New Year, New Opportunities

 

It is really heartening to see the interest in weaving beginning to build - again.  Unfortunately new weavers have an obstacle I never had - LLM, AI, whatever it is called - in addition to the 'usual' myths out there about weaving, we now have the 'lying' machines feeding a massive amount of misinformation to the internet.

So, to new weavers, let me give some suggestions for how to learn.

If you don't have a guild or shop that offers lessons, check out actual books, written by actual weavers, who give knowledge from experience.  Right now there are a large number of books on the market that will give you the basics and some that are focused on a particular aspect of weaving.  The authors don't always do things in the 'same' way, but hopefully you will learn the language of weaving, and that's a good first step.  Asking questions on chat groups when you don't know what to call 'things' means you likely won't be getting the specific information you are looking for.

Ask older, more experienced, weavers for recommendations for books or websites, or online instructors.  Not every student needs 'a' teacher, so you may need to take a look around, talk to other weavers, find out who they feel gives good information.  Most people will give honest opinions.

Here is one that came to me over the holiday.  Since I didn't ask permission to use her comment I have not included her name:

Right back atcha! I recall a wonderful weaver commenting that she learned more in one of your workshops (Magic in the Water) than anywhere else she'd gone! I myself use many of the tips you gifted to fellow weavers in CB and I've passed them along to many others. Each one teach one -- wonder how many hundreds have been given a gift towards Efficient Weaving by you??!!!!

I have learned from many, many others.  Some things I incorporated into my practice.  Some provided a different attitude or approach that I found helpful to open myself to new techniques, new approaches.  Many taught lessons that I didn't expect but found very useful in my own practice.

Weaving as a practice, a skill, a pool of knowledge, is vast.  New weavers expect to be fed - in some cases - all the information they need to finish a 'perfect' project - without first acquiring the physical skills involved in dressing the loom and doing the actual physical weaving.  They don't have the foundation of knowledge.  Which is not a problem - they can acquire it!  But it takes time and practice and a whole lot of imperfect results before 'perfect' even shows up on the horizon.

And then there is all the myths that float around.  A new weaver hears something said by someone who appears to be more knowledgeable than they are, and they don't question it, they just accept it.  But as they acquire more information and enlarge their library of resources, they need to pay attention to the information in those resources.  And when they are told that (a statement that is not correct) they need to check further and find out what is the truth instead of saying 'well that's what my teacher told me!'  Your teacher was wrong if they taught you 'that'.

It is no shame to be incorrect in something.  But once you have been given other/more information, it's a good idea to own up to that and absorb the correct information.

I make no secret of the fact that I have (or had, I've given a couple books away) a dozen books on textile science.  Sometimes I spot inconsistencies, and sometimes the issue is *who* the book was written for - because the textile industry has different limitations from hand weavers.  So their tolerances are tighter than what a hand weaver can adjust and accommodate for.

So - get a book with a glossary.  Be aware that older British books will have some differences from US centric books.  This is normal, not a 'mistake'.  Regional vocabulary differs.  Take note so that when you come across these differences, it is a matter of variation in the language.  (colour, fibre, are not typos, but British spellings - don't complain that it is jarring to your US eye)

Learn the language of the loom, learn how to read drafts, learn the difference between a threading draft, a profile draft, learn how different weave structures work.  It's perfectly fine to replicate projects in books and magazines, but to really understand how weaving works, you need to study the actual knowledge required.  A weaver doesn't need to weave ergonomically, but for the sake of their body, they should at least be aware of repetitive motion injuries.  It's a lot easier to prevent such injury than it is to heal from developing one.

Be prepared to 'fail' as you begin.  This is not a failing but steps to becoming a weaver.  It is like any other physical skill - you don't start out at the 'elite' level; you need to work your way up to that.

So yes, I have online classes, and books.  But I also have free stuff like this blog, videos on You Tube.

I am happy to try to help, but it helps *me* to understand what your problem actually is - and for that I need to understand your question, not try to parse what you are saying by calling things 'thingees' or 'gizmo'.  Include a photo if you can and show me behind the heddles as well as in front.  Give me as much information as you can because weaving is complex and sometimes the answer is not in front of you but at the back of the loom.  Or you simply don't have enough information and what you need to do is to read the beginning bits in the book(s) to find out what the author is saying when they show you a draft.  If you can't read the draft accurately, you can't replicate the information.  You need the code, the 'key'.  And trying to explain that in a comment in a chat group is a level of difficulty that frustrates both parties - the student and the instructor.

Just one example that came up recently was someone saying that they were direct warping but the draft had multiple colour changes and how did they do that.  I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean by 'direct' warping.  If you are using a rigid heddle loom, that's a different process than what I do to dress my standard floor looms.  Assuming they needed a rigid heddle loom weaver, I scrolled on by.

There is a quote that sums it up for me:

The life so short, the craft so long to learn.

Beginners need to expect to spend some time at the bottom of the learning curve.   It's uncomfortable, it will bend your brain, but that is the only way to learn.  Get comfortable making 'mistakes' and then fixing them, best you can.  

My resources are:

School of Sweet Georgia online classes 

Long Thread Media (Handwoven) classes

Magazines - have written for The Weaver's Journal, Weaver's, Handwoven, Heddle, now for WEFT

Books:  The Intentional Weaver, Stories from the Matrix, Magic in the Water at Blurb

And of course this blog - check out the list of topics for the posts I've labelled with that topic

Soap Boxes

 

bins of warps, not chained but just dropped into a bin

Bet you would be surprised at just how many 'soap boxes' I will leap onto at the drop of a comment. 

Or, maybe not, if you are a long time reader of this blog...

My top 2 are - of course - ergonomics and wet finishing.  However, I have others.  

Today someone asked about filtering the air of their studio.  It is something I have talked about for literally years, when my doctor suggested my shallow cough was the beginning of 'brown lung'.  Think 'black lung' - not coal dust but cotton fibres clogging up my lungs.

When I first brought the subject up, it was long before the internet, and most people I was talking to were 'hobby' weavers and I watched their eyes roll back in their heads when I suggested filtered fans and that carpet was a good preventive measure because it 'trapped' the cotton dust at floor level rather than a hardwood floor when every walk through the studio stirred the cotton linters up to float around in the air - and enter your lungs.

Eventually I stopped talking about it.  I realized most people didn't weave at the rate I did, or make even a tenth of what I did on any given day and probably it wasn't an issue for them.

I talked about ergonomics for a lot longer because it was obvious more people were running into problems with repetitive motion injuries, or sitting poorly, and having physical problems - especially as they aged.

For the past year and a half (since the brain bleed) I have asked myself repeatedly why I am still here, and since I am, what am I supposed to do?

I'm pretty quick to use myself as an example - sometimes a bad one, just because sometimes I *am* an example of 'bad' - and have spent much of this blog (when I realized I was not going to die in 2008) and being a warning about what 'bad' practices can lead to seemed like a good deed that needed doing.

At the time being able to reach out to lots of folk via the internet was still very new, and since I like to write, I decided that this blog would do as a platform to promote my special interests - weaving, and doing it as well as a person could do based on understanding the hidden information that was almost never discussed.

To that end, I have tried to provide the best information I can, and encourage people to learn more.  Understand more.  Filter the information that is 'out there' through their own experience and their own personal abilities and goals, factoring in their particular aims and objectives.

Because if you change one thing, everything can change.

So there are guidelines, general principles, but then everyone needs to apply them to their own personal circumstances.

When I began to write Magic in the Water, I was very unsure of myself.  I had a couple of private supporters - both extremely knowledgeable and both of whom encouraged me to keep talking about wet finishing, even to the point of reading my very rough draft because I wanted to know if I was actually conveying solid information, not just speaking from my own personal 'reality bubble'.

One of them read my very rough draft, noted a description to explain part of the process and commented that he had never thought of it, but I had captured exactly what the process looked like.  And he noted no errors of fact in the rest.

With that assurance, I felt I could go ahead and publish and present the best information I had been able to discover and not lead people astray.

Yesterday I obtained another potential 'helper' in my goal to reduce my pain.  It is not a 'pain killer' as such, but says that it helps support healing of damaged nerves.  It is not a magic bullet fix, but a slow, potentially healing action.  

Once again I am stunned and amazed that any of us actually survive.  If I thought weaving was a complex endeavour, it seems living is also a level of complexity that astonishes.  The more I learn about the body and the mechanisms that attempt to keep us alive, the more astonished I become.  Hopefully - if this new supplement works - in about 2 to 3 months I will have a significant reduction in pain - if that is actually my problem.  Is it?  A number of people assure me that it is part of the problem.  And frankly, I'll take a reduction in pain, whatever that looks like

In the meantime I need to carefully cultivate my tiny sprig of hope.  It came very close to not making it through the past couple of months.  But now I have a new plan, and it has a number of branches.  So I remain stubborn and hanging onto the frayed rope that is me/my life.

And trying to clamber onto one or other of my soapboxes and keep writing about the mysteries involved in taking thread and making cloth out of it.

Once again I thank the people who have reached out and given me support.  I told a friend the other day that the brain bleed was the shit cherry on top of all the rest of my physical issues.  I have begun to re-shape my approach to weaving.  I can't begin to sell everything I can weave.   So I gratefully thank those people who have shaken the pom-poms of encouragement for me.  We are tip-toeing into a new year, and no one knows what that will look like.  I will give a nod to our Prime Minister who flatly states that it may be a very challenging year.  We will get through it by supporting each other.  

Sending 'gold dust' out to everyone who needs it.  Keep creating.  When so many are trying to destroy, we can keep creating and building.  One tea towel at a time, if necessary...

Pragmatic (CW: politics)

 

I designed a font that I could use in my weaving because sometimes I like to show off that I'm a 'clever clogs'.  As another weaver said to me one day, sometimes you *want* people to know that you are clever.

I suppose there is a certain level of pragmatism to my character.  You'd have to have that to try to earn an income from an antiquated profession like hand weaving.  In order to *be* pragmatic, you have to be able to face up to reality.  You have to face up to your short comings, and figure out a way around them.  You have to be able to break through your reality bubble.  You have to 'know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em' as it is said.  But also?  You have to be able to imagine.  Imagine something different than what is, and what you might change if you don't like things the way they are.

It is from this focus, I suspect, that I have been reading about PMMCs holiday greetings.  It is hard to not contrast the PMs message compared to...the person south of the border.  Or even our own leader of the opposition. The contrast is marked.

The thing is, I remember things before the current reality.  Yes, there were shenanigans.  Of course there were.  But there were also 'normal' things that were accepted as being, well, normal.  And others that were 'beyond the pale'.

And if a politician got caught doing stuff that society did not approve of, they were expected to be shamed, and even, (gasp) resign, so that someone with better character could take over and be a steady hand on the tiller.

Now?  It's nothing but lies, coverups, accusations, rage farming, threats, etc.

I have no idea what the new year holds.  I hope it will show greater compassion, empathy and yes, more steady hands on the tillers of the ships of state.  

Canada has been well aware (for decades) that we are poised in the pincers of the US and Russia.  Never did I imagine that they would be allies and looking at us as easy pickings.  And, yet, here we are.

So I look at PMMC and his steadfastness and - while I don't know that I 'approve' of everything that he is doing - I would much rather have him at the helm than the alternative.

What many USians fail to imagine is that on so many levels, what the PM is doing is not *his* whims, but actions that ordinary Canadian citizens enacted.  WE chose, en mass, to stop buying US goods.  Most Canadians are well aware of who pays for the tariffs and who was going to hurt if we left US goods on the shelves.  It didn't take long for provincial governments to perk their heads up and stop buying US spirits because no one was buying them.  Canadians immediately started cancelling trips to the US.  After about 3 months of Canadians going anywhere but the US, only then did the Canadian govt issue a travel warning.  Following the lead of the citizens voting with their pocketbooks.  And the actions of border guards/ICE towards some citizens.

We may be small, but the US really did not have any sense of how dependent it was upon Canada's willing contribution to their wallets.  Canada's govt was aware, and pledged to support Canadian workers as they transitioned to other markets.

Because that is the thing with the current US admin - their reality bubble did not include the fact that they were way more dependent on *us* than they realized.  Now in shock and awe, entire states are feeling the bite of the lack of Canadian dollars coming in.

Things are very uncertain right now but PMMC is doing what he's done before - stepped into the middle of an economic crisis (Trumps threat to break Canada economically to make it easier to 'annex' us) and begin to chart a path forward going around the US threats and forging new partnerships.

His speeches yesterday were calm.  Pragmatic.  Yes, he said, things will be difficult for a while.  But his plan at the end is for Canada to remain a sovereign state, a democracy.  We know it is flawed, but we can work on those once we get through this time of transition.

In the meantime I remain Elbows Up and Team Canada.  And Never 51.

I wish everyone (especially my US friends) peace and calm as we enter the new year.

Gifts With Meaning

 

Doug and I didn't give each other 'gifts' this year.  Truth to tell we really haven't bothered with 'holiday' gifts for years.  If we needed/wanted something, we'd announce to the other and they would say 'happy birthday' or whatever.  So we don't bother with a tree or any decorations really.  We have our string of dragonfly lights hung in the living room window and they stay on 24/7 (unless there is a power outage.)

The string of lights was given to me by my brother, and we would turn them on during the holiday season, or if there was a particularly dreary day and I needed a little 'extra' light.  The night he died I turned them on and told Doug they would stay on.  He nodded.  

I don't know that I was a 'bah, humbug' person as more of a very tired person by the time xmas finally rolled around.  And we rarely had cash to spare to buy gifts anyway.  It was fine by both of us if we just bought as something was wanted - or needed - and go ahead and buy it, whenever we needed it.

The past few years I've been buying jigsaw puzzles and more of my friends have taken note and this year I got a bunch of jigsaw puzzles from friends.  I use puzzles as a coping mechanism, especially during the dark o'clock hours when I can't sleep due to the pain.  Focusing on a box of pieces of cardboard with pretty colours that I can build into a pretty picture, helps.

One friend gifted me with another 'special' gift - completely unexpectedly.  We are good friends and we share what we are doing so I knew when she was making this towel and followed along on her decision making process and when she ran into oopsies, or wasn't satisfied with her results so she pivoted.  She shared photos, but you know that photos never really do textiles justice, right?

So when I opened the envelope last night (if we have gifts to open we do that Christmas Eve, then I write out my holiday cards), and slid this beauty out onto the table and picked it up...wow.

As a towel, it is...perfect.  (Yes, I know about the oopsies she encountered and dealt with them - they are immaterial, really.  Nor did I look for any repairs, which would be rude!)  

This towel will go into rotation with the rest of the handwoven towels we routinely use.  But this one will go into the tea towel drawer because it truly is a 'perfect' tea towel.

I know so many people don't want to use their hand wovens, or their friends don't want to use them.  But when someone makes a useful item, the whole point is to honour their labour, investment in time, equipment, knowledge and materials, and make use of them.  If you wear it out, you can make more.   Or ask for more, or just buy more. Frankly I don't think we've come close to actually wearing out any of our hand wovens.  

So don't think they are 'precious'.   What is 'precious' is the memories they bring with them - I got this towel from that person.  This one is another person's, I remember the day they gave it to me, we had such a good time that day.  And so on.

I remember when Terry Pratchett died - a bunch of people started typing a closing on their emails, I forget the line, maybe GNU - Terry Pratchett.  It was a way to memorialize Sir Pratchett and keep his name floating along the internet connections for many years to come.  I sort of feel like that about my stacks of hand woven towels.  Each time I use one, the person's name gets activated in my memory.  And their memory is a blessing.

Season of Holidays

 

In the Northern Hemisphere, it is the season of darkness.  It is a time to bring light.  Light a candle.  String up the lights. Build a bonfire.  Hunker down until the returning of the sun.

Whichever 'holiday' you celebrate, if you live in the northern hemisphere, it generally includes the bringing of the light, one way or another.

I was raised Christian, and left the church in my teens - a decision I cemented as an adult.  I read about various religions, eventually deciding that I didn't 'need' a formula to follow, or have someone else interpret the scriptures to me.  (Most of the interpreters were male, which irked.)  But I was well-versed in the scripture, the Beatitudes, the teaching of Jesus.  During my exploration of the major religions, I realized that most of them espoused very similar teachings, just phrased differently - different cultures, different languages, different words.  But similar meanings.

By the time of the winter holidays, I was usually burned out.  The grind of preparing (all year) to make about 3/4s of my income during the 4th quarter of the year, then hope like hell whatever was left after I paid my bills would be enough to get me into the 3rd quarter, when the money started to begin coming in again?  I suppose I should not be surprised that my cortisol is much higher than it should ideally be.  I lived on adrenaline and stress and carefully timed deadlines and hoped like hell I didn't get sick at any point in the year.  If I did, I was usually back at the loom before I was completely recovered because the deadline just kept getting closer and there was (usually) just me to meet them.

When I did hire someone to help in the studio, they usually got more cash in their pockets than I ever did because the bills never stopped, either.  No electricity, heat, a/c (in the summer) and no water, and no income.

Now that I'm retired I can't be bothered paying a lot of attention to Christmas (or any other holiday, frankly).  It's just a day.  There is just the two of us and we are perfectly happy if I make a big pot of a hearty soup (more stew, truth be told) and fill a bowl and heat that for xmas dinner.  

Last year I don't think I sent out cards until well into the new year - something about a brain bleed and zero energy to cope with it.  When I do send out cards, they tend to be generic - Happy Holidays!  Because I tend to write my cards out between xmas and new years and mail them in the new year.

But all year round, I tend to pay attention and when and wherever I can, I try to light candles for others.  Because lighting someone else's candle does not extinguish my own.  It takes so little to be the spark for someone else, and then you will have two sources of light.  Even better if a host of people find that their candle gets lit.  

Because we only banish the dark by bringing light.  And if we all focus on being light rather than dark, we will all get through this season of darkness better than without.

So I wish you in this time of darkness a spark to light your candle.  So you can see more clearly.  So you can see where your personal contribution to others might be best spent.  Whatever your belief, believe in the power you have to spread light.  

Best wishes to all for the season.

Plugging Along

 

a peek at the backside of the cloth currently on the loom - the selvedges are not 'perfect' but are pretty consistent - they also tend to curl or roll at the selvedge, which I don't fuss over, just leave them to do what they will do under pressure from the highly twisted weft yarn...

I will frequently weave a cloth 'upside down' because I can lift fewer shafts that way.  It means I see the back of the cloth while I'm weaving, but that's ok.  You can sort of see that in the photo, the cloth that will be the 'front' is visible underneath and the side I see is almost all white.  The image is the 'reverse' from the front, so the back is mostly white with blue, the front will be mostly blue with some white.

The yarns are not the same grist (or thickness); the warp is 2/16 cotton, the weft is single 6 cotton.  Getting the proper 'balance' between the two thicknesses took some time (yes, samples) but I think it's turning out quite well.  Of course, I didn't know for sure until I wet finished the samples, but now it's just a matter of weaving.

The next warp will be the same combination as I continue my quest to weave down my stash.

I was a production for most of my career, so I didn't just buy for 'a' scarf or 'a' set of placemats - I was weaving multiples, offering them for sale for years at craft fairs, and for about 10 or so years via an industry 'show' for gift shop buyers.  

And largely, that is what I am still trying to use up.  Once I've done this run of tea towels, I will pivot to my silk and my cashmere stashes.  I collected a fairly large stash of cashmere, making a few now and then using silk as warp.  And then I inherited a silk stash, which is largely far too fine for me to use these days (eyes are not as good as they once were), and which I've gifted to a couple other weavers who like to work in fine silk.  Since I will never get to most of it, it will be passed to someone else, I suppose.

The thing is, fine threads go a very long way.  In some cases, the silk yarn has literally miles per pound.  (Yes, it does.)  I don't have the time, energy or spools to try to wind the skeins off and try to ply them to make thicker yarn, so I honestly don't know what I will do with it.

But I hear that another weaving workshop will be offered locally in February, so hopefully the weavers will increase.  And maybe some of them will be interested in working with finer threads?

I didn't make it to the loom yesterday - getting the rayon chenille was more taxing than I expected (never underestimate the emotional ties we develop with our yarns?) and then I had a lovely visit with a friend.  We are looking forward to a more relaxed visit after the holiday.  The weather is very...winter-y...and they are on the road to visit family.  Our entire province is being assailed by winter - if you have spare time to send some positive energy our way, it would be lovely.

In return I send out gold dust to all who need it, with best wishes for 'better' in the new year.  The past couple of years have more than enough challenge for me, at least, and I know I'm not alone.

Happy holidays, whatever you celebrate.

Does It Bring Joy?

 

just some of the bags of the rayon chenille yarn being donated for the stash busting sale at the guild next month...

We spent some time today clearing off one shelving unit of rayon chenille, bagging it up after sorting into the 3 'sizes' represented there. and labelling the bags of yarn with the number of yards/pound for easy identification.

l have agonized for months (years!) over this yarn.  I used to make rayon chenille scarves and sold them as part of one of my 'lines' of scarves at craft fairs.  People tended to love them.  The bright saturated colours, the texture, the drape.  But they were not a lot of fun to make, honestly.  I got pretty good at working with colours, usually in stripes of one sort or another.  And I learned a lot about how colour mixes in a woven cloth, so it wasn't really a hardship.  Just limited in scope.  Plus I grew to really dislike the fringe twisting because it was hard on my fingers/hands.

But I loved the colours.  I like working with saturated colours, and having a shelf full of nice bright colours of all sorts (because I had to make a range of colours, ones that weren't my personal favourite, included.)

As my health deteriorated, I would glance at the shelf full of yarn and quickly look away.  The more I thought about it, the worse I felt about hanging onto it.  Some of it was likely getting too old to be useful as warp - and of course you can't tell until you get it into the loom.

I toyed around with selling it on, but I had dribs and drabs as well as full cones, too much of some colours, not enough of others.  I offered it on here for free if someone would save me the emotional toll of packing it up and taking it away.  

And then I heard that the guild was going to offer members to recycle their stashes by having a 'stash busting' sale in January.

I asked if I could donate my rayon chenille and the guild could have the money and was instantly accepted.  The time line isn't long, which was even better.  No time to re-think.  No time to select some of the yarn and keep it in case I wanted to weave with it again.  Just a nice short timeline to deliver it all to the guild room in the new year and clear it out of my studio.

Intellectually I was more than happy to do this.  As it was happening, however, I found that I still had an emotional tie to the yarn.  I have a pretty good idea of how much money it took to invest in that yarn - in production quantities.  I have a decent idea of how many scarves a person could make with it.  Or to replace it if I should desire to do so (I don't.  I won't.)

But I cannot.  It is beyond my capacity to do.  And even IF I can recover more of my physical fitness, do I really want to spend what little time I have left on making more rayon chenille scarves?

The honest answer is...no.  Much better that I let someone else have the pleasure of making something with the yarn, than let it degrade further so that it won't be useful for anything much?

I have no idea if there are enough weavers in this town to buy even half of the yarn that will be delivered to the guild room in January.  But the guild has a 'yarn by donation' corner, so perhaps it will eventually find a home.  

And one less thing for me to see in the corner of my eye and feel guilty about not using.  One way or another - my stash must shrink.