RESISTANCE TO DOING THE WORK

Posted by Peg in South Carolina 

There is a saying that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.  The teacher for me has taken the form of a book.   The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.  There is a subtitle, but I hate it.

ABOUT TO HIT THE WALL

I started reading the book this morning.  I have been reading the first part:  “Resistance: Defining the Enemy.”  All at once, my mind started working.  The timing of my back issues.  Yes, it gets me attention.   Do I need attention?  But the timing, it all started getting serious as I was getting into some really hard stuff in terms of crackle design.  I was getting ready to hit a wall.  I could see it.  I could actually feel the wall getting closer and closer.

The wall spelled the end of the easy stuff in the Crackle-Draft-A-Day Project.  The end, actually, of actually being able to come up with a draft a day.  The beginning of the need to take time to think.  Not just play around with easy possibilities.  Those easy possibilities were vanishing quickly.  I was going to have to start to think.

Why did carpal tunnel syndrome suddenly start?   Because I was using the weaving software way too much.  Is there a message there?   I think so.  I was using the software as a substitute of doing the hard work of thinking and imagining.  Using the weaving software, as I was, was largely a technique of avoidance, of resistance.  The devil at work.  And so I was punished with carpal tunnel.

FACING THE RESISTANCE

I have something hard to face right now.  I can’t weave.  I can’t even thread the loom, because of my back issues.  That doesn’t mean I can’t confront the resistance. That doesn’t mean that my mind needs to stop working.

Pressfield asks:

What does Resistance feel like?

First, unhappiness.  We feel like hell.  A low-grade misery pervades everything.  We’re bored, we’re restless.  We can’t get no satisfaction.  There’s guilt but we can’t put our finger on the source…….We hate our lives. We hate ourselves.  (page. 31)

So then, he goes on, we want a drug, we want to go shopping, we want to surf the net endlessly.  Anything to escape.

Not a pretty picture.

But, instead of moping and feeling sorry for myself (and spending half my time on Amazon.com……..), I could actually work. 

When I have encountered resistance in the past, I have used a technique that worked for me.  I would figure out one very small thing that I could do.  It might take only 5 minutes, or even less.  And then I would make an appointment with myself—day and time.  Of course, now I am resisting doing that!

SINGING AS PART OF THE RESISTANCE?

The strange thing is that I have not encountered this resistance in my singing.  I continue to practice 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours a day.  I continue to make progress.  I continue to work very hard.  I have said to myself, at least my body allows me to do this.  And so, that makes it OK not to be engaged in weaving-related activities. 

But think about it.  Where I am at vocally is very much of a beginner.  Not so with weaving.  Resistance rarely makes itself felt for me at the beginning levels.  It only starts to manifest itself as I progress onto levels which require hard work, really hard work, original hard work.

I have turned my singing into a resistance to keep me from weaving!

Gosh, if there is anything I am good at, it is playing tricks on myself.

It is time to stop writing about this.  It is time to kick butt and move on.

Related Posts:

Resistance and Finding Time
Resistance

"Resistance to Doing the Work”  was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on March 30, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

CARPAL TUNNEL AND BACK ISSUES

 

Oh boy, have I been hit!  No blogging for me.  No weaving.  Not even knitting or spinning.

All of this caused primarily by my crackle-a-day project.  Beware weaving software.  To my knowledge, no possibilities for keyboarding.  It’s a mouse-heavy endeavor.  And was I ever mousing.  Click, click, click, for color color color, warp end, warp end, one after another, weft shot, weft shot one after the other.  And I had been doing this almost daily for close to three months.

Shoot.

I can use left hand for computer but I don’t want to overdo that hand either!   An ergonomic mouse is in the mail.

But I still have to nurse the shoulder and neck issues, as well, as the arm and hand issues caused by all this mousing.  Can’t even thread heddles without waking up at night in pain.

Reading, walking, heat, resting, singing (am studying voice and thank heaven I can still practice!).  At least I have one thing I absolutely love that I can do. I have had relapse after relapse for the past week or so because I have tried to cheat.  Today I finished winding a skein onto a cone.  Big—very big—mistake.   Sigh.

No more cheating.

8-SHAFT CRACKLE TREADLED ON OPPOSITES

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

Note that these treadles are not truly opposite sheds.  In every case, there is overlapping of shafts.  This means that there are some excessive warp floats.  And that means that tabbies need to be used.

Here is a better image of the reduced-size drawdown. 

That image shows with greater clarity the interrupted diagaonal in the bottom half of the image.  Some investigation is in order.

"8-Shaft Crackle Treadled on Opposites”  was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on March 16, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

S&W: ANOTHER WAY TO USE COLOR

Posted by Peg in South Carolina





To the right is a better image of the reduced sized draft.  Even so, this is not as good as others I have used.  I think that the highly contrasting red must create color rendition problems? 

Microsoft Publisher is clearly fine if I want to include a full-scale draft.  But the more I reduce the image, the more problematic the image becomes.  Even the actual colors are not the same.

I am looking into other publishing software programs……..

Related Post:    S&W Treadling and Color

"S&W: Another Way to Use ColorS&W: Another Way to Use Color was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on March 16, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

S&W TREADLING AND COLOR

Posted by Peg in South Carolina
 
IMAGE PROBLEMS WITH MICROSOFT PUBLISHER
It has become clear to me that Microsoft Publisher has a definite problem with images, or at least images created with weaving software.  Just below is the image on the right hand side of the above page, saved as a png file and brought into my blogging software (Windows Live Writer).  It looks perfectly fine--just like the JPEG files I bring into my blog.



I looked at Publisher to see if there was a way I could export images into its pages instead of copying and pasting.  The only thing I could find was an Insert picture function.  That is pretty much how I bring images into my blogging software.  But when I tried it with Publisher, there was only the slightest improvement in reproduction.

I do not have the latest version of Publisher, but when I checked, that version has a graphics manager which, from its description, sounded like it might handle my problem. But then I found this disclaimer:

If you want to insert a picture from another program, you can copy and paste it. The pasted picture might not appear the way you expected, but copying and pasting may be the best way to use a picture from a program that is not part of the 2007 Microsoft Office system. (Go here to read more).

Soo…..it looks like I live with the problem or find another program, a non-Microsoft program…….

Related Post:   More Summer and Winter Treadling

"S&W Treadling and Color” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on March 15, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

MORE SUMMER AND WINTER TREADLING

Posted by Peg in South Carolina 

 

Here, with all the blocks treadled, the twill diagonal is once again visible.

“More Summer and Winter Treadling” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on March 12, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

8-SHAFT CRACKLE TREADLED SUMMER AND WINTER

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

The image in the lower left-hand corner is simply a reduced version of the drawdown.  I included it because it gives a better idea of what it might look like woven as fabric.

Keep in mind that black is warp and white is weft.

Related Post:  Summer and Winter…and Crackle (of Course!)

“8-Shaft Crackle Treadled Summer and Winter” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on March 11, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

PROTECT YOUR BACK

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

Having just developed a bit of a back problem myself, I found this post, “Sit Up Straight” by Sara Haskell quite to the point! This particular back problem was not caused by weaving or any weaving-related activity. Rather, it was caused by a combination of things, including overstretching my buttocks and a really bad-for-my-back computer chair.

But because I know I have to be vigilant for possible back problems, I take everything Sara says very seriously.  I consider this a must-read and save for all weavers. Even if you think you will never ever have a back problem……….

Related Posts 
Ergonomics at the Loom
Shoulder Issues

“Protect Your Back” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on March 10, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

TROMP AS WRIT ALTERNATING COLORS

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

Related Post:  8-Shaft Crackle Treadled Tromp as Writ

 

“Tromp as Writ Alternating Colors” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on March 10, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

8-SHAFT CRACKLE TREADLED TROMP AS WRIT

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

Related Posts:  
6-Shaft Crackle Tromp as Writ 
Tromp as Writ

“8-Shaft Crackle Treadled Tromp as Writ” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on March 9, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

MORE 8-SHAFT CRACKLE COLOR PLAY

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

 

Related Post:   Color and Crackle Curves

“More 8-Shaft Crackle Color Play” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on March 8, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

CUTTING AND PASTING TO EXTEND THREADING

Posted by Peg in South Carolina 

I did the cutting and pasting in Microsoft Publisher, the software I have been using for this crackle journal.  It is not the best job of pasting but it might actually be useful for me to see exactly where the divisions are.

I can see cutting and pasting weaving drafts as a useful tool for designing complex threadings.  The technique could be done in any software that allows cutting and pasting as well as rotating and flipping of images.

Related Post:  Color and Crackle Curves

“Cutting and Pasting to Extend Threading” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on March 5, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

COLOR AND CRACKLE CURVES

Posted by Peg in South Carolina 

I had done some playing with color gradations in crackle earlier.  See my post, “Shading the Pattern Weft Yarns” for what I did there. I had liked playing with color gradating there, so I decided to try it here.  This is just a rough sketch.

 

If you go to the earlier post, you can see that I have become a bit more complex in my playing. 

“Color and Crackle Curves” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on March 4, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

BEAMED WARP

Posted by Peg in South Carolina 

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COLORS AND PHOTOGRAPHY

I have fussed and fussed, but no matter how many images I snapped, no matter how much playing with the software, nothing captures the “real” colors.  And I think that I now know why.  This is shiny soft silk and so the colors are continually changing according to the light.  I’m not just talking about things like florescent versus daylight.  I’m talking about the time of day and the angle of viewing as well.

In other lights the reds are more brown and the browns are more olive.  Those are what I have regarded as the “real” colors.  But, gosh darn, when I get up and look at that warp, these are the colors that are showing.

Whatever.

I was nevertheless so enraptured with the iridescent complexity of it that I thought for one brief moment about threading to a straight twill and weaving it off as a straight twill.  Well, if the crackle refuses to do what I want it to do, that is a definite possibility.

BREAKING THREADS

I did break some threads in the beaming process.  First time I have ever done this.  It took me awhile to realize what was going on.

On top of the loom I had positioned the 1” grouping raddle. (Go to the post “Using Two Raddles” to see what this was about.) Since I had made the actual warp in slightly less than 1” bouts, the bouts were split most of the time.  What was happening was that at the split, two warp ends, one one either side of the separating wire, would get caught and trapped.  So they tightened up and refused to budge so of course----snap!  

I think basically using that second raddle on the castle of the loom was an excellent idea.  But I have to make bouts that fit between the dividers when I do this again.

I’m not sure that I mended things correctly---there were three different breaks as I recall.  But things should work out anyway.

“Beamed Warp” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on March 3, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

DIAMONDS TO CURVES

Posted by Peg in South Carolina 

This started out as an attempt to see what would happen if I varied the number of treadles in the different treadling blocks.  I learned that I could create curves that way, something I had not anticipated.

I had played with varying the number of treadles in 4-shaft crackle, but certainly did not come up with anything like this.  Go to the post, 4-Shaft Crackle 01.12.10 to see what transpired there.

TABBIES

By the way, tabby is needed but not indicated.  It is needed because those long warp ends (the black threads) need to be tied down. 

Tying down the warp ends with tabbies will have another affect as well.  It will break up those narrow black/white bands so that they will look a bit more like plain weave.  Depending on the color and the fineness of the tabby wefts, they will also to some extend break up the pattern.  If I use tabbies the same color as the warp, the black pattern blocks will be little affected.   If I uses tabbies the same color as the weft, the white pattern blocks will be little affected.

 

“Diamonds to Curves” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on March 3, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

DIAMOND POSSIBILITIES COMPARED

Posted by Peg in South Carolina 

 

Who would ever have thought that more than four shafts could be a disadvantage in designing?!

 

“Diamond Possibilities Compared” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on March 2, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

HEATING THE WATER IN ACID DYEING

Posted by Peg in South Carolina



LANASET/SABRASET DYES
The dyes I use for silk (and wool) are Lanaset dyes, also called Sabraset dyes.  These dyes, technically, are not acid dyes at all. But they do use acid for their dyeing agent and they do function much like acid dyes.  Among professional dyes these are considered to be the best dyes for silk and wool because of their brilliant color, their ability to dye fiber evenly, and because of their light fastness. So, for all practical purposes, they are considered an acid dye.
 
I have been dyeing the needed warp yarn along with more weft yarn.  All in all, I had 4 skeins in quart Mason jars divided between two stock pots of hot water.

RAISING THE WATER TEMPERATURE
One of the pots was wider than the others.  And the pots had differing amounts of mason jars in them.  The problem in this situation, for me, is how to keep the water slowly raising, in both pots, from 120 degrees to 180-plus degrees over the period of one hour, a process required by the Lanaset/Sabraset dyes.

The particular problem here is that with the two different size pots and the differing number of jars, it is difficult to get the water in the two pots to rise in temperature at the same rate. 

There are other variables as well.  The two burners, though the largest on my stove, are slightly different in the strength of heat they produce.  And, while both stocks are (cheap) stainless steel, they are probably slightly different in such things as thickness.

I do use a gas stove, by the way.  I used to be stuck with an electric range.  I liked it neither for cooking nor dyeing.  A gas range is much much easier to regulate for both cooking and dyeing.
The ideal rate for the temperature to rise is one degree per minute, but I am not overly obsessive about this.  I simply use it as a guide.

But what I did learn today is that once the water in the pot (not in the mason jars) gets to just below a simmer, it is not hard to keep the temperature rising at the same time.
I measure the temperature, by the way, with a thermometer placed on one of the mason jars, one in each pot.

MAINTAINING THE WATER TEMPERATURE
There is other tricky part. After the first hour is up and the water has been raised to 180+ degrees, I need to keep the water at that temperature degrees for the next hour.  If I have done a good job at slowly raising the water, usually where the burner dial is set at the end of the first hour will do the job, though for the first ten minutes I check it frequently.  After that, unless I have done a really really rotten job(!), I can pretty much just let the pots sit and go about the rest of my life.

Related Posts: 
Dyeing the Skein
My Warping Board Eats Yarn

“Heating the Water in Acid Dyeing” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on March 1, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

ANOTHER OVERSHOT TREADLING

Posted by Peg in South Carolina 

 

“Another Overshot Treadling” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on March 1, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.