Quick catch up

I know it’s been a while and I wanted to do a catch up post, but it’s got to be quick because I’ve too many things on my must-do-today list. Let’s start with this.

I don’t know who Larry is, and Jack doesn’t look anything like this (he’s a little mixed breed Lhasa), but he ABSOLUTELY agrees with the sentiment!

One of my must-dos is to give Jack a haircut. He got a bath yesterday in preparation. I used to take him to the groomer, but stopped doing that even before the pandemic hit. Jack really hates the groomer – or being groomed, and although he usually looks quite, um, silly after I cut his hair with scissors, it makes both of us feel better, so I do it.

I continue to have fun with sourdough. I’m definitely getting better at the process, and feel like I can now consistently turn out a beautiful loaf.

I made this one yesterday, and other than eating a heel (always my favorite part of any loaf), I sliced the rest of it and put it in my freezer. A slice or two in the morning is just right.

I also made a batch of sugar scrub. It’s the time of year that oranges are plentiful in the store, so I grated some orange rind and put that, along with some orange oil and cinnamon oil in the standard sugar scrub recipe. I could eat this with a spoon!

Yesterday I started on a project that will take many days to complete. I took my 36 towels in stock, removed their tags, put each through my steam press (thanks again for the trade, Kathy!), and photographed. A lot. 121 shots, to be exact. Photographs in groups and solo. Close up and showing the whole towel. Photos with props to make them more enticing. Then I had to put the tags back on, so organization throughout the process was important.

Then I did the work – MANY minutes, probably more than 120 – of uploading three batches onto my Etsy page. I’ll do another batch or two today – I think to have any hopes of coming up in searches it’s important to post regularly. That ‘truth’ was years ago and things may have changed dramatically since then. I was inspired by another weaver in our Guild who wove and sold more than 800 towels in 2020! Obviously all online! Just to do that math for you, that means she wove, finished, photographed, and sold an average of 15 towels per week, every week! All with hand and foot power! She’s doing a Zoom presentation for us later this month to share how she did that.

The towels were actually easy, compared to scarves and shawls. At least the photography was. I used a bit of my lovely hardwood floor for the background. It’s important to have multiple shots of every item. And I have no solid white/cream wall in my house to use as a background for wearables. Laying my mannequin on the floor? That won’t work; the drape would be all wrong. So I’ll have to try to figure out something that doesn’t cause me to have to do a ton of editing in Photoshop. (1) I’m not good at it and (2) it takes a long time, adding HOURS to the whole process.

I’ve been cogitating on this puzzle for well over a month, and haven’t come up with any creative solutions yet. So I’ll get the towels up. One step at a time. Put one foot in front of the other, at least figuratively.

I took a 3-day online weaving workshop from Denise Kovnat. I’ve taken a few from her before and always learn stuff, but this one? Over the top in terms of learning for me! This was One Warp, Many Structures. And yes, I learned stuff about that. But I also learned a lot about how to make Fiberworks, my weaving software, do a lot of heavy lifting for me. And about color. And finally understood what network drafting is and how to do it. I think I wove 20 samples for that class. And changed tie ups at least 6 times. And resleyed twice. And rethreaded once. So lots of work, and SO worth it!

When I got that off the loom I finally beamed a warp I painted back in October onto the loom. I’m loving the colors, but don’t have a photo to share yet.

And last night I spent roughly 3 hours online, but again, totally worth it – I have an appointment to get a COVID vaccine – March 2!

And today, in just over an hour, I teach my first online class in making a yarn button. I’m offering the same class twice, 8 people per class since we’ll be making the button together – in our own homes, of course. Both classes filled.

I know I’ve made more than a dozen samples for this class, as well as all the other prep. But I’ve got to run now and do the final preparation. Make sure all the technology is working, lighting, etc. As they say in Britain, ta ta!