Okay, so after tax season normally comes a period of catching up on everything which was not done during tax season. I try to keep things organized during tax season - this year I had a folder next to my desk with paperwork that needed to be done - including some things which were half done and needed to be followed up on. Last week when I posted I had started that work and expected to go quickly through it. Then I was sidelined - by my husband and his loom.
Normally when husband starts a new weaving project on his loom, I help him get the project set up. I see detail easier than he does and I don’t get dizzy bending over. I don’t mind the time it takes as once it is set up he will be happy weaving for some days. This time he was doing a new type of project. It has a much more detailed setup - we have never done this setup before or seen it done and he was relying on books and web information to do so.
While this is not a weaving or craft site, a bit of information is needed to follow what I am talking about, so bear with me and you will have a rudimentary knowledge of weaving. His loom is different than those huge ones you have probably seen at historic buildings and craft fairs. It is much smaller - the width thing it can weave is about 30 inches wide. It also does not have all those strings hanging down with the threads/yarns going through them. Those strings are moved by pedals to raise the strings in various groupings to make differing patterns in the weaving. His loom has a panel that is plastic pieces between a top and bottom piece of wood to hold them together. The strings are called a heddle. What he has is called a rigid heddle. His heddle has alternating holes and slots - slots go from top to bottom of the heddle. Threads alternately go through a hole, then a slot. When the heddle is moved up and down the threads in the holes will be moved up and down alternately and that is how one can slide the weaving yarn/thread through to weave. There are different sizes/spaced heddles for different thickness of threads. The threads that go through the heddle (that go straight ahead and are what are woven through, are called the warp - I set this in my head by remembering “warp speed ahead”). The threads that weave through the warp is called weft. When we set up the loom we are “warping” it and putting on the warp threads.
Since his loom is narrow side to side, there is a way to warp to make double width fabric. It needs a second heddle that matches the first one on the loom. He got a second one for the most common size heddle he uses last Christmas and was ready to try it out. Understand, one is not adding to the sides of the loom, one is (somehow) weaving an upper and lower weaving that is actually one piece when it is finished.
So last Thursday we started setting up the loom for him to try this. At my suggestion he was not warping the entire loom and making a large 60" piece of fabric, but just doing an 8" wide piece, which would double to 16". We tried to follow the directions - we ended up taking the yarn off the loom twice and starting over. And then took it off again at the end of Thursday.
Friday we did the same - we finally decided it was on correctly and he tried to start weaving. The threads were too thick to pass each other in the slots (remember the slots?). He also decided that the threads were twisted around each other. So we again took it apart. Luckily he does not use expensive yarn as we had to toss it out - again.
Saturday he bought different thread that was thinner and stretched thinner when pulled. (Sunday we were out at an event from our reenactment unit.) Monday we warped the loom. We had questions about which of the 4 threads passing through each set of holes/slots went in which (remember we have two heddles so there are 2 holes to go through and 2 slots and out of each group of 4 threads, one goes through the hole in one heddle, while the other three go through one slot. Then one of the threads that went through the slot, goes through the hole in the other heddle and the other threads go through slots - one to the left and two to the right. But which ones go through which slots to make the colors correct? So we stopped and overnight he posted the question. He received a reply and Tuesday we finished “warping” the loom. Today (Wednesday) we fixed some threads that crossed over each other and should not. With some trouble starting, he now is weaving it! The colors are not how he wanted them, but if it works and he ever does this again, we will know how to adjust them.
So everything I planned to do this week to catch up had to be greatly condensed. We put our money as we receive it into a savings account and I transfer what we need into our checking account. I needed to plan out what to transfer last Friday for the coming week on Thursday night and pay some bills. I ended up doing so at 1 am. (Okay, I am also writing post at 1 am as we are still up, but I like to relax a bit this time of night.) All week every time I thought I would do something - or could catch up - we were working on warping the loom. I would go upstairs as he would think he was done, only to be called back down. He knows I have things to do and will try to do things on his own. I came downstairs for something I had forgotten and saw him leaning over the loom - knowing him, about to get ill. “Why didn’t you call me?” “I don’t want to keep bothering you.”
I write the monthly newsletter for my embroidery chapter. It goes out once a month - a week before the meeting. That means it gets emailed out tonight. (Okay, I consider that it is still Wednesday, but technically it is Thursday am.) I try to write it a little at a time over the week, but did not have a chance to do this due to the ongoing warping and unwarping of the loom. So tonight - after emailing some attachments I forgot for my friend’s tax return to her so she could attach them, I first started writing the newsletter. I managed to get that finished and out - 3 different versions of it - one for members, one for the other chapters in our region, and one for potential members. It only took about 3 hours until 12:30 am.
Then I came down here to write my post for this week. I started my laptop - it starts, loads and runs very slowly - and ran to the basement to throw in a load of clothing laundry. I then started writing this post. I just switched the loads of laundry so one is washing and one is drying. The laundry will not be put away until Friday or Saturday as tomorrow (okay, technically today) I am going to a client to do her books.
So, this has been a week of warping and unwarping the loom. Lots of frustration and swearing. Little done that should have been done - another week of “Do the bare minimum and put the rest aside until next week”
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK - Sometimes it is better and more necessary to help someone (especially a loved one) to do something even if it wastes lots of one time.
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