Get Busy, Mom!!

This was my mother's proudest piece of weaving, done sometime in the 00s. It's based on a photo she took in Queenstown. She (natural?) dyed all her yarns, and spun most. It took her agonizing months of do-overs, making her doubt if she could ever weave something she saw in her mind, with exasperated Dad shouting from the living room to get a "more pleasant" hobby!

This is a photo of the original photo on film. It's hard to tell because I took this under harsh hotel room lights, while the top pic of the piece, in a more subtle living room, but the light and saturation are very close in real life. The blurriness of the pic didn't matter because she wanted to capture the red of the lichen a little distance away. She had this piece in a group exhibition in Japan once or twice, and I borrowed it for my 2007 exhibition; this was the only piece of weaving a visitor was interesting in purchasing. :-D

I'd come to think of Mom as having been more interested in dyeing and spinning, and then in weaving, but I now think that's wrong. She often had complete/bigger pictures, far more than my very narrow focus, and honed in on different aspect depending on the project. This was the one project she wanted to perfect all three equally. Dad and I can tell you, though, Mom went into the greatest length of research, trial and error, and, oh, the reworking, in dyeing.

There was at least one more piece she worked almost as passionately, one trying to recreate the azures of the Mediterranean, which she gave me. Except... it was/is a cotton bathroom mat, which we use, and wash, ruthlessly, so the poor thing now looks like a rag of many blues. 

Mom died, in her sleep we believe, early Sunday morning, after I saw her for the first time in over five years. She will be cremated with the tapestry piece among few other of her favorite things this morning. But no, no; no rest in peace for her, she'll hit the ground/cloud running, looking for interesting folks to talk to, in English if the spirit moves, because Dad will inevitably be among them; she'll probably hear his uproarious laughter before she sees him.

Good travels, you two.

 

Triumph of Something/Near Fire

Not counting my first Pebbles project, my sixth tied unit weave piece came off the loom last night. (The fifth remains on the sample table loom.) It was a triumph of... something, many things. Recent posts sounding like a litany of loom problems, I was looking forward to a 100% upbeat post, but foolishly declared on FB, "Goddess of Weaving willing, the first piece should come off the loom today. But did I just jinx it? Because this has been a real Murphy's project." Well, yes, indeed, I did.

* * * * *

(Ignore this part; it's for my record. I may have posted this recently, but too lazy to look up.)
To summarise: I made three warps two winters ago; put one on the loom and sampled it once, but the shafts stopped working properly early last winter. After a couple of months of rushing around fixing them, I wanted to make sure the shafts still worked, and one day lifted the shafts on a loom with a big shed without securing every warp end at the front, causing most to come out of the reed, and quite a few, out of the heddles. I was so disgusted with myself I didn't take a pic, but I should have, because it was one glorious bird's nest. I didn't mind because I wasn't crazy about the pattern threading, but I couldn't be bothered rethreading until this winter, and sampling resumed this spring. Considering there was a ten-year gap between sampling and weaving the purple, third piece, this sixth is proceeding at break-neck speed! 

* * * * *

Litany of Issues:

1) Shaft 2 is a jumper/joiner; it likes to lift when it is not required to, but only sporadically. I noticed this when I wanted to weave backwards earlier in the week to fix a weft which had draw in too far. When a shaft lifts when it need not, or more frequently lifts unevenly, (one side much higher than the other,) it usually means cords holding the shafts are tangled, or came off the spool at the top, but I found no such instance. I then created a file lifting just Shafts 1 and 2 and 3 in different order and combination and ran it, and this appeared to have fixed the problem.

It happened again yesterday, when I realized the reason why I couldn't see the weave pattern was not because it was too dark in the room, not because I was using nearly identical dark purples in the tie-down and pattern, but because I was weaving in the wrong order, or using the wrong sizes. When I opened the shed to unpick, even though I had the correct pick, the shed was different from when the weft went in.

Once again I checked the cords and the spools; once again I tried the file. I could not find anything obviously at fault, while Shaft 2 acquired a mind of its own, sticking its tongue at me, lifting as it pleased. While checking the cords, however, I noticed the tension were uneven, so I adjusted them to more or less the same degree of tautness. (Geez, there's got to be a better way to say this?) I noticed cords connected to Shaft 2 were particularly slack, so I tightened them a smidgen more than I needed to. That seemed to have done the trick but I'm not certain if I really fixed the problem.

I unpicked roughly 2.5cm, 48 picks, and found Shaft 2 had lifted three times when not called for. After that, though I didn't check every single pick, I looked up annoyingly often, and Shaft 2 operated as indicated in the files.

This summer I must take out all the shafts, wax the wooden parts so they slide easily against each other, (how long has it been???) and adjust the cords thoroughly. This is good timing as I need to reconsider heddle distribution if I were to weave more of tied unit weaves, so I don't have to move them as I run out while threading. 

2) I am better at placing the shuttles in the correct order when using two pattern wefts. It's with a single pattern weft I'm more casual, weaving with the wrong size; I caught myself twice.

3) The very first pattern pick of the double pattern weft draft I used lifts 1+4. Both times I used this file, something caused unseemly long skips in several places. You might have noticed it in this pic previously, because I debated whether to post it. This is way beyond the Shaft 2 problem, and I have no idea. I didn't even notice until a little too late, and honestly after the first time I thought it was a fluke. I have plenty of other places where I lift only 1+4, this has never occurred elsewhere. And, I mean, you can't miss it. For the next piece, I may lift one more shaft, or not use this file at all.

The first time was worse. It can be seen in the left three quarters of the entire width. 

1+4 lifted.

The top bunch of taupe yarns show the correct distribution. 

4) I have issues with my pattern weft color choices, mostly coming from my penchant for gradation when in doubt. But let me first finish the piece properly, take good pics, and tell you about them, because I realize how it look fresh off the loom different from when it's properly finished. Suffice it to say, the two ends of the piece looking completely different won't be solved in the washing machine.

I started nicely as seen at the top, and managed to keep it going for a while, until I was exhausted, and defaulted to gradation as I often do. Well... gosh, darn.  

* * * * *

Having whined at great length, I definitely have upbeat bits.

Standing and looking down at the cloth as I weave has definitely improved my technique. Selvedges look OK, I felt comfortable with them and didn't have to do any of my tricks, even though the proof is in the wet-finish. 

My body got used to weaving this way markedly after day 3; I wasn't sore or exhausted in the evenings, just tired evenly. The only thing I must remember is to walk the pedal, which was difficult when I was concentrating on other aspects. When I didn't walk, my ankle on which I stood too long hurt the next morning. But if I try to change feet, say, every four or even eight picks, at least both legs got tired to the same degree. Now I'm wondering if raising my footstool by 2 or 3cm would improve the comfort even more.

And here is the best bit. In many ways, it was an exhilarating piece to weave. Which is probably why I could stay calm in spite of mechanical problems. Many things were decided on the spot and I never knew how things would look until I wove. I can't recall a project where I was allowed to indulge in my whim so often, so thoroughly, all the way to the end. So the colors aren't spectacular, but the whole process was strangely so satisfying. 

* * * * *

We had Indian takeaway; I'll finish the piece on the weekend, then get started on the next piece.

* * * * *

I forgot to tell you about the most tragicomic part of the day. With Shaft 2 tamed and 30 or so picks to go, I suddenly smelled something burning. I turned off all conceivable switches, opened the door to the garage, the stairs, and the exterior window, wondering if someone was BBQing outside. Nope. I turned on the bathroom fan, and went upstairs and went outside to checked again, but it was definitely coming from the basement. I turned on the house vent system, and asked Ben, who was working from home, to come have a look. He opened up the computer but found no smoke or heat coming from anywhere. We were completely flummoxed because the smell was as strong as ever.

And then it dawned on me, and I turned around.

We have two of these in the house, and the top is open, with no lids. Occasionally suicidal bugs jump in to self-immolate. This lamp sits in the middle of the room to give the whole room a soft, even light. I tipped it, and sure enough, Ben says, "You have one customer."

I can't remember how long it took to weave the last 30 or so picks. I was exhausted, exasperated, and ex-whatever-ed. What. A. Day.

The End.

Is It Really That Compllicated??

I really wanted to keep weaving with two pattern wefts, but a few days and half a dozen drafts later, nothing flowed from the one I used. I wanted to keep weaving, so I went back to one pattern shaft. Never mind.

It's not as if I don't have interesting drafts; I like the two at far left. The one I wove is center bottom, but just one repeat which ends at the horizontal line. You see my dilemma; that one doesn't look like the others. I might weave it again, although I'm going try making another that has the similar bold look. 

I've been using these four drafts for the single pattern weft part. I had in mind making/weaving many more, but I decided the colors are so different every time it didn't matter if I used just these few. It might even be better for visual cohesion. You can also see why I used the bottom center draft of the double pattern weft draft; it has the same vibe.  (Note: these drafts are only representative since I have no record of how the pattern shafts were threaded.)

I'm still stuck on the idea of reversing these files and weaving backward, again. Shouldn't I be able to insert/delete a few picks and weave, which would be so simple.

Tie-down shaft order is 1-2-3-2-. Structurally, these lines are sandwiched between picks that lift 1+2+3 or 4+5+6+7+8+9. The red weft is the last pick of the original draft, so if I mirror-repeat the order, the treadling looks like above. Also notice lifting 2 (blue wefts) always follows lifting 4+5+6+7+8+9.

If I inserted four picks so the tie down order is restored to 1-2-3-2-, (purple wefts,) I have 4+5+6+7+8+9, followed by 2, and another 4+5+6+7+8+9, followed by 3, even though 3 always follow 1+2+3. Similar things happen when I delete lines.

So, I'm probably wrong; I'm probably not missing anything in this case. But I do wish I were, because it would make life easier.

5000 Days Project

I'm typing this on Saturday evening. I had a kiddie-size roller-coaster of a week, and I want to tell you about it. There is a weaving bit towards the end; scroll down to the pictures. 

* * * * *

Last week I wove on Thursday and Friday, about which I wrote in the previous post. I didn't weave on the weekend as we were busy doing stuff around the house, but I briefly saw Stella. She guessed I had been weaving, from my posture/attitude/what-not, which was nice.

Conversation touched on our aging parents; we've long thought many folks see a marked transformation somewhere around age 80; I had just seen a Morgan Freeman interview in which he said the same. Stella exclaimed she's going to make as much jewelry as she can before that, to which I responded, "I only have 13 and a half years!" (From memory, she's a decade minus four days younger than me.)

The thought stayed with me. From last Saturday to my 80th birthday was, according to a handy Internet date calculator, 4900 days; that seemed so very few, not even 5000. OK, let me extend that to, "sometime in my 80th year." 5265 days until the day before my 81st; slightly better.

At this point, it's not as though I have a concrete plan. It's more like when I aimed to use up all misc yarns before... 60, was it? It's more something to keep in mind whenever I have options. And if weeding/veg garden, doodling, or learning non-weaving stuff try to stand before me, I hope to feel less obliged/guilty and stay focused. (Ahahahaha, that's a tall order!)

* * * * *

Came Monday and it would have been a lovely day to make new rows for dwarf beans before the rain Tuesday, but I went downstairs to weave instead. But what fresh hell?? The computer refused to communicate with the monitor, the monitor complained. I did all kinds of rebooting/unplugging/plugging-in and everything else I could think of, but nothing. I messaged Ben at work but there was no quick answer, so he took a look as soon as he came home. He had a couple of ideas, but they required opening up the machine, and possibly looking for a very old part somewhere in his study cupboard, so I had to wait until the weekend.

Ugh, four or five days out of my precious 5000. You'd think I'd make the best of it by getting back to the beans Wed onward, at the very least draw, but no, I doom-scrolled, made a batch of cookies, and reorganized/tidied/culled from my cookbook bookshelf. (Yes, I have one of those, thought not exclusively for cookbooks.) The irony was not lost that it was four years ago during/after the US election, I resurrected a ten-year-old warp and started my second tied-unit piece.

The mechanism controlling the solenoids which lift the shaft require two old parallel cables, which need direct hardware control via DOS, so we need Microsoft Office 98 or older. This is to say, my loom requires very old hard- and software, and why the only thing we've been able upgrade since I bought the loom in 2002 have been the monitors.

Ben's first thought was the CMOS battery died, which he said happened once some years ago. Revision: when the computer is unplugged, this battery retains the memory. Because I turn everything off at the wall every time, this battery has to work extra hard. (You do realize I'm writing all this because I had to be re/taught this information.) Over the next few days, he also tried to prepare me in case it wasn't the battery, but something more serious, while I tried to counter with... "Can't you maybe rewrite the program?" 

Throughout the week, I thought about how to reconfigure/restructure my weaving life, as it were, to keep going in the coming 5000-ish days. I would weave mainly on the table looms, but I would also learn to combine card weaving on the jack loom à la Inge Dam. Table loom pieces would be narrower and possibly shorter; I'm OK with that, but it's lamentable now that I'm finally back on the big loom, enjoying the bigger scale. I also wondered what to do with the big loom; I couldn't sell a loom without a working treadling mechanism, but at the very least it has 1600 texolv heddles that don't fit in my other looms, so I could sell those. There are some metal parts, but not very much. Perhaps Ben could use the larger/longer pieces of wood? And the rest can keep us warm for a night or two. Oh, dear me.  

Came Friday, we wiped down all the dust, opened up the computer, Ben brushed the inside parts, and I sucked the dust and fluff with the vacuum cleaner. He replaced the battery, (which is a rather ordinary one from the supermarket,) and voila, the computer started talking to the monitor. The memory was lost, so the date defaulted to 1997 or some such, but because the computer is loaded with only the most basic files/applications just to operate the loom, it didn't take long to get it working. The air compressor and the black box were turned on, and we had lift off; the shafts lifted in the correct order. We turned everything off, and Ben closed the cover. And the computer power stayed on.

After finishing housework I was in the middle of, I rushed downstairs and turned everything on again, but... What the heck is that noise??? Ben, Ben, Ben!!!

His first words were, if the noise is coming from power source, we have a real problem. I was already picturing us sticking small pieces of the loom into the fire. It wasn't immediately apparent, but the culprit was a tiny processor fan an adjacent to the power source, the fan being secured too tightly to the base (?) it rubbed against something at the bottom, so the solution was to secure it slightly loosely. Otherwise, the loom was operative, and I marked the wall switch for the computer so I would never turn it off again.

What drama!!

Later in the evening, I might have heard him mumble, "Well, it is just a matter of reprogramming..." but he might deny it if we ask.

* * * * *

Friday evening I finally managed to weave a few centimeters; I went with two pattern wefts. So far I haven't been adventurous in my color choices. Two pattern wefts slow down the appearance of color changes, and it works beautifully with gradation, but good gradation can also be flat, and I plan to pepper it with some excitement, also.

One obstacle now is the transition from one draft file to another. I spend a lot of time looking at the files on screen to see if one design flows on to the next, but I am never sure until I see it on the loom. To make things easier, I decided to make/edit the files longer. In fact, I wanted to weave this afternoon but I didn't have a nice transition between any of the five files I had made, so I tried to write/amend some more. Funny how this is so easy some days, but other days it never happens.

I wouldn't say two pattern wefts weave quickly, but with ample distance between the breast beam and the first shaft, the shuttles line up comfortable and the operation is smooth.

* * * * *

As of Thursday, we've been in New Zealand for 30 years. I wouldn't have become a weaver if we didn't move here, so thank you, Aotearoa. 

About Time, Eh.

Purple cauliflower seedlings that survived my less-than-elegant transplant, from one packet of seeds purchased a few years ago.

Sum total of white cauliflowers from a packet purchased at the same time. :-D

This spring I spent more hours outside than I expected, thanks in part to the cooler temps and periodic rain which kept hay fever down. It's November and this spring I used my meds maybe half a dozen times, which is super extraordinarily amazingly few, in spite of winds upwards of 68km/h in the last week, making 40kms "normal" these days. We also had the fire going three nights in the last ten days, and maybe again this weekend with expected lows of 5C, although forecast is as reliable as astrology this spring; we will run out of firewood at this pace. (November is usually when conscientious shoppers start buying the following winter's firewood.) I'm determined to put in all the seeds I collected/bought in the last few years in the ground, even while accumulating a few more packets of dwarf beans and a couple of zucchinis. And first time ever, peas! If I have to stick stuff in between flowers, so be it!  

Then there is my avoidance of work, in this case overthinking about drafts, because I am so aware I haven't grasped all the information I need about this project. I was coaxed to get back on the loom, however, by a long-time weaver friend, and Ben, and on Thursday, with the wind up again, I went downstairs and started weaving my first proper piece. This worked great because I got some clarity on what I want to do re. drafts/patterns. And though the loom mechanism is still not at its best, (the foot pedal doesn't leak air any more, but sometimes I must press with my heal to drop the shafts, making "walking" awkward,) the weaving feels faster. Or, because I'm not sampling but weaving, I am concentrating on different aspects, and that somehow translates to... the perception of speed.

Colors look glittery, but this is the last part of Thursday's work. I want to use mainly the blue half of the color wheel in the pattern wefts, but other than purple, I have so many more of the yellow half.

Friday's top half; here I was trying to capture how different angles show off different parts of the pattern or color combos clearly. You may think, "Duh, of course," but it's more marked in real life, particularly in what you don't see. In the top photo, for e.g. the you can see more pattern in the yellow weft area than in real life. 

Things I learned:

* Selecting weft colors "on the spot" works. Although I aimed for something of a gradation for the pattern wefts so far, anything has gone on in the tie down. They're lovely to see as I weave, and though they may disappear after the 20/2s bloom, I know they're there, and maybe one day the wearer will, too. 

* Standing up and weaving, I thought of weaving a slightly wider warp. I'd love go bigger if I can. I also toy around with the idea of 20/2 warps with 60/2 wefts; I've woven in this way once or twice, and not only it takes eternity, 60/2s don't full nicely. Still, if I can find a way, and beat loosely, maybe?????

* There was something else seemingly important but not technical I wanted to tell you, but now I can't remember because the technical stuff is easier to put into words, while aesthetic/feeling stuff, not as much. I hope it comes back in the next "sitting".

* This is really turning into "the weaver does what she wants" style. The color/number changes are abrupt; the pattern threading changes are abrupt, and in the past, even the lifting changed abruptly. I'm not sure if this is conducive to crating attractive (flowing, i.e. styles I tend to prefer,) pieces to sell. I realize like realism vs post-Impressionist/abstract, it's a matter of taste. But the pieces coming off this warp will retain this fragmented look. 

* Having said that, for discipline/learning as well as for a kind of visual cohesion, I'm trying to make/weave drafts with some continuity. For e.g. if a draft's last pattern shed has 4 and 5 up, I'll choose as the next draft something starting with 4 and/or 5, or 3 or 3+4, or 5 or 5+6 up. I haven't fully understood how to do this with ease yet, but on screen, drafts must look OK lined up in succession. 

* I have at least two other warps to be woven in tied unit. I may consider a more flowing pattern shaft threading next. But, if the threading and lifting flow, will the color/number changes in the thread look more disjointed?

Conundrum: (Read this only if you are as interested in tied unit weaves as I am; otherwise, skip to the last paragraph, or better yet, go do something that engages your mind!)

In my current project, this is the minimum unit of required lifting, ("repeat" in weaving lingo), which makes the cloth's weave structure "tied unit weave". (I think "three-tie unit weave" to be precise, because I'm using three shafts, 1, 2 and 3, to tie down.) In a real draft, I have multiples of these repeats all the way, and all my drafts end with a pattern lift with 2 up so I can move on to the next draft. 

In the two above examples, I'm lifting no pattern shafts. This can be woven as is, and it makes a cloth mostly warp-colored on one side, weft-colored on the other, can highlight the tie-down pattern, something else I'm interested in, but we'll ignore this today.

Usually I include pattern shafts to lift, which are for appearance/patterns you see right away rather than the structure which, well, keeps all the threads together in the cloth. Here I lifted Shaft 6 twice, and 7 and 8 twice after that. I had imagined, because tie-down shafts were lifted 1-2-3-2, I could weave forwards or backwards using the same draft files as long as I remembered to insert a pattern shed lifting Shaft 1. So:

The purple picks show the last repeat of the draft without the pattern picks. Next I reversed the order in green. Then I inserted the pattern shed lifting 1 in red, which must be sandwiched between tie down sheds, in orange, which are either 1+2+3 or 4+5+6+7+8+9, alternately. And therein lies the problem: I can't just flip the drafts and weave; I must alternate the tie down shafts. And it's much easier on the eyes to make up a new draft. It took me a few days, even with the weaving software screen staring at me, to see exactly how this (didn't) work!

The truth is, if I wove either of the tie down sheds twice in a row, they may not show up glaringly in the finished cloth, but I'd know, and now you would, too.

* * * * *

I'm riding this momentum in the coming weeks; eight sitting should complete one scarf. Stella could tell I have been weaving from my posture. (She adopted some of my violet cauliflowers.) It's nice to recall weaving helps the thinking as much as the other way around.

On the other hand, the season is changing, and I love when my mind obsesses with finding/trying new recipes, making the most of the latest produce to return to supermarket shelves. And that propels me outside, when the weather is cooperative.