New Year Miracle

Miracle, you say? Isn't she being a bit dramatic.

Well, yes, that is true. But I do have a miracle to report. First, there's the fact that I have posted to my blog TWO DAYS IN A ROW!!! That in itself is jaw-droppingly awesome.

But wait, there's more!

I decided this will be a year with NO resolutions. We don't need no stinkin' resolutions.

But last night I went to a burning bowl ceremony at the Unity Center. This is a powerful exercise, where you meditate, then write on a piece of paper all that you wish to release from the past year. We went single file past grills with blazing fire, and got to toss our lists into the fire. Then we went through another meditation, followed by writing down what we wish to be, do or have in 2009. The final question, to ponder and take home, was "Who must I become to bring this forth?"

I thought about it a lot last night. The result was that I woke up this morning and decided to spend the day doing the things I love that I end up seldom doing due to fear or procrastination.

So, I ...

• made a healthy smoothie for breakfast,
• flossed my teeth in the morning,
• spent some time playing the piano,
• and wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles, I spent some time weaving!!!

This is special for several reasons. Mainly, it helps justify the fact that I have this incredible loom that I haven't used enough since I acquired it. In addition, this weaving is evidence of getting over some hurdles that have kept me away from the loom. (Sadly, they don't have to be very high hurdles to stop me cold.) For one, my wonderful loom was donated to our guild when one of our members passed away a couple of years ago. I bought the loom from the guild. But... there were a few things missing. For one thing, it has a fly shuttle mechanism mounted on the loom, but her children decided to keep all of her shuttles for memories of their mother. I could understand that, but they included the fly shuttle that fits this mechanism. I have almost purchased a few fly shuttles at guild sales, but careful measuring revealed that they were too wide to fit my loom's mechanism. A while back, a member of my study group gave me a fly shuttle she was no longer using. But... by then the loom was gathering dust.

Well, today, I got out that fly shuttle, which works fine. I didn't get bogged down when I had to go find a crochet hook that would fit for feeding the thread through the tension gizmo. I actually found the weft yarn I had been using. I started out with only one pirn, wound that, wove, wound it again, wove. Tedious, because the weaving went fast with the fly shuttle, and I was having to stop frequently. So I went and searched on one of the shelves of "stuff", and lo and behold, I discovered a bag of pirns, all of which fit this shuttle. Yeehaaaaa!! So I wound a bunch of pirns and spent some blissful time weaving.

This is the tail end of a warp that was used for something else. I don't think this fabric is particularly successful - the warp is a rather open sett, but I still find this wave pattern rather pleasing, and the weft is a cotton/acrylic baby yarn, so it is very soft. I'm thinking it may end up suitable for a baby blanket - if I've got enough warp left.


Whatever - the important thing is that I'm weaving, and have cleared a hurdle that has held me back for a while. Now I just need to figure out how to get the rotary temple working. I purchased the temple gizmos from the seller's husband, and the brackets for the track were mounted on the loom already, but the track was missing. I purchased it from Fireside at a regional conference, but it came without bolts, so the next step is to track down what size bolts I need to mount the track on the brackets.

For now, I think I'll go spin for a while, and bask in the happy glow.

Happy Start

This slightly out of focus picture shows my happy start to a new year. Back a few months ago, when money wasn't so tight, I purchased something that had been on my wishlist for a looong time - a set of cases for my collection of Handwoven Magazines. They arrived several months ago, and sat in a box. I was slightly disappointed with my purchase - they came with labels that needed to be applied, unlike the cases I bought several years ago for my Weavers issues - those have the title embossed nicely directly on the case. Still, they are MUCH nicer than the magazine holders I was using before, so it felt really good to finally get the labels applied and the magazines transferred.

My goal for 2009 is to get unstuck, so this seemed like a great start. I love the nice, organized look of my shelf, right behind me as I sit at the loom. (You can just see the corner of the breast beam in the bottom left of the photo.)

For almost the last year, I've been divesting myself of things I seldom use. Not all things, of course, because hope springs eternal. I sold a small triangle loom, my table loom, my previous marudai. I sold a lot of old Weavers Journal and Handweaver and Craftsman issues on ebay. I actually let all of my magazine subscriptions lapse, and even all of my memberships except for my local guild. (I may end up rejoining some organizations, though not right away.)

And yet, I still have two wonderful looms (32 shaft Megado and 8 shaft David), a warping wheel and squirrel swift cage and floor inkle loom, my Lendrum spinning wheel, a charka and a collection of spindles, my takadai and marudai. Now that the first outbreath phase is complete, I want to get better organized and make a concerted effort to actually USE all of my other toys! (That's my biggest problem in life - I THINK about doing a lot of things, but seldom even get things out of my head and onto paper, much less manifest them into something real.)

It will be interesting to see if this phase is followed by an inbreath phase. There was a time when I seemed to continually be acquiring - tools, cones of yarn, anything fibery. I do still get tempted on ebay, but not nearly as much as before. I must say, I'm pretty happy with what I've already got!

Last year, a member of our guild wrote an article on "How to Tell When You Are No Longer a Beginning Weaver", and she asked for suggestions from members. I had a few contributions.

You are no longer a beginner when ...

• you know to take a pair of scissors to a workshop even if it isn't on the supply list
• you no longer feel giddy at the prospect of being given a free loom or wheel or cone of yarn
  
• when asked your favorite weaving books, Learning to Weave is no longer your only answer.

If asked, I would probably say I'm an intermediate weaver. I learned a lot about weave structure early on in my weaving life, but the amount of actual weaving I've done would probably still put me at the beginning stage. If you average knowledge and experience, I'm square in the middle. The middle is a good place to be - in weaving, in politics, in life. :-)

Happy New Year! I wish you a joyful 2009, filled with lots of playtime with your fibers and toys and friends.

Slacker

I haven't posted in a while. First, I think I haven't quite gotten the swing of blogging yet. I keep waiting for earthshaking things to happen to blog about. I don't have an earthshaking life (thank heaven) so I need to modify my criteria for blog-worthiness.

To add to my natural slacker tendencies, I've been sick since the day after Thanksgiving. Still not 100%, but at least I finally can function. So.... not having yet done much of anything, I'll share an old photo.

I took this one just before Thanksgiving.

I'm sharing this to prove that in spite of San Diego's reputation for having no seasons, we actually do get a little bit of fall color! I'm thankful for liquidamber trees (aka Sweetgum) because without them, we really wouldn't get much fall color. Ours comes later than most parts of the country, especially in years like this when seemingly non-stop Santa Ana conditions prolong summer way too long. (I don't even mind the warmth so much, but the 10% humidity sucks all of the life out of you.)

Today, it is raining - another rare occurrence for our area. The amazing thing here is that it rains so seldom that when it does, the roads are treaturous, making driving difficult, which people from the northeast consider hilarious. Yes, we are weather wimps here. We make up for it with great courage and fortitude regarding housing and gas prices.

This makes it fairly easy to determine who is native or has been here for a long time, versus who is fairly new to southern California. Newbies complain about the rain. Oldies celebrate. Newbies ooh and aah in the springtime when the hillsides are covered with light green vegetation and lovely sprinkles of yellow mustard flowers. Oldies gripe that all the new vegetation is going to lead to a heightened fire season in the fall. I guess that's true anywhere of anything - we may all see the same thing, but we see with very different eyes.

Merry Christmas, to anyone who sees this. Somehow, it doesn't feel like Christmas yet - perhaps because I've been sick, and so with Christmas 3 days away, I still have not set foot in a store. In a way, that makes the holiday time seem much more gentle, so I suppose it isn't a bad thing. May you find a way to delight in whatever weather you get this week, may you be aware of the grace of good friends, good health, and a steady shower of creative thoughts.

Color Warps, Second Half

Monk's Belt, 8 shafts (red orange and peacock blue)




Polychrome Summer and Winter, 8 shafts (pastel blue, pink, peach, lime green, teal blue, violet blue)


2 Block Polychrome Double Weave, 8 shafts



Intermittent Twill with Color Progression, 8 shafts (rainbow colors)







Undulating Steep Twill, 8 shafts (2 blues, 2 greens)





Corkscrew Twill, 7 shafts (lime green and forest green)






4 Color Warp, Straight Draw on 8 shafts (pastels - 2 greens, blue, orange-gold)

Color Warps, First Half

Color and Weave, 4 shafts (brown and gold)






Five Rotating Colors, straight draw threading, 4 shafts (red, blue, yellow, orange green)





Patterned Supplementary Warp Stripes, 4 shafts (ground - orange, supplementary - tangerine, jade, magenta)




Undulating twill, 4 shafts (orange, yellow blue turquoise)





Lace Weave, 4 shafts (blue and purple)


Broken Twill, 8 shafts (dark red, blue, green)

Oh, the Looms!!!

So much stuff, so many looms, such good energy!

A couple of AVLs...


a lovely Swedish loom.


A rustic barn loom ...


A wall of warping boards ...


... and a wall of spinning wheels ...


and displays of a variety of different weaves ...


And perhaps most fascinating of all - a jacquard loom. It appears to be not yet functional - it will be interesting to see what develops!


So if you are ever in San Diego County - be sure to go to Vista and see the Weavers Barn at the Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum.

Splendor of Multi-Colored Warps with Betty Vera

I just had 3 days of bliss and a blast at a workshop with Betty Vera sponsored by Palomar Handweavers. The title was the Splendor of Multicolor Warps, and it was an invitation to move from the world of solid color warp and weft into a whole nother thing. I will confess that near the end, when someone asked if anyone would ever go back to a boring solid color fabric again, I did raise my hand. I truly am more of a structure person than a color person, but I learned so much in this workshop, and hope to put that information to good use, soon!

The workshop was held in the Weavers Barn at the Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum in Vista.
This place is what I want my heaven to look like - it's chock full of the most amazing variety of looms - from incredibly simple to intensely complex, from tiny to gigantic, from ancient to modern. Walls are lined with tools and bins of yarn.


This was the view from the workshop end of the barn...















... and this was the view from the other end.














We had a luscious stash of an amazing spectrum of weft options.








I'll post pictures of some of the looms in the barn, as well as the warps and samples from the workshop, in my next post.

This is the definition of fun!