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Season of challenges
Feb. 16th, 2007 10:04 pmThey say in order to improve yourself you have to push the edges of what you can do.
This winter seems to be doing that very well. Dealing with frozen water lines so that we are hauling 40 gallons (320 pounds) of water from the house every day is a physical challenge. Paying for the needed repairs is going to be a financial challenge. Managing the realignment of our consortial responsibilities at work has been a mental and sometimes emotional challenge.
Not only those, but the handspinning study group in which I participate has pushed me to spin finer, smoother yarn or thread than ever before, using fibers I've never handled, and even with drop spindles rather than the spinning wheel.
In my weaving study group, we are designing whole garments starting from just the thread. We have to design the cloth, design the garment, figure out how much fabric is needed, then weave the fabric ourselves before cutting and sewing the final project. I'm up to the weaving part, and have my warp on the loom now. Tonight I started weaving. This fabric is 38 inches wide, the widest I've ever tried to work in a single piece. The thread count is 32 per inch, not quite the densest I've ever done but close to it. There were over 600 warp threads to be measured, cut, and threaded on the loom, and there will be six yards of fabric to be woven. That will take 3,888 passes of the shuttle. The total length of the threads used in the fabric is about 4.75 miles. The fiber is cottolin, a blend of cotton and linen that doesn't have the best reputation for ease in weaving, but does produce a nice finished result. Definitely the largest weaving challenge I've ever undertaken in the 18 or so years I've been doing this.
I've discovered tonight that throwing a heavy shuttle with your fingertips so that it travels in a straight line for 40 inches is not a simple task. However, I'll learn. There were no errors in the threading at least. The first six inches of fabric are woven and everything lines up as it should. So far, so good...
[Edit: Actually, I should give metrics for the convenience of those not very familiar with US-centric measurements. So 40 gallons of water would be about 180 liters, and weigh 145 kilograms. The fabric on the loom is 97 centimeters wide and will be just under 6 meters long when finished. The length of the thread used will be 7.75 kilometers, and it will be packed together so that you would count 13 threads on a one centimeter line running diagonally over the cloth.]
This winter seems to be doing that very well. Dealing with frozen water lines so that we are hauling 40 gallons (320 pounds) of water from the house every day is a physical challenge. Paying for the needed repairs is going to be a financial challenge. Managing the realignment of our consortial responsibilities at work has been a mental and sometimes emotional challenge.
Not only those, but the handspinning study group in which I participate has pushed me to spin finer, smoother yarn or thread than ever before, using fibers I've never handled, and even with drop spindles rather than the spinning wheel.
In my weaving study group, we are designing whole garments starting from just the thread. We have to design the cloth, design the garment, figure out how much fabric is needed, then weave the fabric ourselves before cutting and sewing the final project. I'm up to the weaving part, and have my warp on the loom now. Tonight I started weaving. This fabric is 38 inches wide, the widest I've ever tried to work in a single piece. The thread count is 32 per inch, not quite the densest I've ever done but close to it. There were over 600 warp threads to be measured, cut, and threaded on the loom, and there will be six yards of fabric to be woven. That will take 3,888 passes of the shuttle. The total length of the threads used in the fabric is about 4.75 miles. The fiber is cottolin, a blend of cotton and linen that doesn't have the best reputation for ease in weaving, but does produce a nice finished result. Definitely the largest weaving challenge I've ever undertaken in the 18 or so years I've been doing this.
I've discovered tonight that throwing a heavy shuttle with your fingertips so that it travels in a straight line for 40 inches is not a simple task. However, I'll learn. There were no errors in the threading at least. The first six inches of fabric are woven and everything lines up as it should. So far, so good...
[Edit: Actually, I should give metrics for the convenience of those not very familiar with US-centric measurements. So 40 gallons of water would be about 180 liters, and weigh 145 kilograms. The fabric on the loom is 97 centimeters wide and will be just under 6 meters long when finished. The length of the thread used will be 7.75 kilometers, and it will be packed together so that you would count 13 threads on a one centimeter line running diagonally over the cloth.]
