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?"
* * * * *
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.
* * * * *
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.
* * * * *
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.
* * * * *
Okay, I'm officially glad I don't have a computerized loom, lol. They do some amazing things, but wow, they seem to need a lot of pampering.
ReplyDeleteYour 5000 days sounds like an interesting concept. Being in the senior years myself, I have to say I never thought of it that way. Maybe in part because I was away from weaving for so long and I'm just happy to take it day by day. I do know that being engaged both physically and mentally as we age is vital to good health and well-being. It seems like when people get old they just disengage. Almost as if they're following some social stereotype. I'm just happy to feel like I've accomplished something every day. I like feeling productive even if it's at slower pace.
I've held back replying so as not to give a flippant comment or to mislead you, Leigh. I don't know how other computerized looms work, although I have almost no doubt newer, purpose-built looms work better than mine.
DeleteMy loom was originally built as an 8-shaft countermarche, which was upgraded to computer-controlled by the original loom maker. I was never in contact with him, who subsequently passed away after I bought it. (The two events are not connected. :-D) I'm not sure if I'm the second owner or even further removed.
When I bought it in 2002, it did not come with the original countermarche parts, only what's needed for computer-control. It came with two software, one the loom maker wrote, (or had someone write,) which required every single pick to be entered manually. I have it, but have never used it.
Then a son of one of the weavers who used the same setup wrote a code that translates WIF files to shaft movement, which is what I've used. For a white, (when he was at Uni?) he was contactable. Then, at one point, he made the code available to public, and presumably walked away from having to maintain it.
This is why if Ben had the time, he could look into the original code and possibly/probably rewrite it, although from what I understand, (very little,) it's communicating to the mechanism of the black box that's tricky. Ben explained to me how that's set up, but, boy, Greek would be easier for me to learn.
Computer controlled is definitely easier in that the weaver doesn't have to think about which set of shafts to lift. I can imagine in some setup it's quicker to weave. (Mine isn't because the air compressor reacts slowly to the pedal movement.) I'm pretty sure it's easier on the body, instead of pressing and lifting, say, nine shafts at once.
The best part is, like table looms, we are not restricted by the number of treadles as to how many combinations of shafts we can have in a draft. Cuz... you're not going to do 16 shafts on skelton. Well, you might, but because I weave standing, I can't even do it on four. Which is one reason why I wasn't too frustrated moving from a computer-controlled to table looms.
Ah, a surprisingly important issue: if you want to go back one pick, in my case I have to get off the bench/footstool, walk two steps to the computer, stop the file moving forward, switch it to going back ward, get back to weaving position, and press the foot pedal to open the shed. Then do the same to go forward again. (It's actually simpler if I have to go back just one pick, but if more, this is the only way.)
Having said the above, there is no doubt the computer part is an additional/potential (big) part where things can go wrong, not only unexpectedly, but with constant changes/"upgrades" to software and hardware. You can understand I toyed with the idea of a mechanical dobby for a while, too.
If you have a chance, I'd say, give it a go once.
As for the 5000 days part, I can so echo the disengaging part. Psychologist et all say we must always engage with other people/community, but I joke with Ben a lot those folks never touched a loom. To so many things in life, I say, "I can't be bothered."
Meg, it sounds like you have some extra challenges due to the history of your loom. Quite brilliant, I think, on the part of the previous owner.
ReplyDeleteIf a computerized loom ever showed up on my front porch with a sign that said 'I need a home,' I would definitely give it a try. The complexity it can achieve would make the challenges and learning curve worth it. Doubtful that will happen, though, so I'll just continue to admire your projects. :)
From memory, I believe there were at least three other looms by the same Christchurch loom-maker converted in the same way, plus one in Australia, and even one in the US. The big advantage initially must have been that it's local, so there are no issues with the power/electricity conversion, and presumable all parts could be gotten in New Zealand, unless custom-made, besides the ability to consult the man who did the conversion. It's a big issue in a small place like NZ, never mind Nelson, that we can fix things ourselves with what's available here. I recall Kaz Madigan of Australia having had huge problems with her Toika, (which in the end, after much hoo hah, was resolved,) and she had access to a much bigger resource in Sydney; her experience made me rethink coveting more shafts/purpose-built foreign looms.
Delete