Chaos and Entropy

 

Just finished threading, sleying and tieing on the next warp.  This time the thread and heddle count were identical, and the sleying worked out to the exact number of dents.  It seems I *may* have not made any mistakes.

But that will be determined when I begin to weave...

Earlier today I was reading The End of Everything (astrophysically speaking) by Katie Mack.  She was discussing chaos and entropy.  As such, bringing order out of chaos was in the back of my mind as I tied the last rather satisfying knot.

And I thought about how I have always enjoyed that sweet feeling of 'order' in so many things.  (Not housework, nope, too much entropy there!)

But I've always been very satisfied to make jigsaw puzzles, knitting, embroidery, sewing.  Playing with threads.  Part of what attracted me to weaving was that whole aspect of bringing order to chaos.  All those threads, unruly, with minds of their own, bent to my will.  Or, at least, I tried to bend them to my will.  

I 'discovered' quantum physics in my 20s when I was working at the high school library and one day a book called The Dancing Wu-Li Masters arrived.  At first I thought there was something 'wrong' with the book because every chapter was headed as Chapter 1.  And then I read it.  

Mind blown.

I cannot claim to understand everything Katie Mack is talking about, but we routinely watch tv documentaries, sometimes about physics, space, the universe, et al.  So some of the concepts she discusses I've heard about.  Can't say that I understand them, necessarily, but the whole astrophysics field is a great way to break open one's mind and think beyond (way, way beyond) one's own reality bubble.  

I mean, how much further outside of my reality can I go than into deep deep space???

So, no, I don't understand it, but I think about it.  And I wonder.  I think about the possibilities in this universe, this galaxy.  I think about how tiny and insignificant we all are.  How little we actually matter beyond our own tiny corner of this reality.

And I think about how I can bring something positive to this life I lead, because being positive to me means 'order', nor chaos.  And I far, far prefer order to chaos.

I suppose it is one reason why the loom keeps calling me back.  It challenges me to experiment.  Explore.  Try, and find out.  Sometimes I'm pleased.  Sometimes, I'm not.  

But in the end, I feel my activity has, on the whole, been a positive one, not a negative one.  Even when I make mistakes.  Because mistakes are opportunities to learn.  And knowledge is good, I think.

It is late enough in the day and I'm tired enough that I'm not going to begin weaving today.  Instead I will wind some bobbins.  I'm using up tag ends of spools from one of the last warps I did but some of them are a little bit too heavy to play nicely in the shuttle.  So I'll wind a bobbin and relieve the tube of some weight so that it will weave more co-operatively.  The goal is to use up the last of the peacock tubes on this warp, and what is left will get woven with natural.

I think this will be the 'last' (for now) of this weave structure.  I'm quite pleased with the design I've generated - although the proof will be in the wet finishing.  Right now I'm feeling pretty 'clever', but weaving always serves up a dish of 'humbility' whenever I get feeling confident.  So who knows?  Maybe it will work out, maybe it won't.

But the results will still dry dishes, so there is that.

February Blahs

 

I have never been a 'fan' of February.  If we are going to have grey dreary cold days, they generally come during the shortest month of the year.  

This year we have had an atypical year.  Too warm.  Too little snow on the ground.  Grey dreary days.

As I get older, the weather seems to affect me more.  I'm told the body reacts poorly to cold, damp, dreary, more.  Turning into a weather barometer was not my goal in life.

Yesterday we had sun, and it was lovely to see it.  Today we have snow.  I am relieved to see it, even if it is another grey dreary day.  We rather desperately need more precipitation, and after years of drought conditions, we are poised to have another record breaking wildfire season.

Rivers up and down the province are at record lows.  Lakes are showing the lack of rain/snow and ground aquifers are drying out.  

Yesterday we were told that the fires that never got put out last year are now springing (heh) back into life and smoke warnings are already being sounded.

I pull the edges of my life closer, make my goals smaller, my aspirations more...modest.  

That doesn't mean I am withdrawing from all social interaction.  Of course not.  The internet does do one thing and that is to allow people at distance to stay in contact.

So I have zoom presentations booked for later this month and next.  I can do these from the comfort of my studio.  I have 11 topics (I think) and have been known to develop a topic on request.  My fees are 'low' and I  may raise them later this year.  Still mulling that over.

The manuscript for my next (last????) book is going through final formatting and we are on schedule to launch on the 14th.  A modest effort - pdf only, available on ko-fi, when it is ready.

In the meantime, I continue making tea towels.  Someone has sent me a gift - a kilo of fine linen yarn, from  Lithuania.  I am gobsmacked, but looking forward to getting it.  More tea towels will be coming.  The tracking info says it was in France yesterday, coming via FedEx.  Which means it might be here by the time I'm finished the warp currently being threaded.  

I feel ready to do something else for a while.  It's been great working my way through the whatever this weave structure might be called.  Time to work on something else for a while.

My other textile focus is the bobbin lace.  After a week or so of messing around, re-learning how to do Torchon, I finally feel like I can guide someone else through the basics.  I'm going to do one more practice bookmark, then see if I can start making 'ornaments' for the guild to sell as a fund raiser.  In my deep dive into the dark recesses of my studio, I 'found' a bunch of die cut triple fold card blanks.  I figure I can make small ornaments and mount them in the cards.  The guild can sell them in the guild booth at the craft fair.  We are always looking for ways to pay the guild room rent.  

For today, I will finish threading the 'last' warp, then sley and tie on.  Weaving should begin tomorrow.  Fingers crossed it turns out the way I want...

showing the hem area and the beginning of the design

Threading

 

ready to thread

Yesterday I beamed the next warp and today I will begin threading.  The Megado has a removable breast beam, so I take the reed out of the beater and the beater top off, then remove the breast beam.  I have a lower stool (than what I sit on to weave) and I have spot lighting.  

The lamp on the right gets directed into the heddles on the shafts and another lamp on the left shines light from over my left shoulder.  I want the light where I need it, which is in the 'threading zone' ie, where the light can shine on the heddles I am threading.

Given my current series of tea towels, which has a fairly complex threading, I print out the entire threading draft and mark each group as I complete it.  Since each group may vary, I find it easier to just track my threading myself, not rely on iWeaveit, which gets set to a specific number of ends.  But my drafts rarely fit nicely into a constant number of threads, so it makes more sense to me to break the threading sequence down into groups that make visual sense.   That may vary from 4, to 5, to 6, to 7 or even 8 ends.  I rarely do more than 8 at a time.

I also have a lamp at the back of the loom that lights up the back few shafts and the stick that holds the bouts of the sectional beaming.  This is especially helpful on grey dreary days when it can be harder to see the back few shafts.

Some people 'treadle' their threading but I have never tried that.  Those who do it, love it, so you might want to explore that if it seems like a good idea.  

Instead I have numbered the top of each shaft on the bottom, several times across the width of the loom.  As I move the heddles from left to right, I still have the numbers as a visual guide to work from.  I don't dye my heddles, but prefer to keep the data in the same format - numbers on the draft, numbers on the shafts.  I don't have to remember that shaft one is red, shaft two green, etc.  And, with 16 shafts, I would run out of colours so I'd be repeating them.  And for me, that way lies chaos.  But again, if it works for you, by all means, you should use processes that are effective for you, not me. 

Because we are all different.  What works for me, may not work for anyone else.

As I thread each group, I pull the threads upwards as I tie a slip knot into the group.  Doing this will sometimes catch oopsies - a thread that didn't make it into the heddle eye will stand out and can be quickly fixed.  Sometimes I can tell I did a progression in the wrong direction.  Again, I can quickly fix that.

Each threading repeat gets tied into a larger grouping.  Again, one way for me to track my progress through the threading sequence.

The typist's clipboard works well to hold the draft and the little ledge holds my pencil so I can easily find it to mark the group just done as being complete.  As I do that, I check for the next group, then pull the needed heddles out of the forest, position them in their intended order, select the number of ends in that group, then thread them.

Rinse, repeat.

The current towels have 760 ends.  I go slowly, not rushing, and take a break every 45 minutes or so to give my back and hips a rest.  I used to be able to thread that many ends in a single day.  Now I try and spread it out over two days.

I don't mind the 'old'.  I mind the 'decrepit' deeply.

Absorbency

 

several different cotton yarns

This morning I opened my email and discovered an opinion piece that reflected on absorbency and was reminded once again that I did this article for Handwoven's Yarn Lab a few years ago now.

So many weavers have noticed that different cotton yarns vary in how much they will absorb and wonder why.

The above article sets out the best information I have found to explain this phenomenon.  And when you understand the structure of the fibre itself and how cotton actually absorbs water, then have a rudimentary understanding of how absorbency can be moderated by how the fibres are prepared for and then spun, it all makes sense.

Instead people look at the yarns, note that most mercerized cottons appear to absorb less well than unmercerized cottons, and assume that the mercerization process is the deciding factor.  When it isn't.

Generally the difference between yarns commonly available in the US is that unmercerized cotton yarns are open end spun, which means lots and lots of airspace trapped into the yarn, and mercerized cotton yarns are ring spun with the fibres lined parallel with little space for the fibres to absorb water and swell.

Thinner yarns will absorb more easily than fatter yarns (generally - fibre prep and spinning method will play a factor.)

In the above photo, the yarn on the far left is seine twine.  This yarn was designed specifically for seine nets.  Therefore it needs to be extremely strong, but also?  The less water it absorbs the better.  So it is extremely tightly spun, generally cabled.  You cannot break this yarn with your hands.  (Well, I can't and I doubt very many others could, either.)

As such it is extremely inappropriate to make towels with.  It is stiff, not wanting to bend or drape, and certainly not dry dishes.  It is used by weavers primarily for tapestry or rug warps, for which it works very well.

If you (or your guild) are interested in learning more about fibre facts, my Zoom presentation A Good Yarn will reveal more about fibre and yarn characteristics.  Email me laura at laurafry dot com

I'm still taking bookings for this year and even have one for next.

Or buy  The Intentional Weaver where I outline many of these factors in writing.

The Teacher Learns

 

Torchon lace bookmark in teal and peach

One of the challenges to any craft is the learning curve and the fact that if you don't use it, you lose it.

It was a bit of a happy surprise that when I sat down at the pillow last week, my hands retained so much of the basic movements.  That led to a bit of hubris, and I found myself trying levels of difficulty that were far beyond where my current skills happen to be.

So I had some pretty 'sad' results until I realized I really did need to dial back and re-enter the craft at a more beginner level.

Happens I have a few (ahem) books on lace and one of them is a pretty basic introduction to the craft that I feel will be appropriate for teaching purposes.  Both for myself, and anyone who wants to learn.

Last night I prepped and started this bookmark and (thanks to insomnia - has to be good for *something*) I worked on it in the wee hours of the morning until it was finished.

No, it did not go without errors, but they were soon fixed and onwards I went.  I didn't like the 'ending' the author had given, so I did something different, with some level of success.  But I can see I might want to adjust what I did on the next one which is similar to this, see if I can come closer to what I would like it to be.

My plan for the 'taster' session(s)* is to introduce the student to the basic stitches and how they are formed, and do that through the making of a sampler of stitches.

I have lots and lots of tag ends of unmercerized 2/8 cotton, which isn't the usual yarn/thread used for lace, but will serve.  I'm not going to go out and buy more yarn!  Plus all my tag ends come in lots of different colours so the student can choose something pleasing to them.

Once bobbins are wound, we'll begin and do a 'lace along'.  I'll do the sampler on my pillow and they can follow along on theirs.

If that goes smoothly, this bookmark will likely be 'next'.  There are just two 'stitches' - half and spiders, with some extra fillips to help make it all work.  

Hopefully it will be enough to get the person started and then they can see if they want to go further.

In the meantime, I know I have to practice more and go a bit slower.  The basics are there, if I don't rush, I'm sure I can figure it out.  

Slow and steady will get me there.

*Scroll down the page to the appropriate event

Zoom Presentation

 

The EHS guild is hosting a  Zoom 'workshop' with me on Sunday, 3rd March 2024 and welcomes non-members to join in.  

I'm looking forward to this because it is 2.5 hours (scheduled) which means I won't have to 'rush'.  :)  

Mind you, I can talk about wet finishing for lots more hours!  However, this should be an opportunity to answer questions, show some samples, and generally explain what wet finishing is and why it isn't just 'washing'.  Even though it looks a whole lot like that, it is actually a little more than 'just washing' it.

I talked with the guild person a couple of days ago and she says they can take more people, so if you are interested, the time zone is Ontario.  If you are outside of Canada, you'll have to check if they have other ways to pay - the poster only lists e-transfer.

For more information, email EHSWorkshops@gmail.com

Yes, I'm still taking bookings for 2024.  Check out my topics on my website  or email me laura@laurafry.com for availability.  

The EHS guild is hosting 

Be Prepared to Suck

 

This morning I saw a post by Abby Franquemont who said (I paraphrase), when you are learning something new, or re-learning something you haven't done for a while, be prepared to 'suck'.

I think this is something that we, as a society, have forgotten.  That *skilled* labour takes time and effort to learn.  And while we learn, we are going to produce less than stellar results.

The photo is of the very first thing I ever wove on a floor loom.

It's pretty...rustic...honestly.  

But it did one critical thing for me.  It showed me the potential involved in taking string (and in this case lowly rags) and turning them into something else.  

I've written about the 'birth' of this rug elsewhere, so I won't repeat it here, but I have kept this rug for nearly 50 years.  We don't use it.  It doesn't lay flat, it's a bit of a trip hazard.  But!  It was, and is, the very first thing, the very first step, on my way to where I am now.

And sometimes I need a reminder.  It marks one of the two points of my journey - the very first thing, and the latest thing I have woven.  

It ties the journey together, much like ol whatshizname who took a ball of yarn into the labyrinth in order to find his way back to the start.

When I come across it - and I do, from time to time, it's just in my studio and I come across it now and then - I always pause for a moment.  Sometimes I pick it up and open it.  And I look at it.  All the flaws.  The lumps.  The bumps.

And all of the potential contained in the effort that went into making it.

I still make mistakes.  And I frequently share them here, because that's the thing, isn't it?  We ALL make mistakes.  We wind up with messes.  Disappointing results.  

The thing to remember is that we are not the sum of our mistakes.  We are the sum of what we *learn* from our mistakes.

Making something that disappoints is, well, disappointing.  But we can try again.  And again.  And multiple times, if necessary.

So, be not dismayed at mistakes.  Learn from them.  Make 'better' choices.  Try, try, try again.

We are very close to launching my 'latest' book A Thread Runs Through It.  This book talks a lot about my journey as a professional/production weaver.  But mostly it is about the lessons I learned along that particular journey.

Stay tuned.