Oops!

 

Two different qualities of cotton yarn

I'm going to be weaving more samples for an article for WEFT, but to do that, I needed more of the 2/20 mercerized cotton from Brassard.  I placed the order before the Canada Day holiday, and waited for the invoice (which arrived a couple days after I ordered), and then the tracking number.   I usually pay as soon as I get the tracking number.

Not hearing anything, assuming they were on holidays or something, I went ahead prepping for another tea towel warp.  (What?  I have stash to weave down!)

I'm hoping to cut the current warp off the loom today and start beaming the next warp.

Except, this morning the box of yarn from Brassard arrived.  Oops.

Well, I am going to go ahead with my plans.  I have until the end of  August to produce the samples, which *ought* to be enough time to get them woven and wet finished.  Plus I have some number crunching to do to make sure I'm weaving what I've been asked.  Truth is, I kind of ran out of word count, and instead of weaving yet *more*, I stopped.  But they have asked me to do exactly what I would have done if I was continuing on the path I had started following.  So, in a way it feels right to do the additional samples.  And IMHO, will make the whole exercise more informative, I think.  

I have offered to have a weaver's meeting for the local weavers after each issue of WEFT arrives.  If I have an article with samples, I'll bring the samples for people to handle.  If I don't (which I don't always), I can still bring what I'm currently working on.  And we will talk about the issue and I can answer questions.  And hopefully they will bring things to share, too.

In the meantime, it is nearly my birthday.  The sale continues until tomorrow at midnight.

Birthday Musings

 

The past 10 months or so has been...interesting.  As of August 28, it will be one year since I fell and almost died.  The past 10 months have been a roller coaster ride that I never wished for but found myself on, anyway.

Which is sort of how 'life' works.

You make plans and then life knocks you over and you have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again.

It is an interesting time, not just for me but for almost everyone.  Forces are afoot in society and the planet that feel enormous, too large for one person to deal with, or - perhaps especially - fix.

I keep circling round the same few questions:

What's it all about Alfie?

Why am I here?

What can I do?

What *should* I do?

I waffled back and forth if I should run a sale, as I usually do, this time of the year.  In the end I went ahead with multiple qualifications and much trepidation.  But if anyone wants, the sale continues at my ko-fi shop until midnight Pacific Time, July 9, 2025.  Buy two towels, get one free.

OTOH, after seeing that tariffs would be paused until later in July, this morning I see that the president of the US is sending sternly worded 'letters' to a bunch of countries who have been 'nasty' to him.  So I am hoping that my tea towels will be beneath the notice of US Customs.  

When I began this journey 50 years ago, my father was dying, I was stifling working at office jobs, I hoped for freedom to do what I wanted, suspected that I would love weaving.  I didn't really anticipate how much I would love teaching weaving.  How much my inner child wanted to write and discovered I was pretty good at writing about weaving.

In my mind I thought I would weave for 25 years, then teach for 25 years, then retire.

Well, that 50 years is up this year.  After I did all of it, all at the same time.

But I didn't die last year.  I can only come to the conclusion that there is something else I 'need' to do.  Some reason why I am still here, still able (with help) to write.  And still able (just) to weave.

I still have way too much stash that needs to be used up, somehow, some way.  Still have textile dreams that clamour to be born.

So, I keep searching.  Looking for something that calls to me.  Looking for answers to my physical issues.  Keep on keeping on.

Remembering that lighting someone's else candle does not diminish my own.  I can sit here in my 'office' and cheerlead others.  Encourage them.  Help them (maybe) understand what a complex thing bringing threads together to create a textile can be.  How everything depends.  Everything.

And how truly 'fragile' we humans are, so we really need to help others, if we can.

New Tech

digital cover of Issue 2

I recently updated Windows with the help of a friend, and I'm still discovering new ways Windows doesn't work like it used to do.  :P~

However, here is the cover of the next copy of WEFT.  Yes, I have a small contribution in it.  :D

I got the 2nd issue the other day and scrolled through some of the offerings.  I think one of the things I enjoy about WEFT is that they seem to fully embrace the 'it depends' reality of cloth construction.  I have not read all of the articles - yet - because Friday and yesterday got super busy and I ran out of energy long before I ran out of day.  But a quick perusal of the contents page is intriguing.  In some ways, it's like going to a conference and able to listen in on many different conversations - all of them about weaving.  (Be still my heart!)

I've been stymied, for a number of reasons, on the current writing, but I had a meeting with one of my healthcare team on Friday and we have a plan for going forward.  I'm such a special snowflake, I'm a 'it depends' patient.  It depends if we have targeted the actual issues I'm having.  It depends if the plan works for me, or if we will try multiple approaches.  One at a time, so we know what is working - and what is not.

My birthday is a week away - less than that now.  It is a 'significant' number, and I have to decide if I keep trying or finally 'retire'.  OTOH, I had some nice comments from folk online who appreciated my feedback, so...I dunno.  But when I began this journey, my intention was to 'retire' at 75.  And here I am.  It has been 50 golden (sort of) years...

I do have two more articles to write for WEFT.  I have samples woven for one of them, and a rough idea of the shape it will take.  The other I will likely dig through my teaching examples for that one.  I have kept most of my samples from when I was doing in person workshops.  I couldn't bear to get rid of them.  Yet.  That day may come.

But Word doesn't work quite the way it used to do, either, and I'm still trying to figure how to do what I need it to do.  So perhaps these last two articles will be the last ones I do?  To be determined...

Holding On

 

This is the walkway I used to walk in the 'before times'.  I would turn the corner and there would be the row of rose bushes, burdened with blossoms.  A sight for sore eyes - and soul - every time.  Gone now, but never forgotten.  A memory I cling to as the world wobbles.

I'm almost done the current warp and have almost finished fine tuning the next.  Truth be told, the threading is ready, but I'm not.  The past couple of days have been taken up with personal maintenance, with most questions still unanswered.

Turns out healthcare is much the same as weaving:  it depends.  Turns out we are, almost all of us, 'special snowflakes' and much of trying to cure dis-ease (spelled that way on purpose) is a matter of knowing what is expected, and figuring out why a certain person isn't responding the way everyone expects.

And some of us present more challenging, shall I say, puzzles so it takes a while to figure it all out.  If it ever gets figured out.

What I am coming to learn is that the human body is a minor, maybe even a major, case of miracles on two legs.  The complex systems that keep a human being up and mobile (so to speak) are opaque and sometimes care and diligence are required to figure out what a particular person requires to become 'balanced' and functioning - I won't say 'healed', although sometimes that happens, too.

In the meantime, I'm told to reduce stress, while the world burns, quite literally in far too many places, or goes quietly - or not so quietly - bonkers.  

There is a meme saying (I paraphrase) my desire to remain informed is at odds with my desire to stay sane.

So I return to the studio and loom to do nothing at all earth shaking or important - weave tea towels.

The act of creativity becomes a rebellion.  To bring some positive energy to this world in spite of the people who are determined to rip it all up, burn it all down.  They want people like me to despair.  To give up.  To give in.  To be complicit in advance.

I refuse.  

My mother used to accuse me of being bull-dog stubborn.  She was not wrong.  

Canada remains under threat of the loose cannon south of our border.  We have our own home grown maple maga, and I will refuse to comply with them, to the best of my ability, and refuse to agree to be annexed.  

I have no idea what will happen, or when.  In the meantime, #elbowsUp and #never51.  So I'm going to head to the loom and at least get one session at the loom done today, before it is time to leave for the dentist when I'll be propped upside down (so to speak) for at least an hour.  When I fell and did the faceplant last August 28, my jaw got shoved out of alignment and the swelling took months to come down so that my lower teeth would go back to where they belonged.  In the process three of my teeth were damaged.  Today is the day and I get the other two fixed.  Oh yay?  OTOH, I now qualify for the new federal dental plan.  I have no idea how much that will cover the cost of the repairs, but I'll take whatever it amounts to.  This year has been exceedingly 'expensive', what with one thing and another.

My sale continues until midnight July 9, 2025 (Pacific Time).

Explanations

 

new design in progress

This is the beginning of my working on a 'new' design, since the current warp is coming along nicely and should be off before my yarn order arrives.

I've had several conversations lately that were not about exactly the same thing, but kind of revolved around the same topic - learning how to 'read' your textile (and by that I mean the drafts, too).

This morning another one happened and I responded with a short explanation and the person had an ah-ha moment and thanked me for the way I explained the issues she was struggling with.

It's been 10 months since my fall and brain bleed.  It has been a very long 10 months, but finally - due to my continuing to search for ways to keep going - I finally feel like my brain is...not restored to what it was, but at the very least, beginning to function in a way that feels good, to me.

I still struggle with finding the words I need, when I need them, but at least the *concepts* involved in turning thread into cloth seem to be still there.  I just need to keep working on how to access and then express them.

The response this morning went a long way towards helping me feel as though I truly *was* healing and that - if I can get the rest of my body more functional - there may be several more years of weaving that I will be able to do.

In the meantime, my Canadian sale (buy two, get three) continues until midnight July 9, 2025.  I hope Canadians everywhere had a good day yesterday.  And let's keep working towards keeping Canada, Canada.

Canada Day

 

The photo is one of the tea towels currently on sale at my ko-fi shop.  It is one of the new designs, made this spring and it is based on the Swedish Snowflake design, which I reworked several times to give different looks/feels.  These ones are 100% cotton.  I also have some cotton warp/linen weft towels in the shop.  Some of the older designs are running 'low' so if anyone is interested in those, first come, first served.  

As of today, Canada Day, and the following days until midnight July 9 (*my* birthday) I am offering a 'sale' - buy two towels at the stated price and I will ship three.

I am offering this to Canadian addresses, in part because if I am going to boycott the US, I cannot expect USians to buy from me.  Especially in the face of uncertainty about tariffs, etc.  

However!  IF you are in the US and would like to purchase something, contact me and we can discuss the situation.  I am not removing the US as a destination, just not expecting anyone in the US to run the risk of ordering given the current situation.

However!  IF you are in Europe, contact me with your mailing address and I will look up the postage cost to your address and then you can decide if you want to go ahead.  Payment can be made by 'donation' once we agree on a price.

Today has dawned as a day with clear skies and hot temps.  It will be a lovely day to be at the lake, enjoying the outdoors (although be careful of the sun and don't forget to hydrate!)

Wishing everyone a pleasant day, wherever you are.

Book Review

 

I wound up fairly high on the request list at the library and started reading Guy Gavriel Kay's latest book last night.  

I've been 'following' GGK for a while, now, and I think I've read every novel he's written.  I wait (not so patiently) for the next to be penned and published.  I would even do a re-read of some of his books, in parts because I like the characters he crafts, and his observations on 'life' have only gotten better (IMO).

(Another author I will - eventually - re-read is Dorothy Dunnett, for much the same reasons.)

The first few pages of this book are a masterclass in setting a stage, and developing a character.  

One of the things I enjoy about GGK's writing is that he includes points from the historical record.  If you know the history that he is referring to, you know which real events have been rolled into his stories.  And sometimes?  I find out that something that I thought was fantastical, was real.  (I follow another writer who has a similar approach and it's always a delight when the penny drops.)

So, picture a young man in the dark of night and some of his musings as he waits for...something.

"He was young, of course.  He might grow into something different, someone different.  You weren't the same through the whole of your life, were you?  Not marked by one thing.  If you lived long enough to change, of course."

That paragraph on page 2 snagged me, and now I'm curious.  What happens to him?  What kind of adventure is he to partake in?  Above all, will he survive?

I know that there are likely AI 'written' (stolen) books that will be drawing upon GGK's writing because he *is* a best selling author.  I will not be reading them.

I want actual human experiences, created by actual humans.  I want stories that make me think.  To include actual history (when appropriate) and lessons to learn from.  I don't want LLM scrapings from actual writers.

But that's me.  As I thought about this book, I thought about what I hope to accomplish by continuing to write about weaving, from my 50 years of experience (and if that sentence doesn't make me feel 'old' I guess nothing will?)

My approach to weaving has always been to try to discover the 'why' of the craft.  Explore the characteristics of my materials, the physics involved, and try to work out the mechanics of the equipment.  None of which I've been 'trained' in, but tried to learn.  Because all of that was part of the question of 'why'.  

It's the same with human beings.  Why is this person acting like this, when it is so against their own best interests?  At times I find out why and can be sympathetic to their situation.  Other times I find out why and walk away.  Muttering 'not my circus, not my monkeys'.  Sometimes I have to accept that I do not have the skills or the patience to help them try to wend their way through their life.

And that's the thing with a book.  If you find the characters are too nasty or too...whatever...you are not compelled to finish reading the book.  You can put it down and walk away.  But I do NOT call for it to be banned because *I* did not like it.  

GGK's characters are not all 'good'.  I know that every person has flaws as well as good points.  And sometimes the best thing they can do is be a really horrible example.  But they are fiction.  I can take the lesson and walk away.

Will the rest of this book be as good (or better?) than his previous books?  Based on the first few pages, I would say yes.