A Weaver's Time-Warp

Do you ever start to giggle uncontrollably, or outright laugh hysterically, while throwing the shuttle six, 18 or 36 times to weave an inch of cloth? In the second decade of the 21st Century, we thread one warp at a time through a small hole in the heddle, and a skinny slot in the reed, and we make them go up and down and, well, you know how it works.

Sometimes the silliness gets to me and I wonder what life means, my life, your life, one person's life time, what we're supposed to do, what we think we should be doing, and how much of it we should be doing. And the only conclusion I reach every time I start to giggle is that this silliness is a luxury, one weavers allow ourselves to do. And it's the closest thing to a SciFi/time-warp kind of experience I have.

My mom's blanket is off the loom, as is a second, white one in a thicker merino boucle, which I hope to put on my Etsy store when I get around to it opening it. I'm afraid Mom's may be mended/fringed/washed in Japan, and the white one after I get back, but I will be sure to take pictures. Mom's is much heavier, as Dot described, it will have a "substantial, soft texture", I hope. The white one is airier. In retrospect, I'm glad Mom's weft came in two dye lots; I suspect it's giving the blanket the extra tonal nuance I think it has; at least it's more complicated-looking than the white one. I also wove a tube-shaped cushion cover for Mom, thinking I had much more weft left on the cone than I actually did. It turned out to be a strange-looking tiny thing, so I'm not sure what I'll do with it, but it was fun weaving a tube, a first for me.


Meanwhile, I can come upstairs and show you, wherever you are in the world, what I just took off the loom 20 minutes ago. Imagine that! (Sorry, the pics are blurred; I can't seem to focus my eyes today, nor keep my arms steady.)

Saturday Daydreaming: Fractal

I saw parts of a documentary on fractal twice in a week; I had never heard of it, but it sounds like the kind of things weavers might be interested in, though I was too busy trying to get my head around its relationship with measuring the length of the English coastline. Then this morning, I found this by Joanne Mattera and some of the works appear related to fractals.

Tenuously related, only because I saw this on the beach on Rabbit Island, here's a tree we came across during our walk with Doni.

I am attracted to the swirls and curves.

Double-Booked!

Darn. Someone who assists Japanese media coming to New Zealand wanted to arrange an interview with me; something in conjunction with Air New Zealand. Possibly a Japanese supplement?? It would have given me a little exposure in Japan, something I've been wishing for forever. But they want to come on the 27th of January. Sorry, folks, I'm with Mama that week!

Never mind, I won't have to go crazy cleaning the house, tidying the garden, and slimming up to get ready for them.

Still, a little bit disappointed...

Yours Truey, Humbly, Red-Faced-ly...

If you don't like your voice on recording devices, I'm probably worse. I've been tutoring English and Japanese from age 16, and many a times I've succumbed to requests to record, which requirs playing them back for checking, so I've come to hate my voice and diction in two languages. I always wanted to volunteer to read/record for the blind in whichever languages in demand wherever I lived, but I can't overcome this particular cringe.

And this is the preface to... yes... the Crafternoon Tea episode that includes my longish gushing. Never been a woman of few words, I missed the chance to include some very important things, some of which were marked clearly in my notes:

* Being the least experienced weaver in the workshop is a wonderful experience, particularly in a weaving workshop. Weavers are caring and sharing and someone is bound to look after you in and after the workshop.

* "Stash" is a hereditary condition. My parents raised the entire roof of their house by one meter so Mom can have an attic stash space, in addition the bedroom I and my sister shared, and my brother's bedroom, which was subsequently turned into a design room. All of upstairs is now her work space. So I monitor my hereditary condition, but I'm not responsible for it.

* Cats vs Dogs: Though I am aware many weavers are serious cat lovers, I remain faithful to my canine friends. You can love dogs on your terms, not theirs. And how else do you get another mammal to pant at the sight of me?

In person, I'm a lot finnier and less serious. I'm not this intense. Ben says it's the cheap microphone but I'm not sure where all the staccato and emphasis come from. I nearly don't recognize myself. But! I do repeat myself, and jump all over, and cause train-of-thought-wrecks.

The correct term for the Japanese Living National Treasure is "Holders of Important Intangible Cultural Assets", i.e. the skill sets to create important stuff. I didn't have the complete title, but then this is only my translation.

After all is said and done, I stand by everything I said. But you know that, because you read them here over and over again.

Thank you, Genny, it was a most interesting experience. I never thought anyone could ask me anything new I hadn't thought and hashed and rehashed about weaving, but you had me top to think several times.

And Dad had been right all along; I have got to stop laughing and taking at the same time. I can't hear what I'm saying. And Mom and I thought he was just being a spoil sport.

Sugar Free

I'm frustrated because I've been struggling with a post about photography. Instead I have a box of eye chocolate. I haven't woven today, yet, and I'm tired because I couldn't go to sleep until around 3 last night. Either, weaving now will help me greatly, or, I'll botch it up and will have to unpick...

Kiva Weaver!

I've been a happy Kiva member since last September. Having heard of this organization but never able to remember the name, I was ecstatic when I happened upon it in Facebook.

Being a not-well-informed "Western" person of, let's face it, some means, when compared to others in dire needs, I casually sought women doing weaving or textile things...

I was lucky I discovered a collective in Guatemala in clothing sales straight away. I have a friend Rudy in La Antigua whose photo blog has highlighted their textiles, (sometimes just for me because I nag), as well as the plight of the women in Guatemala and Mom went to get pointers from his during her textile trip there. These ladies became my first recipients.

Two days later the tsunami hit Samoa, and I had to do something, so I added a Samoan recipient. I'm not sure how close she is to the ravaged coast, but anyone involved in food production is sure to help many in need. (It was a close one, though; there was a fisher-woman I liked, too.)

Around that time, there were huge tropical storms all over Asia, and I was at a loss as to whom I should help. I've had a special connection with the Philippines from two jobs in Tokyo in the 80s, and I've reconnected with some friends via Facebook, so this collective in food production and sales became my third. And don't they look lovely? Some even look like my friends.

And if you thought I was only promoting Kiva today, I am in a way, but wait for it.

I thought I'd like to add an entrepreneur from Palestine, at the start of this year. I couldn't sleep last night so around 3 in the morning I went searching. But wouldn't you know, the word "weaving" jumped out at me, and I do have a love of Central Asian textiles, (I must show you my two sometime!!) , and I chose this group in Afghanistan. I don't know what the women are going to do with funds, but a woman weaver and a woman tailor in Afghanistan, I'm sure, need to know the world cares about them.

The nice thing about Kiva is you the loans, from my side, can start at US$25, which doesn't make such a big dent in my bank account, so even I can afford it. And because they are loans, I get paid back, and yesterday I had $4 in credit, so I used that towards the latest loan.

It does feel a bit strange to sit in sunny Nelson on-line-shopping for worthy recipients much the way I search Amazon and Halcyon Yarns. I do feel guilty it's so easy. Over the years I've made it a habit to try to give small amounts of money (because nobody wants stuff any more, do they??) to the needy, and I used to have to go to their offices, the bank or post offices to fill in forms, and then they started to ring to ask for your bank account number for regular withdrawals, and now, no interaction with a living person but just sign up on-line? What happened to the letters from the kid we were supporting overseas, (our didn't write, but his mother did, religiously). And I used to translate letter for that organization as a volunteer.

I am interested in "my" groups, and keep an eye on how they're doing, not just in terms of repayment, their lives and countries in general.

If anyone would like an "official" invite email, (can't remember what's in it!), please let me know.

By the way, there are heaps more worthy recipients in Palestine, and elsewhere. And that Palestinian woman in Gaza married to a policeman, her request filled quickly; no room for me now.

Saturday Daydreaming: The Attraction of Color and Weave

While looking through www.handweaving.net for attractive 4-shaft straight draw structures for a warp of block (head) kitchen towels, (to satisfy both Mom's orders and my sample requirements for Ali,) I happened upon two interesting results.

Go to the draft search page. In the top "Search by Original Text" space, set maximum and minimum shafts to "4", leave the treadle numbers at "any", and search a book called "Textile Designs and Colour, (William Watson)" towards the bottom of the list of books. Go though the four pages to see the visual complexity achievable on four shafts!

Then change the minimum and maxim shafts to "16" (or any big number), leave the treadle numbers at "any", and search the book again. Of course the more shafts you have, the more structural complexity you can achieve, but are they necessarily visually more interesting than the 4-shaft drafts? I thought not.

It gives me goose pimples thinking about the experiments I could do on Jack! I'm daydreaming of full of lovely fluffy stuff from my 4-shaft Jack filling in my girly cosy Etsy store! And not before too long, I hope!!! I'll show you the curtains, the wall papers and shelving I choose as I start decorating it!

The above image above is Draft Number 61736.

As for the block (head) weave, I've been trying to get my head around it a while now, and I sense there is a corner approaching, but I still can't see it.

EDIT: In one short swift email, on New Year's Day, Ali blitzed my understanding of blocks and dumped me with a whole new idea. It was entirely different from the answer I was expecting to my question, so the towel project is suffering a setback. Hummm... Maybe I'll weave this lot the way I had planned.

Day 1, 2010

I wove 40cm today. I've been averaging between 20 and 32cm per half a day on the Cherry Blossom blanket, and have 60cm to go, so two more half days. It's slow, and one warp keeps breaking though it's not tangled or tight or in any way strange but luckily it's on the top layer. Other than that, it's slow but pleasurable.

A Day in The Life of Looms

All of my five hard-working babies. (Well, the eldest on a holiday for now.)
Around 10AM, 1/1/2010, Nelson, New Zealand, 41°18 0"S / 173°13'10"E.





Rose Pelvin, Blenheim, New Zealand; 10 minutes before the end of New Years Day!

More loom pics from:
Restless
Judy
Desirée
Cally
Sue in NH, USA
Evelyn
Dianne
Geodyne
Margreet
Sue in the UK
Holly
Theresa

To friendship, favorite tools, and things made by our own hands!

What's in a Name?

Well, a lot. Don't they make you want to have a peek or join the fun?

So this exchange/challenge in lieu of SSVE this year still hasn't got a name yet, and we now have exactly two months until your commitment emails are due. It's my mistake I called it an "exchange" but it's not; you get to keep it, or sell it or give it away, so it's more a "challenge". I'm happy to tell you I already have two commitments other than mine!

Names which have come my way, chronologically, have been:

From Pix/Pics to Picks
Pix2Picks
Creative Weavers Challenge
Weavers Creative Exchange
Inspiration By Mail
Weaving ExtrA Via Envelope
Weaving Excellence And Via Envelope
Woven Exhibit Arrives Via Envelope
Weavers Embellish A Volatile Expression
Woven Embellishments Attract Vixen Emotions
Wilted Explanation Aims Very Eccentric
You Inspire Me
Eye/Hand
Expected the Unexpected (I know this is a bit old, but I do like it...)
Exchange in Lieu of SSVE - E(I)L(O)S (I hope not!!)

Anything else? I thought I'd like to put it to a vote, but before I make a poll, I'd like to hear from you if you have more, or a particularly strong opinion on one or another, or our general direction.

Thank you!