Thursday, May 29, 2008

Bad Math

You know, my labels... I order 1000 of the first, big style, because then I would never have to order another label for the rest of my life, and I still have well over 750 of them. I now have 500 in each of the two color ways of the new, tiny labels, because I had to have small ones for my cashmere scarves for the Red Gallery, and, oh, what the heck, I wanted them for other small items, too.

This morning I was "talking" to Claudia the fashion designer via email about labels. And I was dead serious when I said I had about 400 years worth of labels left, if not more, and she thought I was being silly. I explained in my serious "voice" that at best I might manage to weave around 50 items a year, if that many, so simple math, 2000 divided by 50 is 400 years. And she didn't email me back, and Ben burst out laughing.

Nice to know I don't have to keep working until I'm 450 years old; I still have to keep weaving rather consistently until I'm about 90 to use up my labels.

I think I'll start sewing them onto things I don't want to lose, too; not just stuff I made...

4 comments:

  1. Just think of how perfect your weaving will be at 300! lol

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  2. Yeah, Lynne, maybe I'll burst into intermediate-dom!!

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  3. Yeah, I missed the math gene too, LOL. Just think what materials would we be weaving the 400 yrs maybe shawls for space travel, eh??

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  4. And how, Deep End!!! Throwing a shuttle by telepathy???

    I've had a vision of a loom where each heddle is individually controlled. On this loom, there are no harnesses, but every single heddle, which may be almost a yard long, is connected to some kind of a control mechanism at the top and bottom, which in turn is connected to a black box and controlled by a draft software. Rather than computer "dobby" controlling harnesses, we as weavers can pick and chose which harness is lifted and which not (or pulled down, for a better shed) individually. Once you've threaded a loom, you can forever tie on, and control the heddle movement in the drafting process, so even with the same warp, you can weave a complicated network twill, immediately after... something else. But if you want a simple twill, we only need to create a draft for a 1-3-3-1 twill with 4 ends at both selvedge in plain weave, for example.

    I came up with this idea when I first got my 16-shafts and hated threading it, and because I was fresh from Bonnie Inouye's workshop, I knew that one day I'd want more than 16. With this loom we won't need to upgrade looms if we desire to weave more complicated structures because the number of harnesses won't matter.

    I don't know how a Jacquard or modern industrial looms work; the industrial models I've seen were harness-based old stuff, but in this day and age the technology can't be difficult at all, if not already available. It's getting it down to a basement-friendly size and price that's the problem. And shipping it to Nelson. Gas just hit $2 at the pump last week, so hauling a nice loom like this is going to cost Lovey's year's income in the future; perhaps more than the loom itself.

    I'm having eye problems again, even with my new glasses, so the idea of having to thread a loom just once appeals to me immensely. Well, the loom might even come threaded, you know, with a 2-yard leader warp so the first thing you do is to tie on!!!

    But the miscalculation of the years required to use up my labels had nothing to do with my eyesight. But you knew it, right, friend?

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