Detour

 

After re-calculating, weighing a tube, figuring out how much yarn was left, I found myself disinclined to play yarn chicken.  So I thought about maybe setting up the Fanny to weave on it while I waited for the yarn order to arrive.  But I really didn't want to do that, I really wanted to keep going with my 2/16 yarn stash reduction program.  I'm soooo close to being done with it, I can taste it!

As I procrastinated about beginning anything, it suddenly occurred to me that I could still beam another warp, just make it shorter!  Duh!

So I re-calculated, figured I had plenty to made a warp that should yield 14 towels instead of 21, and set up to beam another warp.

When I checked my email next, I got a message from Brassard - they shipped my yarn and it should arrive on April 8.  Since I'm away much of next week, it works out perfectly.

In the end I not only got the shorter warp beamed, I even managed to begin threading.  

Amazing what you can do when you break out of the 'box' of current thinking and look at what else you can do.  

This threading will give the design Snail's Trails and Cat's Paws, but it also gives this design.  The difference is treadling 'roses' or 'stars'.  Roses fashion will do Snail's Trails, but stars will produce this.  

I have a bunch of dark red 2/16 yarn to use up and this design kind of reminds me of Xmas ornaments, so I will use the red and the stars treadling.  And one more colour should get used up on this warp.

Onwards!

Keep Going

 

I noticed this fridge magnet for sale in a shop not long after I had been diagnosed with cardiac blockages and was going through the hell of adverse drug reactions, the death of my brother and continuing to scramble to travel to teach, weave to sell, write for publication.  Life was very...challenging...and this quote caught my eye and reminded me that I most definitely did not want to stop where I was.  Whatever it took, I had to keep going.  So I bought it to remind myself to keep going.

It's been 2 and a half months since the shingles diagnosis and yesterday my eye doc finally declared that she was happy.  Healing was happening, finally.  It sounds like I will get to keep the vision in that eye although I'm still dealing with the fallout from the shingles outbreak and now patches of 'dry' that she is concerned about and which means I will be gradually weaned off the prescription eye drops but maintaining the dry eye drops while she continues to closely monitor my eye.

And the anti-viral meds.  She says at least six months, to make sure the shingles virus really has been overcome.  But she also warned that my immune system (which is compromised due to the cancer) is now severely compromised as it had to curb the shingles virus and get it under control again.  And no, the anti-viral drug I'm taking for shingles will not have much if any effect on covid.

All my focus on protecting myself from covid will have to continue and truth to tell, given the way covid has constantly been allowed to grow into really devastating 'waves' I may never feel 'safe' in public again.  I have certainly loved NOT having a cold or flu for the past two years.  

Truth to tell, there were several days in the early stages of the shingles outbreak that I almost gave up.  I was just too sick and too exhausted to keep going.  But the fridge magnet was there to remind me to keep going.  I needed to get through the mire and to the other side.

But I'll be honest - it was hard.  I haven't been that sick for a very long time.

The whole experience has left me feeling drained, with very little energy.  Once I started feeling better I concentrated on my weaving.  For a couple of hours a day I could focus on something else and even though I was tired afterwards, at the end of the day I could add up the fact I'd been productive and managed to weave one towel, then back to two towels a day.  It was a minor victory, but nonetheless, it felt like I might be getting through this time.

Today I will begin beaming another tea towel warp.  If I have done my calculations correctly there should be just enough yarn for another warp.  If I haven't, I will have to wait for the yarn order from Brassard to arrive.  But they say they are overwhelmed with orders right now and while they are working on their backlog, there will be a delay before they process my order.  

However, I DO have another loom, currently sitting empty.  And I've got about 50 pounds of rayon chenille that needs using.  So, I will see how far I get (hopefully all the way) today and decide what I will do once I know if I can continue with the tea towels or need to pivot to something else.  

I am SO CLOSE to using up the last of my 2/16 yarn, I was really hoping to be able to finish it off this spring.  But as with so many things in life, sometimes things happen and you just need to go with the flow.  Take a detour.  Choose another path entirely.

But whatever happens, keep going.  You really don't want to stop while you are in hell.

Cutting Losses

 

photo posted yesterday

green = correct, red = incorrect

A threading mistake wends it's way all through the entire length of a warp.  The tendency is to fix it right away, but I didn't actually see this one until I'd woven 2/3's of the warp.  In part it was because I started with very pale values for the weft and there was little contrast to show off the mistake.

As I wove and used up more of my yarn, I switched colours but was focused on the low contrast pale ones until I got further into the warp.

And then, I started using a higher contrast mid-range value turquoise blue/green.  Even then I didn't see the mistake right away.  It wasn't until I was correcting something else that needed fixing that I finally saw the error.

By then, with 2/3's of the warp already woven, with just about 8 towels left (maybe fewer) I chewed on the fact that the error was not an easy one to fix, nor a quick one.  And ultimately how much difference was it going to make?  If it had taken me this long to see it, others were going to have to look hard to notice.  Plus it was not a 'flaw' insofar as it was going to negatively impact the towel's ability to dry dishes.

I weighed how many spoons it would take to pull out nearly half of the warp (over 300 threads) and then re-thread and resley and decided there simply were not enough.

By then I wasn't sure how many more towels were left to be woven.  Given that I am also running out of the rose for weft there won't be enough for a sixth one in that colour.  So I may just sacrifice about a yard and a half of warp and simply not bother to weave a towel which would be a singleton in whatever colour I used.

How much loom waste I decide to toss into the recycle bin, it won't go to waste.  I give my loom waste to a friend who incorporates it into the art yarn she spins.

In the end I should wind up with 21 towels from this warp.  I think I can 'waste' a towel's worth of warp.  I won't try to sell these but will keep them for gifts.  Although I have been known to sell such 'flawed' towels at a deep discount, I just don't have the spoons these days to worry overmuch about them.  

Whatever happens, this warp will come off the loom, possibly today, tomorrow for sure.  And then it will be on to the next.  I'll be playing yarn chicken with the next warp.  I ordered more yarn but still haven't been notified it is on it's way.  When I did the math, it seemed like I ought to have enough on the tubes for one more warp.  But now I'm leery about whether or not I do.  Well, I can always begin and then wait for the yarn order to come in by weaving on my other loom.  I really ought to make more rayon chenille scarves, too.  It looks like about 50 pounds of that left to be used.  Sigh.

Kindness

 

It seems that much of society has lost the concept of 'kindness'.  In so many ways, people are enraged at the actions of others, some to the point of physical violence.  On the other hand, sometimes verbal violence is worse, in part because it can leave wounds that never heal.

Making snide comments about another person's appearance - be it their weight, their looks, their hair - or lack thereof - isn't necessary.  And it most certainly is not kind.

But these types of things are just the symptom of a society that seems to have lost it's moral compass and it's capacity to be kind to others.

People come in all shapes, sizes, colours, and health.  Someone who is sick may not look ill, other than something superficial, like a loss of hair.  I didn't go entirely bald while I took chemo, but my hair got very thin, and I gotta tell ya, my image in the mirror was a constant reminder than I was not healthy, that I was doing something incredibly hard.  Because chemo IS hard - it is a fine tuned balance of poisoning the person in order to poison the cancer, without actually killing the person.

My hair never did come back in the way it had been, and I am reminded of my journey and all that has happened *because* of the chemo and other treatments that have similarly attempted to get rid of the cancer, without getting rid of me.

People who make fun of others for their appearance are saying a lot more about themselves than they are about the people they are mocking.  But their words slice, dice and leave unseen wounds that cut to the quick.

There are some 'comedians' I refuse to watch because IMHO they are simply cruel.  I won't give them my time and I certainly won't give them my money.

Bullies are everywhere and they seem to have gotten much bolder over the years.  Or maybe I'm just noticing them more.  And sometimes?  Bullies need to be reminded of how inappropriate their behaviour and words are.

So I don't condone the actions at the Oscar awards, but it sounds like the comedian has been nasty to this couple numerous times and wasn't likely to stop.  He used his power of an international platform to be nasty to someone - doesn't matter if she was privileged - he used his words to cut her.  And he suffered consequences.  Were they appropriate?  Perhaps not.  Will he now stop his harassment?  Possibly.  

As someone said 'sometimes you have to get their attention'.  Has his attention been 'got' now?  Maybe.  But somehow I doubt he will stop being mean, he will just switch his attention to someone else.

When they show you who they are, believe them.

Flawed

 

Once seen, cannot be unseen.

But on a scale of 1 to 10, how 'bad' is this mistake, this 'flaw'?  It isn't going to impede the function of the towel in any way.  And if you stand back far enough it pretty much fades into invisibility.

It's the kind of threading error that tends to hide until for some reason you notice it.  And then it's all you can see.  It's also the kind of error that requires re-threading from where it happened all the way through to the selvedge.

So I chewed on my lip for oh, about 30 seconds, decided I didn't have the spoons and left it.  

I would highlight it, but it's more fun to just leave it and see if your eye is trained well enough you can pick it out.

Mine is, dagnabbit...

Changing

 

I spent about 40 years working as efficiently as I could in order to make the most of my time.  I learned early that while I could always make more money to buy more yarn, once I'd spent the coin of my time, it was gone.  Forever.

So I worked hard at being ergonomic and efficient (I define those as related but slightly different sides of the same coin - reducing extraneous movements means less wear and tear on the body and increases productivity.)

Over the years it became unfashionable to be 'efficient'.  Many people really don't understand the meaning of the word.  It means every movement is precise and necessary.  The movements are kept small to reduce fatigue on muscles.  Moving only as much as is actually required reduces how much energy is required and making small movements instead of large ones takes less time.

So the end result of working more ergonomically brings the added benefit of being able to do more in less time.

Some people whiff away any suggestion of learning to be more efficient with the comment that they 'don't want to hurry'.

Hurrying is the exact opposite of working efficiently because when someone hurries, they tend to skip steps, or they aren't paying attention to what they are doing and make mistakes.

So while I am very productive, I am not in any way hurrying as I wind warps, dress the loom, weave.  Rather I am using just the right amount of effort and motion to get the job done.

The more I learned and thought about how some people react to the word 'efficient' I tried to think about how to make what I do more understandable.  After talking with others I realized that what I do is work with intention.

I also don't get bored.  I can weave 22 tea towels all exactly the same.  Some people assume that because I do that, I must not be very intelligent.  On the contrary, I am actually fairly intelligent.  But also?  My time at the loom is not spent thinking about other things, wishing I was done with what I am doing, waiting for the clock to tell me I can stop doing this and go do something more interesting.

While I get tired, I don't get bored because when I'm weaving I am focused on what I am doing, and there is a subliminal conversation going on between me and the yarn, me and the loom, me and the shuttle.  It is a conversation that goes on in the foreground, and if all the answers coming back to me are 'it's ok, I'm fine', then I can put what I am doing physically in background and think about other things.  But I'm far from bored.

It is, I believe, a kind of working meditation.  I weave for about 45-60 minutes and often times I will look at the clock to discover that 30 minutes has gone by and I'm halfway through the tea towel, and then I sink again into my 'meditation'.

I set the computer dobby up so that when I'm done a tea towel, there is an empty lag to tell me I'm done.  Then I weave in two picks for a cut line, shut down the loom and go take a break.  And then I go back again.  If I'm weaving yardage, I put a 45 minute cassette into my boombox and when the music ends, I take a break.

These days I can only manage two sessions at the loom, but I try to get there twice a day.  Unless I'm dressing the loom.  I might go to the studio three times if I'm beaming a warp or threading.

People judge my output by their own rate of work.  They assume I must spend hours and hours at the loom.  (I used to but I'm now 'retired') but as one friend points out, I get more done on a bad day than she does on a good.  

In large part, my productivity is *because* of the effort I have put into working efficiently, ergonomically, paying attention, not using extra motion/energy, and my processes will all assist me in so doing.

Ultimately every weaver must do what is right for them.  But if they are having lots and lots of problems, can I suggest that they might consider what I do?  By reducing the tangles, winding and beaming will be less aggravating and time consuming.  By becoming more streamlined in terms of threading, less time will be spent sitting in the loom getting that job done.  I encourage people to find out what I do and then see if anything resonates with them.  I do NOT expect everyone to to it 'my' way, but by gaining an understanding of the principles of the craft, knowing how their equipment works, choosing yarns that are appropriate to the function of the cloth they want to make, they may find that they get more enjoyment out of the time they spend making that cloth.

And if not?  No worries.  Do what brings you joy.  Use the tools that fit nicely in your hands.  Weave the way you want to do.  But maybe, just maybe, a different process/tool/loom might work better, reduce frustration, and make the whole thing more pleasant.

If you want to find out what I do, I can be found at the School of Sweet Georgia  or my books here.

Shoulders of Giants

 

As a new weaver, I was keenly aware of how little I knew so I bought books.  Lots of books.  Books held knowledge and I wanted to learn.  Even though I had an in-person class in weaving, it soon became apparent that it was going to take a very long time to even begin to scratch the surface of what might be learned.

Eventually I focused on a smaller section of the craft so that I could take a deep dive into aspects of cloth making that particularly interested me.  And, of course, maybe earn some money by doing so.

As the years went by I had the opportunity to learn from many different weavers, sometimes in person.  I carefully saved my pennies so that I could travel to conferences or workshops to learn more.  The thread of knowledge from those elders (they were mostly older than me) was palpable and I felt the continuity of the passage of knowledge from one generation to the other, especially as I sought out more books.  If a book had a bibliography, I made sure to pore through it and frequently dropped off inter-library loan requests at my local library.

At one point I met the librarian whose job it was to search out the titles people requested and arrange for them to arrive.  I apologized for making so much work for her.  She immediately perked up and said that she loved when I brought in my request slips because my requests were never ordinary and that she had to really use her skills.

After that I never hesitated to ask for whatever I was looking for, especially when I started researching for my master weaver monograph.  

As part of that research I was able to fine tune what I wanted to do and really focus on something I felt would be of benefit to others.  And then, out of that effort, grew Magic in the Water.

It is now my privilege to pass on what I know to others.  I have entered the 'elder' zone, by dint of my age, if nothing else.  But I also feel that I know things, things that other weavers maybe would benefit from.

Talking to a few other weaving teachers, all around my age, we are all scrambling to cope with a pandemic and yet still reach out to students.  After months of feeling really crappy, wondering if I could go on, I decided that I must continue.

The trip to Vancouver next month will allow me to meet with Felicia Lo and her team to discuss further how we can continue to spread knowledge in the face of a pandemic that just doesn't want to let go (in spite of politicians telling us covid is over, believe me, it isn't.)

Time will tell if I will be counted as a 'giant', but that was never why I have done what I have done in my career.  The messages I receive from weavers who thank me for sharing what I know is enough.  But already I hear people refer to Magic in the Water as a 'classic' in the field and I see it re-selling for the same price I charged in 2002.  Sometimes even more.

In the meantime, I have The Intentional Weaver, in which I tried to distill as much of what I knew onto the page (link at the bottom of the page), and continue to work with School of Sweet Georgia to provide on line content.

As soon as SOS is ready to start airing my lectures, I will certainly let people know.  The first will be A Good Yarn - because we need to understand the inherent characteristics of our materials so we can make good choices.  (Primarily geared towards weavers, the principles apply to other textile crafts as well.)

In two weeks I will know if I will have less pain to deal with.  I appreciate your well wishes and suggestions for treatment.  In many cases I have already tried the suggestions and they proved to be unhelpful.  But it's nice to know so many people are thinking about me.