical.  OTOH, I still have buckets of other yarns I could also be using, so time will tell.

Over the years I have challenged myself, pushed hard to make my horizons more flexible, expand my knowledge.  When I chose to 'retire' I assumed I would jump back into more exploration, dig deeper into a bolder approach to weaving.  Hone my design skills by making bold decisions, leap off tall cliffs into deep ends of pools.

Instead I find myself enjoying the little things.  The subtle things.  Like a film of oil slick on a puddle of water.  These quiet little discoveries will never rock anyone's boat, but they are bringing me great satisfaction when they come, quietly, tiny gifts in a season that has been fraught with so many other things demanding my time and attention.  My grief over the state of the world.  My disappointment in so many people who just don't seem to much care about others.

My focus on stash reduction still challenges me, but in small ways, not grand ones.  Trying to figure out how to use up as much of my yarn as possible, largely so that my friends don't wind up cleaning up my 'mess' has begun to feel a lot more important that any deep dive I could do into a weave structure.  There are plenty of others doing the excavating, but only me using up my stash!

In the end, everyone needs to find their comfort zone.  At times I have found my comfort in stretching my weaving chops further, deeper, bending 'rules' until just before they broke - if I was lucky - or up until they did break - if I wasn't.  

But I always learned something.  

Over the past years there is one lesson that I have learned over and over again.  I am not perfect.  I will make mistakes.  I will have 'failures'.  But those failures matter little in the scheme of life.

This morning I saw a video from Tik Tok.  I don't belong to that platform but sometimes see videos shared to Twitter.  This one was someone talking about mistakes in textiles.  She talked about an example of sprang dating from something like the 1200s where the creator had made a simple mistake and not entirely centred the motif in the cloth.  And that every reproduction that has been created reproduces that error.  The person who originally made that piece of textile had no idea that their error would live on in perpetuity.  And that maybe we should all just ease up on ourselves a little when we are not perfect.  The illustration provided reminded me once again that no, indeed, I am not perfect.  And it's fine.  Another person talked about the fact that when we make a mistake we don't actually need to learn anything from making it.  And in return I shared that just yesterday I broke a warp thread.  What I learned from that was that I can still flub a shuttle throw.  Fix it and carry on.

And ultimately if that scarf survives for 1000 years?  That mistake will still be there and no one will actually much care.

Do what brings you joy, even if the result isn't 'perfect'.

One by One

 

I have great hopes of this design because it looks quite different depending on the angle at which the cloth is viewed.  

The warp is 2/16 bamboo (Brassard) and the weft various rayon yarns from my stash.  Because yes, I'm still working on using up my stash!

The weft is textured - a rough kind of 'flake' - and overall thicker than the warp threads.  As such the weft tends to dominate the warp when viewed from face on.  But walking away from the loom I could see that as the angle of viewing changed, so did the appearance of the cloth.  So I am hopeful that once wet finished this will be quite a subtle but interesting cloth.

That is not say this warp has been without incident!  Rather it has been a bit challenging as I made a few oopsies in the processes.  Operator error, combined with pushing the yarn to it's limit led to some interesting two-step shuffles as I put the warp into the loom and got it ready to start weaving.  And then broke a warp end due to a shuttle 'mis-fire'.  Again - operator error.

But this morning I finished scarf #1 and began #2.

I've sorted through my stash.  Again.  Picked several yarns as being good candidates for using on this warp.  And now it is just to sit down and do the weaving.

The warp has some tension 'issues'.  I had already decided to cut off and lash on after each group of three scarves, so that will help even out the tension problems.  But nothing that seems to be proving catastrophic.  So far.

In the meantime I've reviewed what I'm doing and decided on the next warp in this series.  And targeted an array of different wefts that can be used on that one.  It would be nice to use up all of something, but then I'd have a big stack of one colour combination, which isn't great for selling.  Having a variety of different colours, woven on different coloured warps, will give people a much bigger choice.

We still have three more weekends of the guild room sale, then the pop up sale at the art centre.  For that I'm thinking of getting the silk/rayon scarves tagged/priced and  place them on consignment with that facility, plus whatever I put into the guild pop up sale there.  Beyond that, I'm not pushing to get these scarves done, but if they are, they can go into the sale(s), too.

But before that can happen, I need to weave, fringe twist and wet finish them.

So - back to the loom.

A Confession

 

In a continuing effort to use up my stash, I beamed the next scarf warp today.

Given the challenge to not buy any more yarn until I've made significant progress in using up some of what I have, the task is to try and figure out how to combine the colours in ways that don't always seem obvious to me.  In fact with this one, I went through at least 7 iterations (I lost count).  Finally late the other night, I decided to completely re-do what I had finally settled on and create an overall stripe.

The draft had been settled a couple days before:

In keeping with wanting drafts that are simple to thread, not terribly big motifs (or big enough that the entire draft is the width of the warp - which I haven't actually done for this series - yet) and that will lend itself to various tie ups and treadlings, I think this will do.

The stripes do not mesh with the threading at all - I never even tried to make it fit.  There are 12 stripes in total (30 ends per section for 12 sections) but the warp will be sleyed to 32 epi bringing the width down to around 11" in the reed.   The finished width will be approximately 10".  How wide will depend on the thickness of the weft.  I have several different rayon yarns I'm hoping to use on this warp and will begin with the thickest because that will be the widest based on the fact that it is thicker and won't draw in quite so much.

How do I know this?  Experience.  And remembering when I go to do it, or something similar, the next time.

One of the technical issues is that the spools are different levels of 'full'.  In other words, some are getting close to empty while some are full.  The fuller ones will beam at a higher tension that the less full ones and this can cause the heavier ones to wind on at a higher tension.

So - my confession.  I know this will happen.  And?  I don't much care.  I did my best to ensure each ribbon went into the section as flat as possible and under firm enough tension that the upper layers won't cut down into the lower ones.  And I've worked with this yarn often enough that I know it will tolerate some tension differences without breaking.

If the tension appears to be causing a problem, I will cut off once the scarf I'm working on is done, then re-tie (lash on to be specific, this is a slippery yarn) and even out some of the tension differences.  I have plenty of warp to play with and can cut off and re-tie twice.  I may do that anyway because the result should be 9 scarves based on the warp I cut off the loom today.

Lashing on is a good way to deal with a yarn that is slippery or where you want to minimize loom waste.

And in case anyone is wondering, the yarn comes off the 'usual' way - it's just not under tension right now and it looks a bit strange.  It'll sort itself out when I'm threading.  And I really wanted to show the stripe sequence in the photo.

It might have been the Dalai Lama who advised to learn the rules so that you know how to break them properly.  Whomever it was, they were correct, in my humble opinion...

Six Months

 

Every six months I get checked at the cancer clinic.  I am incredibly fortunate in so many ways but I must say, the days leading up to the appointment get stressful because I never really know what the verdict will be.  

The bottom line is that I am living with cancer.  It's just really slow growing - which is good!  And right now it is so slow I am considered to be in remission - as in no treatment is required.  (Thank goodness because every cancer drug I've taken has had pretty massive adverse effects while it works to keep me alive - talk about a mixed blessing!  So I'll take 'remission'...)

But there is nothing quite like having a couple of health issues that remind you on a regular basis that you have a 'best before' date.

So it was today.  But I'm still in remission, so that was good news.  Doesn't mean the cancer is cured because at this time it isn't considered to be curable.  OTOH, it is so slow growing that we joked about how people with this type of cancer don't die of it, but with it.

Once again I am reminded that I need to prepare myself for changes in my body, my life.  

There was a thread on line in a group about how the poster wished a group of really knowledgeable teachers would get together and teach in depth classes.  They didn't like a class they had taken because level one was 'boring'.  They wanted something else, and named a group of people she would like to see get together to produce something.

Well, folks, I am here to remind all y'all that I wrote a book addressing many of the subtleties of the craft.  But there is only so much that one person can do, so I also support the idea that people who want to know more, learn more.  

There are many ways to learn, and even when someone like me writes a book, things will be left out.  Because a book only conveys so much.  Plus not everyone can learn by reading alone.

A number of people the person wanted to learn from already teach.  At least two have teaching studios (that I know of) so they are trying to get the information out.

More teachers are moving on line, including me.  But after thinking about the filming we did last month, I know we didn't cover every little detail.  My approach has been to focus on principles so that students can apply them, rather than try to cover every single variable.  The student participates in their learning by applying the lessons.  Those lessons might be boring, but sometimes you just have to do the work.

Post production on my two classes continues, in spite of the pandemic, in spite of the environmental disaster of the past few days in my province.  The production team are not in the affected areas, nor am I.

Once the classes launch, in the new year, I will continue to work with this team because they are young, enthusiastic, and have skills I am too old to even want to try to learn.  This team also have a vision for the future that I am hoping to contribute to as their plans develop.  

While learning on line is perhaps not ideal, neither is learning in person, if the teacher and student don't mesh well.  Or the course content wasn't what the student hoped for.

It is said that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.  In reality, the teacher was always there, the student just needed to recognize them.

In the meantime, if people are looking for more in depth classes, Jane Stafford takes a deep dive into the craft.  Tien Chiu and Janet Dawson are working hard to bring good content to students.  Others continue to work in person, in words, or on line, like Robyn Spady and Daryl Lancaster.  There are others, as well.

Above all, we should always remember that we are here to create joy.

Zoom Zoom

 

Today I signed the agreement to do another Zoom guild program - just need to scan and email it.  I thought about what I wanted to say while I wove today.  Right now the loom is behaving (I may regret saying that 'out loud') and the yarns are as well,  This gives me time to think about other things as I need only surface attention to the act of weaving.

With a pandemic continuing and environmental disasters happening, not to mention my reluctance to deal with dark o'clock flights, I cannot see myself traveling in person to teach again.  However, I do still have things I would like to share with people and Zoom presentations seem to have reached a level of acceptance, which gives me hope I can continue using the internet.

I've sent my documentation off to the team for post production, and they continue to work on the editing, then the format (they have graphic designers), then eventually the captioning will be added.  They will set up a mechanism for me to maintain contact with people taking the class on line.  

Once the two classes have been settled, I expect that we will begin working on the seminars that I developed and have been running - informally - on line.  I'm quite excited about doing those because they really do delve into the nitty gritty of the craft.  They are for people who want to understand more about the principles and are intrigued by all the facets of the 'it depends' considerations.

Get a group of 10 weavers together and ask for feedback on something and you will get 12 or more answers.  Because so much depends on the specific circumstances involved.  Learning how to anticipate those variables will help people to understand a reasonable approach.

And right now?  Helping people understand those really keeps me going!

In the meantime, in the face of current events, I keep weaving, using up my stash as best I can.  I'm nearly done the current warp so I started pulling yarns for the next.  Same quality of yarn, but I had to really stretch myself in terms of what colours I would put together.  And then hope I had enough yarn to use as weft without winding up with fugly fabric.  Time will tell.

Stay safe everyone.  Stay weaving (or knitting or spinning or whatever you do with fibre).

Winter Comes

 

It's not unusual to have snow on the ground by mid-November, and this morning we woke to a small covering that really helps brighten things up, given it's a really dull grey day.  No idea if the snow will stick this time, but it's definitely coming.

Yesterday was day one of the guild room sale.  We had a slow but steady trickle of people come in.   Mostly individuals, or small family groups.  Everyone was happy enough to show proof of vax and wear their masks.  

Several inquired about classes and we explained that we are trying to set up a 'buddy' system, one on one or one on two.  Once the sale is over and we clear out the display apparatus and inventory, we can re-arrange the room to allow for small 'classes'.  And of course there are several drop-in times where people can come in, in person or via Zoom.  

I also need to get back to setting up the Sunday Seminars.  But people are busy or distracted and sometimes getting timely answers is more challenging than others.  But I'll be reminding people that I need their info for the website soon.  

In BC we have been struggling with growing numbers of covid and if we can't suppress the growth of the virus soon, our fourth wave will morph into a fifth wave.  Not something I wish to see happen.  So Doug and I are booked for booster shots Nov. 26 (we qualify based on our age) and I expect to 'celebrate' by sending another donation to UNICEF for vaccines to go to other countries who are having difficulty find first shots, never mind third.  I see my privilege for what it is.

Otherwise, life for me keeps ticking along.  I try to get to the loom for two sessions a day.  Yesterday I didn't, of course, since I was out all day and no spoons left to weave when I got home.  But I did get a small hand dyed skein of a fine rayon flake wound onto bobbins.  When I'm done the current scarf, later today, I can roll right on into the next.  Since the new yarn is finer I will add more interlacements to the tie up which will help keep things nicely in balance.

In other news, I finished the first drafts of the documentation for Sweet Georgia and will review those today, then if they read ok, I'll email them on to the post production team.  It sounds like they are on schedule for release in January and February.  I will let people know when they launch.

Winter is generally a time for quiet, for rest, for reflection, for preparation for the coming year.  This year especially I will continue my routine of staying home as much as possible, limiting my social interactions to the internet, and just generally try to avoid catching - or spreading - a virus that has caused so much illness all around the world.

My focus will continue to be to weave down as much of my stash as possible while encouraging other weavers to continue the learning journey, however they can, in spite of a pandemic.