The Best Intentions...

Nothing really ever goes as planned, even for those of us with extraordinary planning genes and uber Type A personalities. Thus, the joke is always on me.

2020 is supposed to be the year of self-care; however, my calendar is now booked through most of March, literally every weekend.

I am not quite sure what happened, but it is all good, albeit incredibly busy.

No quiet weekends for me for a while to do as I please around the house and studio, puttering to my heart's content.

When my children were younger, my time was never my own.

It has been a year now, since the younger daughter left for college. She is doing amazingly well, and we could not be more proud of her.

The older daughter has been on her own for a while now. She and her intended are engaged and saving their money for a wedding. We are so proud of her, as well.

We have been so lucky with our kids.

The empty nest has agreed with us. The transition was smooth, as we worked diligently to prepare both girls to be independent and trust their wings.

Of course, we miss them, but it is nice to focus on us, once again.

Fortunately, I still really like the handsome husband. More so, I am grateful he still really likes me, too!

Despite my hermit ways, I find the joy and passion I have for weaving forces me outside my comfort zone to engage others in the craft and encourage them along, all the while learning new things with them.

Without any real intent, my network of weavers has grown. This has become most evident in the latest round of loom acquisitions and swapping.

Two or three years ago, one of my closest friends walked in one afternoon and after a couple of years of insisting she did not want to weave, announced she wanted to weave. It was a glorious day!

I had two floor looms at that time: the 56" Macomber Beast and a 36" Leclerc Nilus.

I put her on the Leclerc and within an hour she stated: "I want this loom."

One thing led to another, and her husband arrived to fetch it home for her.

She named her Claire, and they spent many hours weaving miles and miles of thread together.

At the end of last summer, a 40" 8-harness Macomber became available in Arizona at an excellent price.

My friend and her husband were driving back to Texas from Colorado, made a detour, and picked it up.

While her love for Claire was undiminished, I suspect the Macomber was an eye-opening experience for her.

First, it was 8-shaft. Second, she is a production weaver. The rear-hinges are easier on the joints when weaving for hours and hours at a time. Third, it is built like a semi-truck, but handles smoothly and with ease, much like the Camero she drives.

Earlier this month, another 40" Macomber became available in Gallup, New Mexico for a decent price, although it was a 4-harness (which is upgrade-able to 10-harness).

The loom was literally 900 miles away, one way.

While not without its challenges, the loom and everyone associated with collecting her, all made it home safely.

Between the purchase of the Gallup loom to bringing her home, it became clear Claire needed to find a new home.

Last April, another sweet friend of mine in Houston was interested in learning to weave.

I had purchased a second 32" Macomber in February, which yet another friend in the Hill Country wanted to buy from me. She had a nice Schacht 25" 8-shaft table loom with stand.

The Houston friend bought the Schacht to learn to weave on, which allowed the Hill Country friend to purchase the 32" Macomber.

Now, the Houston friend has a 24" Macomber (Baby Mac) with 8-shafts AND the Schacht. She was interested in Claire, as neither of her existing looms is a regular, full-sized floor loom.

A deal was struck, and Claire is scheduled to travel to Houston on Saturday.

In the meantime, I made friends with a lovely lady in Austin, proprietor of Thread and Meadow.

The Austin lady has been doing amazing things on her rigid heddle loom. She came down a couple of weeks ago to play with my floor looms. I suspect she fell in love with the 24" 8-harness Macomber because she had overshot on her, and they got along beautifully.

I mentioned to her that if she were interested in a table loom with 8 shafts, I thought I knew of one that may be available. I put her contact with the Houston friend.

When we deliver Claire to Houston on Saturday, we will pick up the Schacht. My Austin friend will come over on Sunday. We will warp the Schacht for her and send them on their way.

Whew.

Did you get all that?

It does not matter, just know there has been a lot of communication and discussion going on about looms and who needs/wants what.

While a good bit of effort to facilitate the goings on, it has been a joy. These are all great looms, and each one satisfies a specific need for each of these weavers.

With my weekends devoted to other things for the next several weeks, I have been floundering a bit, trying to figure out how to balance the work life, my obligations to others, and what I want and need to do for myself.

Again, 2020 is supposed to be the year of self-care.

I have several wonderful things on the looms right now with the queue chomping at the bit.

Speaking of overshot, I dressed the Beast with 100% wool.

This is fingering weight wool in natural for the warp. The weft is also wool: Malabrigo Rios in Cumparista:

This view is from the back of the loom once the heddles were threaded and the reed sleyed, but before I lashed onto the cloth apron.

In no time, I had this!

However, below is what the pattern is supposed to look like, which means, it was a sinking shed tie up, and my loom is a rising shed.

One of these days, I may actually be able to figure how to tell the difference on the draft and BEFORE I do the tie ups and begin weaving. (eye roll)

The back of the fabric looks just like this! (Again, the joke is on me!)

I am almost done with a ten yard run of gradient red and blue on Lil Miss:

The overshot towels on Meg are languishing. I love the results, but it just takes longer to weave than anything else I am working on, and I have simply not had the time to commit to her lately.

Sadly, this is the first of eight towels on Meg...

I am dying to free up a loom, and it looks as though that will be Lil Miss rather soon-ish. 

To prepare her next warp, I have this ready:

Yep! I am getting ready to dip my toes into the cotton dyeing pool. I CANNOT WAIT!

In fact, as I have no weekends to devote to this, I have decided I need to become more judicious of my weekday time. 

My usual work day is from 6:30 am to 3:00 pm; however, I work from 6:30 to 6:00 on a fairly regular basis, which is great for work related tasks; but leaves me a bit fried after 6:00 pm for recreational pursuits. 

This means I need to temper the drive to work after the regular eight-hour day.

I also need to take a breath before I rush to commit myself to any more things. The desire to help, especially those I love, is great, but I need to remember I must take care of me first. That is the hard part. 

Lastly, the photos at the top are of a couple of grey warps I have fallen in love with!

The lighter one is for my Austin friend to go on her new Schacht. She wanted to jump right in and play with patterns, and the grey gives her the perfect background on which to do just that. It is 10/2 cotton with a sett of 24. 

My dear friend with the Macomber from New Mexico loved that grey warp; however, when I got ready to make one for her, I realized she only has a 10-dent reed, which dictates a sett of 20. 8/2 cotton would work better with a sett of 20 on that 10-dent reed. The only grey I had in 8/2 was a darker one. 

I think they are both gorgeous!