Déjà Vu

Déjà Vu - "having a strong sensation that an event or experience currently being experienced has been experienced in the past". This is the feeling that I get when I sit on the bench of my big loom. I remember going to see it and sitting on the bench before I bought it and having the same sensation. I am part way through threading the Civil War blanket sample. I find that activity relaxing. Yes, I've been here before. You will never like weaving if you can't enjoy the many processes of setting up the loom. I do know weavers that live for the finished project but ... you don't always get there or maybe your project doesn't turn out as expected. I think the process is what keeps me commited to handweaving which is a segway to my next project, an E-Book.

I am a yogini and soon to matriculate from my 200 hour yoga teacher training. I no desire to teach in a yoga studio. My yoga teacher training at Yoga Oceanside, http://www.yogaoceanside.com, has been invaluable to me in other ways. Part of my training is to do 5 hours of  "yoga karma" which could be anything you can  think of that "gives back" some of the yoga wisdom I have acquired to anyone, anywhere, anyhow. I came up with the idea of publishing an E-Book on "Yoga for Handweavers" to be available to anyone who wanted to buy it. The focus of the book is to show ways that yoga can relax the weaver's mind and body and make handweaving more enjoyable and less stressful. I also intend to include information on handweaving ergonomics and ideas for modifying your loom to help avoid overuse injuries.The proceeds will go to support the "Flying-Eight" (link on right side of this blog) or a similar group that helps handweavers in the world. What do you think?

When All is Said and Done

Final photo of them  all together. Not too bad, 13 scarves from 35 yards of warp, one went to a new home, one was a dud. The dud will remain a mystery because one yarn decided to "worm". The scarf in question got worn a lot and then this particular color "wormed" or started to slide out of the warp and make little bumps. Nasty. Why oh why did this happen ?? Same chenille, same weight as the rest, same manufacturer. In any case I found the offending cone and now it is in quarenteen.Too bad as it was a nice color, bad dye lot?

I really like "crackle" as a weave. I threaded half of the loom in straight-draw and half as a crackle pattern. The treadling or order of lifting the threads was for crackle. I want to try this pattern again on my big loom with the Compudobby because I can make the lift sequence really long. I would like to make some cloth to sew with and I like the complexity of the crackle weave.

All She Wrote

The Grey Goods

My 35 yards of rayon chenille scarves are done. I got something like 12 scarves out of the warp, maybe one more but I have already given few away. As a post mortem I can say the warp wove fairly well. The rotary temples helped a great deal. Honestly they were more important to the quality of my product than the automatic pick advance. I am considering getting another set of the temples for the big loom. If I have two projects going at the same time I can't remove them. Well I could ... but it would not be a good idea to move them to the other loom mid-warp. I will definitely pay more attention to the selvedges when I beam any loom again. I know better. These are some pictures of the grey goods, six scarves with the edges overlocked but before being hemmed and wet finished. They are crinkly and stiff from being under tension on the loom. All that goes away in the water.

The "Grey Goods"

Organizing

I have a lot of weaving equipment that goes along with having two looms. I have spool racks, bobbin and pirn winders, a swift, a tool chest ... Of course all this takes up a lot of room. I actually had even more stuff but now my space is limited and my needs are different so I have sold or given away what I can't use. I think I heard from one of my yoga teachers that one needs to be mindful about letting new possessions come into your life. They take your concern and your energy. So I am a mindful yogini but space abhors a vacuum and having "stuff" is hard to avoid. It sort of creeps in.

My looms have hundreds of nylon heddles, "texsolv" heddles. They make for a quiet loom, no banging metal harness frames with metal heddles. But texsolv heddles can be hard to keep aligned so they can be easy slipped on the harness frames. If they are thrown helter skelter into a plastic bag they form into unmangeable balls. Yes, a weaver's work is organizing thread but that time should not be wasted on organizing nylon heddles. Every once-in-a-while I acquire a very useful and specific tool, another weaver's answer to texsolv heddle organization, merely dowels in a nice looking board. You can even hang it on the wall, voila! :