The Elin towels from my last post were fully finished by the start of June. This was the last daylight they have seen!
Four handwoven Elin towels – cottolin; 8-shaft broken twill
The gaps in attending to weaving, writing, and the old craft approaches have been wearing on me. This cliché assumption all spinners hear now has hit a new chord:
You must be very patient!
My stock response of no and pivoting to the true family trait of stubbornness no longer sounds even technically correct. There is a new need to cultivate patience. Life is catching me behind my natural pace for new skills and challenge projects.
Hemmed 2 months after weaving
In between cutting this warp from the loom, and finishing steps, I learned that a good acquaintance who lives near to us was seriously ill. We were high school friends, and she had moved to Canada before we did. Even with overlaps in circles at home, I only realized at the end of April that she had been in hospital for most of winter. This arc of being able to rise to the occasion has been fulfilling in many ways. It has also shown the upper-limit of my time and energy is not that far from resting state.
With the new awareness of how slim my margins truly are (as opposed to wishful thinking), I will focus on sustaining my home practice. This meant answering with a no thank you for a teaching opportunity. It’s a new and frankly unexpected patience.
Teaching T to spin with an Andean Pushka!
It has meant that I could participate in the Tour de Fleece even as it crossed both of our mothers visiting this summer. The guest bed does close my loom… Patience is a virtue, right? That too passed, and the Mighty Wolf breathes again. This dug into my brain a little – spring sampling and all – and is a set of 2 rosepath combination twill baby blankets from a 5 yard warp.
Colour and weave (and treadling mistake) rosepath plus in 8/4 cotton
This is the first with the entered colours reversed as weft. It is a 14-thread repeat, and was a joy to weave. I used a new Leclerc temple, and have Beam me Up Scotties finally on the cloth beam. Black lacing is banished forever!
As patience has its limits, I also bought an electric bobbin winder that I used in weaving the 2nd blanket on this warp.
Time for this post is slipping away, and I best get to the cotton spins. They are the very soul of a patience I never had. Good thing that I am both stubborn and thrilled to have something meditative for these nights after navigating the unseen special needs of our home life.
Atoni rosewood spindle with brown cotton; Takhli with Egyptian cotton slyver; African bead whorl with Egyptian cotton puni
The state of these 3 cotton spins has moved since this June 21st picture albeit slowly. The Rosewood spindle of the Atoni people, East Timor has not changed much & should be wound-off. The takhli has a 2-year spin of Egyptian cotton top that sits as singles today:
Hard won 50g of Egyptian cotton top in singles balls
The loose goal is to perhaps use these as weft singles.
Pima seeds and singles ball, brown cotton on Atoni spindle, Egyptian cotton puni on African bead whorl
The goals are even more loose with these. It starts as ideas to spin with new tools, and I let it lead me. These are closer to my new pace but also to hearing our friend’s advice to parent for the long haul. None is overblown – we are going to do well if we can. This summer it meant 1 short day-camp, 2 house guests, no break from the home, and hitting our prime family outings. Much like blog posting was left undone. I am trying to embrace both WIPs and the progress that lives in them.
As tiring as this phase has been on different levels it is helping so much. We can see new things are possible, and add them as we can. It’s not just short, silly projects as I feared. It’s also not going at my own way and pace.
End of summer blooms!
