Warping and Wolfing

I warped on Saturday! 


I'd been feeling so funked out about my numb arm, but it's somewhat better, and I need to weave!


I started warping the parallel-threaded twill sash late on Saturday.  It's wonderful to be in the garage now that it's been cleaned up some, and there's plenty of room for my AVL Warping Wheel now.  This is the finest silk warp I've wound on the WW; it was a bit of an adjustment.  It's not like 60/2 is all that gossamer-fine, but there's a learning curve with the WW.  I'm about halfway done with the warping/winding on.  Hopefully I'll feel energetic enough this evening, though it was a busy weekend.  (fun busy, not annoying busy...)


A weaving friend got me a bunch of copies of Weaver's magazine, which I started poring over last night sitting up in bed.  Too bad it's no longer in publication.  My friend had told me that they were great magazines, and they are...!  While I subscribe to several weaving periodicals, I have recently noticed that one of them - which used to be pretty good - has been 'dumbed down' and is no longer even a good or interesting read; most of the projects are simple and rudimentary - many of them with colorways I would not go near.  Mostly, though, I dislike it that so many of the projects they feature involve buying a pre-made kit.  Some people like the kits, and it's not like kits are morally wrong or anything like that, but there's something about kits that bugs me.  I did once successfully assemble a clavichord kit, which was fun, but the second time I built an instrument I wanted to make it from scratch, and I enjoyed the process so much more. 

Something for everyone, I guess.  But Weaver's magazine was pretty awesome. 


Wolf Hall (the Masterpiece Theatre series based on the book of that name) has come available on Amazon Prime, which we have.  Previously it was quite expensive to view after the initial screening on Masterpiece Theatre.  Seeing it the second time has been delightful.  David Starkey, whom I nevertheless esteem greatly, may take umbrage at Hillary Mantel's departures from the historical record, but it's nothing like the parti-fiction of The Tudors (again, which I adore).  What Mantel does do, which David Starkey cannot seem to be able to do, is to somehow recreate the creepy sense of being proximate to royalty and being subject to its whims; there is a real kernel of fear in that world, underlying everything.  We have the luxury of being able to pore over the tale of Henry VIII and his distinctive period from the relative safety of the modern world, far removed from his influence; but back in the day, it must have been at least slightly frightening on the best of days.  Imagine living in a country ruled by a wealthy, willful egotist who had monstrous mood swings, and whose whim and word could mean death!  Mantel brings us back to that world.