(mis)adventures of spindlerose

Week off review

I wasn't nearly as productive during my week off as I'd hoped. Here's what I accomplished:

1. Warped loom and wove off about half of the warp (color samples and 3 towels).
2. Cooked Thanksgiving dinner, including 3 pies.
3. Cleaned studio for a few hours.
4. Knit most of a sock foot.
5. Piles and piles of laundry.

I ended up watching more football than planned with a cat and no knitting on my lap. And reading more news and Facebook than I really wanted to.

This week, I'm recommitting to consciously using social media and news apps--this weekend I slipped back into the mindless surfing habit, and my creative productivity, sense of well being, and blogging suffered as a result. I've set 3 non-work goals for this week to keep me on track--and I'' sharing them for a bit of public accountability.

1. Practice yoga every weekday (2 classes and 3 times at home).
2. Finish the towels.
3. Write something (blog or journal) every day.

Missed a day

I spent yesterday happily being productive. I looked up at about midnight and realized that I hadn't even thought about writing a blog post. Ditching bad habits and making better ones is tricky. And making writing a habit is even harder for me for all kinds of reasons.

I did not accomplish everything I set out to yesterday, but I'm happy with what I did accomplish. I sampled colors for the new warp and decided on 4. I reorganized a few shelves in the studio to make room for my most recent weaving yarn order and unpacked a box of counted cross stitch books (I decided to get rid of almost all of them). Then I spent 3 hours making dinner--which was not at all my plan. 

I also spent a bit too much time watching TV while being a cat bed. And obsessively reading news. 

Today, I wove two towels and braved Trader Joe's for Thanksgiving supplies. I decided that I'd rather weave than make pie crust  and rolls tomorrow. Don't judge me.

Saturday threading

Today, I threaded the loom. First the heddles.

 Then the reed. And I tied the warp onto the apron rod. 

Tomorrow, I'll sample colors and start weaving.

Someday, I will learn simple arithmetic

and how to read a simple weaving draft.

I finished winding the warp onto the beam after work. 

After dinner, I sat down to start threading. And quickly figured out that I calculated 8 * 4 + 2 * 2 = 34 when I wound the two outer warp sections two weeks ago. Not 36.  At least this is a pretty easy problem to overcome with a couple of intarsia bobbins (which I haven't used for knitting in at least 20 years) and a couple of shower curtain rings for weight. 

 

As my friend Jen always says, MIT teaches mathematics, and not arithmetic. And I took as little math as I could get away with for my political science degree.

I'll wait for daylight to start threading. I finally understand why Nonny used to hand me her needles to thread when we stitched side by side in the evenings. When did all those individual threads become so fuzzy and hard to see?

Warping

Warping is a bit of a challenge in my small, overcrowded studio. After I play a bit of tetris to clear enough space (loom bench and desk chair out of the way, sewing machine under the loom bench, and boxes precariously stacked) across the room to spread out, I can start.

I have little sectioned box that I drop warp sections into as I wind them. I separate the sections with those annoying subscription reply cards that come in every magazine. For ease of winding, I made each section 36 ends since that's the width of each color stripe. There are 11 total sections for this batch of towels.

I push that little box as far away from the loom as I can and load 2 sections at a time into the raddle. (I just figured the two section trick out tonight.)

Finally, I start winding onto the back beam. To help keep even tension as I wind on, I run the warp under a box full of magazines and books. (The four cones on the floor my weft color candidates for these towels.)

As you can see, there's not much working room because I have too much yarn and fiber. I'm slowly (much too slowly, if you ask David) using up, selling, donating, or giving away things I'm sure I'll never use. I'm planning on getting rid of more stuff and rearranging the studio furniture during my time off next week. Who knows if that will actually happen.

More joy

On Monday I sent some other handwoven items into the world and filled the rest of the box with Meyer lemons. A little to prophetic, I'm afraid.

This morning David and I ran away to Maui for a long weekend. We scheduled the trip for the expected break in his trial preparation schedule. Turns out that we have nearly perfect timing.

Unexpected joy

Today was grim after yesterday's optimism. I broke my Facebook fast because I needed to see and share what my tribe was thinking and feeling. The same things I am: grief, disbelief, and a strong desire to fight for our values and beliefs and do better for all our citizens.

Mid afternoon, my phone alerted me to a message. With this photo

It's my cousin Robin. He jokingly requested "homespun houndstooth" in response to a weaving photo I posted a few weeks ago. I offered this too warm for California but perfect for Illinois scarf I wove in my beginning weaving class last December. I love everything about this scarf--even more now that I know it will be worn and loved.  

If I do nothing else for the next four years, I will keep making things and sending them out into the world to warm the people I love.

Learning curve

Every warp, I think I'm getting a little bit better at weaving, and then I take the cloth off of the loom and realize just how much more I have to learn. As I wove these blue towels, everything looked OK on the loom--even beat, nice selvedges, no skips. Near the end of the warp, a few threads were suddenly looser than their neighbors and by the very end the fell was wavy. When I took the web off the loom this afternoon, I discovered that I beat the first two towels lighter than the later ones. I think the beat was the same, but those first two are sleazier--and longer, since the pattern was for a number of picks--than the last five. There are skipped threads. And the selvedges are not nearly as neat as I thought they were. My fingers are crossed that all the issues will improve after finishing. 

Following the advice of Sara Lamb and other weavers I know, making a weaver is all about frequent practice. Put on lots of warps. Weave frequently. Lather, rinse, repeat. 

So far this year, I've chosen published towel projects--I usually put on longer warps and change up the colors--but I'm not designing yet. I'm learning the mechanics of warping and weaving. After today, I feel like I'll never get there.

This draft is from Handwoven Mar/Apr 2016--Ozark Quilter Towels draft #3. I used two shades of blue with turquoise, pale green, and purple for the contrast picks. I wove at 20 epi instead of the 16 epi used in the pattern based on my previous experience with Webs 8/2 cotton in plainweave. I like the half basketweave hems on these towels. It's easy to turn under evenly and makes a nice contrast with the body of the towel. Out of an 8 yard warp, I got 6 full length towels and one shorter one. A sensible person would have stopped at 6. These are gifts, so I wanted to use the last bit of warp as a record for myself of what I did--so the last towel has stripes of every contrast color.

In May, I wove this draft in different colors for my mom. I don't actually know how those came out because I delivered them to her just off the loom with hemming and finishing instructions. She says that she loves them--enough to take some with her to Arizona for the winter.

 

 

So this happened

On November 1, 2015, Diane delivered her Gilmore loom to me (because she bought her retirement loom). One year later, I'm hooked.

I took a weaving class last winter to learn the basics and have spent most of the past year exploring on my own. I've churned out a few scarves, many samples, and a dozen or so dish towels.

Really, the past year has been about making a weaver more than about making anything specific. When work took over my life this summer and the project on the loom needed brain, progress stopped. Only when faced with the need for a hostess gift did I finish that batch of towels.

Since it's November and I really do want to write again, I'm challenging myself to post every day and then to try to stick with the habit of exercising that writing muscle regularly after November. Most posts will be about my usual topics--what I'm making or where I'm visiting--with a few recipes and other thoughts tossed in for fun.

Right now, I've got to run off curl (because weaving and spinning are weird enough hobbies). Talk to you tomorrow.