Weaving A Gem Of A Life

Follow up

I really do like the way that JM’s warp looked and felt after wet finishing and pressing, too. The texture is still really obvious.

When I pulled this wrap out of the dryer I was surprised. I don’t usually look much at the ‘wrong’ side of the warp when I weave. For most of my work the front & back are very similar, and I focus on the side I see so that I can notice any weaving errors as I work.

Well. The two sides of this weave pattern are quite different. The colors are so much more intense on the ‘other’ side of this wrap.

I saw the light side while I was weaving, but decided that the dark side was the side I’d make be the front when I hemmed. Those colors look great. Add the texture and it’s a winner, IMHO.

JM has been a sweetheart. I’ve mailed it to her and she thinks she can wrap with it; if not she’s going to make it into a sling ring.

So I jumped right back on that horse and wound the warp for my next two wraps – MG & TA. I can’t tell you how many times I counted the number of winds around that warping mill – many, many!

I put my head down and got the warp beamed, heddles and reed threaded, and I now have about 18 inches woven.

I really like the color progression. From left to right they are mauve, pale mauve, magenta, fuchsia, and salmon. I haven’t used the salmon before, and I’m impressed with how well it plays with the fucshia. Salmon isn’t always a color that appeals to me, but Brassard’s salmon is a lovely color.

Textures

Let me start by saying that I love my baby mamas. Working with the young women who order custom handwoven baby wraps from me is a real joy. They are overwhelmingly happy, agreeable women who communicate well and are easy to get along with. JM is no exception.

She’s getting the sister wrap to MY. JM chose a natural weft in a weave pattern I haven’t used before. That’s always enjoyable to me, to get to treadle something different, to watch the pattern emerge as I throw the shuttle and beat the weft in place.

I knew that the pattern wouldn’t be as distinct as the hearts, it would let the colors be the stars of the show.

What I didn’t know was how much texture this pattern would provide. I really like that!

I can’t wait to see if this changes after wet finishing and pressing.

Anyway, I’m happily weaving along on this wrap, I get to about the half way point, and UH-OH! I can see the end of my warp! That’s MOST DEFINITELY NOT GOOD! I take measurements, I go back to my original worksheet for warp measurements, I fret, I fuss, I email JM to give her the bad news. I tell her I can sell her a shorter piece for a ring sling or I can re-weave. I’m really crazy mad, ‘cuz I can’t figure out how this happened! And I’m tired of having to re-weave because of some stupid mistake I made!

JM replies quickly and tells me it’ll likely be okay. Whew! She’s been on my list for her own custom, and although that’s some months away, she can most likely deal with a substantially-shorter-than-ordered wrap.

So I weave every single inch that I can on this warp.

I hate weaving this close to the end of a warp…the shed is small, threads stick, it’s hard. So I usually make sure I have plenty of extra warp length. How DID this happen? If I can’t figure that out I can’t avoid repeating this awful mistake.

I cut the wraps off the loom and hem them immediately. Then I take some measurements. Although I doubted it, I was sort of hoping that I’m made measurement errors in the first wrap (MY’s), weaving much more length than I was supposed to.

Nope, it was just what it should have been. I measure the second wrap (JM’s) – I’m about 45″ short! Then I go to the loom and estimate how much extra length I usually have for my baby wraps. It’s about another 45″.

Ohhhhh…the light bulb goes off. Clearly I made one less turn around my warping mill than I should have. That’d give me 96″ less than I should have. I’ve never done THAT before; aren’t I great at making new mistakes all the time?! While I hate that I made that huge error, I’m glad it’s clear what I did. I know myself well enough to know that when I make a big mistake, it’s quite UNlikely I’ll make it again. I will pay plenty of attention to avoid it. At least for a few years.

The wraps have now been through the washer and are in the dryer. I’ll measure them when they come out and let JM know the length. I hope it’s not too short for her.

Shall We Rant?

I don’t think I’ve ever bad mouthed a product publicly before. I’m going to now. Shame on you, Intuit, for QuickBooks Online.

Let me start by saying that I’m not against the entire product line, just one aspect. For more than a decade I used QuickBooks for Windows, which I like. For a bit less time than that I’ve used QuickBooks for Mac. Although everything doesn’t work quite as well as in the Windows version, QuickBooks for Mac is a fine program.

Then there’s QuickBooks Online (QBO). BOO! I do some subcontracting work for a local business and picked this up as another job for them. I started using it about a year ago. YUCK!! Ok, I admit, it’s not helped by the fact that I have a not-very-new Mac; QBO doesn’t really like my 10.6.8 operating system, and I’m not inclined to upgrade to the new OS because I’d have to upgrade all my software, too – a costly proposal. This is compounded by the fact that I have satellite internet, my only option. No matter what speed you have on the satellite it’s slower than the same speed on cable modem or via phone lines. It is what it is.

Still, I’m used to working with my Mac and my internet speed. Until I get to QBO. S….L….O….W.

And Intuit has chosen to make the 3 versions of QuickBooks NOT be compatible. So it’s not like I could work in QB on my Mac and then just upload to QBO. In fact, the way they laid out QBO is dramatically different than the layout of the other 2 versions. Even the terminology is different, for cripes sake! Plus, in the Windows & Mac versions you can have several QB windows open at once – Reports and Deposits, for instance. Not online! One window at a time, further slowing things down.

Worst of all, though, is the fact that with an online program you have no control over upgrades. When the company wants to do an upgrade, they do, and you can’t choose to stay with your old version. In my personal opinion, QBO’s upgrades are similar to Facebook’s upgrades; things that used to be easy no longer are. (That’s just one of the reasons I’ve consciously avoided having a Facebook page for years.)

Yesterday was the last straw for me. I spent a full hour poking through their decidedly unhelpful help screens (they used to be helpful but no more) trying to figure out how to do something that used to be very easy, accomplished with a simple mouse click. In the end I couldn’t do it. At all.

I decided the frustration was not worth the contract amount, and told the company I work for that I’m ending that specific piece of our relationship. I won’t beat my head against that particular brick wall any more. I didn’t want to leave the company in the lurch so I did provide the name & contact info of someone who may be interested, in case the company doesn’t already have someone in mind.

After spending a total of 3.5 hours doing what would have taken me a max of 45 minutes in QuickBooks for either Windows or Mac, I couldn’t WAIT to get back to my loom – you’ll see my baby wrap progress tomorrow!

Baby (W)rappin’

Since I came back from the show this past weekend I’ve been weaving like mad. I feel behind schedule with my handwoven baby wraps. I wanted to make quick progress on MY & JM’s wraps. In between grocery shopping, laundry, giving the dog a haircut and bath, & other miscellaneous tasks, I’ve managed to get about 3/4 of MY’s woven. I’m hoping to finish it today and start on JM’s.

I have the yarn in house for 2 more wraps. I also need to weave another 2 dozen bookmarks (sold that many last weekend), a bunch of towels (they’re gaining in popularity), more silk shawls (I sold the 3 I had), a special order silk scarf (I’ll warp for 3), a custom rayon chenille scarf (I’ll warp for at least 2), and sew more of my bags for sales, all the while staying on top of my custom baby wraps. Are you tired yet?

Fortunately, the bookmarks, towels, and shawls don’t need to be done till mid-November. I won’t want to wait till the last minute, so I’ll stick them in between my baby wraps when I can.

Community Weaving Installed

I spent last night tying off the remaining student squares so that I could at least begin the installation of the community weaving project today. I had no idea how long it would take. The answer to that question was about 3 hours on site, plus all my prep work.

Who cares? I’m really happy with the finished product.

First, with a suggestion from my Fiberarts Guild, (thanks, ladies!) I strung the students squares like prayer flags and hung them between the Library sign and the building. Here are the first 2 rows – a total of 135 squares here.

I still had 55 squares to go, and I couldn’t fit them here. I didn’t want to add any hooks or other hardware to the Library exterior, so I tried using a tree for one end and the flagpole holder for the other. Although that worked, I knew that the flag hitting the line every time the wind blew would not be good for either the flag or my cotton line. So I decided to put a cable staple into the corner of the building and anchored the third line to it. Here you can see all 3 lines of the little flags.

Then I had to hang the 3 banners, 1 woven at each of the concerts we held. Before I left home I had tied the banners to bamboo poles, already well weathered so they’d blend in with the trees I planned to hang them from.

They move so easily in the breeze.

I tried to capture all the weaving at once — not an easy task.

One of the goals of the project was to see if the musical genre (string quartet, rock & roll, African drums) had an impact on the colors or textures people chose to weave with. For my project, I think the answer is no, but I think that’s because only 1 or 2 people had ever woven on a loom before, so everything about it was new to them. They were focused on learning the craft, not on the music.

Doesn’t matter, it was a success for introducing weaving and getting community involvement. All that’s left now is the paperwork.

Weaving A Gem Of A Life

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