After many false tries, I have gotten the blue cotton warp on the loom, with a shed, and it’s all working (finally).  I had it all ready to go, but could not get a shed, because the alternate yarn I used for the warp was too “sticky”, and the harnesses would not separate when I treadled.  Yuck.  The warp itself was only 2 yards long, so I separated out the recalcitrant threads, re-sleyed, re-tied, and whammo it was a success.  But not without a price, that being my aching back and 24 hours of wasted effort.  Or not.  One learns from these experiences, and it only adds another item on the checklist for when you pick the yarn you want to use.

And, as it turns out, the rose path pattern would have been lost with the business of the discarded yarn.  So there.  I have lashed the edges and now it’s raring to go.

Today I met with a new fiber-friendly group – a nice smaller group that meets in the member’s homes.  Small = 5-to-6 people, perfect.  I worked on the second sleeve of my Cecily Pullover (or sweater, as you would call it), but I didn’t get it done.  All those little rows dancing down my arm…..

Sometimes I think in retirement you develop a habit of making checklists to make sure that you were conscious of living through the day.  I mean, there are no deadlines, only those that are self-imposed.  So different from my old world.  I am always amazed that I am no longer chained to the corporate treadmill, and am slowly becoming more and more detached to the point that it will no longer resurface as a panicked memory threatening to return me to that reality.  With my fiber projects, I’m doing things that people 300 years ago (or even less) did as a daily routine of survival.  But what about all the other “modern conveniences” where I rely on some unknown source to provide goods to the supermarket, water in the pipelines, electricity in the home? This becomes especially eye-opening as I read through The Wolves at the Door by Judith Pearson, about the WWII American spy Virginia Hall.  Imagine no electricty, no supermarket, no place to go and buy a pair of socks.  Gas for your car?  Maybe that was another lifetime ago.  As Americans we are so quick to automate our conveniences, with no thought or plan for backup in case we don’t have them, suddenly.  If you didn’t have gas for your car, how would you get to work, or the supermarket?  Are you in walking distance of supplies? What if the water stopped running?  (This is too much of a fear in Arizona, especially in the summer.)  I can always find something to obsessively worry about.  At the end of the day, it mostly all stays in place and keeps running, or is re-instated quickly enough.

I suppose most of this retrospective thinking was inspired by watching The Most Exotic Marigold Hotel this weekend.  Love Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, BIll Nighy and the cast – they were all great.  It was definitely not a blow-“em-up -and -run movie – more about relationships, accepting mortality and learning how to accept other cultures.  Yes, a happy ending.  But it is true that some people (not all) can grow and keep learning and enjoy the new experience.

The bottom line of this soapbox rant? We need to be mindful of all the good we have around us, and not take it for granted.  We are not, after all, the center of the universe.