anger transformed

Nicole Alderman wrote:

Did it look something like this? (was looking Hudson Bay's Wikipedia site and saw this)

r ranson wrote:A few weeks ago, some people on the internet really pissed me off.  I went to a forum (not permies) to ask a very specific question about a project I wanted to make.  In response, I got hammered with a crap-load of everything I'm doing wrong and how my whole project is impossible.  

This kind of behaviour in public really bothers me.  It's not just that the poor poster will turn around and give up on their dream, but the hundreds or thousands of people reading that thread won't ever try it.  They will warn their friends about how impossible it is.  That it can't be done.

The funny thing is, humans, have been doing exactly this thing I wanted to do since... well you know that whole agriculture thing that someone thought up; take that day and go back three times as far, and you're almost there.  We've been doing this thing since then all the way through to the 1970s when suddenly - poof! - it is now impossible and everyone stopped doing it.  Everyone except the rest of the world who didn't know any better and kept on doing it.  

Thanks to the internet, I now know that it is impossible.  So what do I do about it?  Do I scream?  Do I stalk these people online and tell the world how horrible they are?  Do I sit and sulk?

Nope.  

I turn off my computer.  

It's been off for about two weeks now.  Every night, for about 4 hours a night, I do the impossible.  

I go to my sheep and ask him for some wool.


I take this wool and spin it into yarn.  


The yarn I make is handspun singles (which means it is unplyed).  This is the type of yarn that cannot be used for weaving because it is too sticky and weak.  The internet is animate on this "known fact".

I take this yarn and I put it on my loom.  I abuse it in every way, putting impossibly tight tension on it, beating it harshly, all the things that must never be done to non-commercial non-synthetic yarn.  



I have less problem with my handspun yarn than I've ever had with any commercial yarn.  

It's turned into beautiful fabric and I can't wait to make clothing with it.


My anger at these people is now transformed into proving them wrong.  By now, I've forgotten who it was I was so angry at.  I'm not even angry at them anymore because I have a beautiful fabric and I have loads of photos and I know at least two magazines that like my writing style and may be interested in publishing my story which will inspire people to stop believing the 'truth' about handspun yarn and start making their own beautiful clothing.  

All this because of what I learned on permies: How to make the world a better place instead of being angry at bad guys.  

Thank you everyone here for being so awesome!

Thekla McDaniels wrote:Raven, I thought you wrote  somewhere that you are weaving on an Ashford table loom, and now I can't find where it "is" written.Maybe I made it up, but maybe not, so could you please post what kind of loom it is in these photographs, and did you also say it will fit under a table or bed or out of the way?  These are mighty attractive ideas to me. Thanks

Yewotch and DROOL....

brad roon wrote:i'm convinced that hate is a very inefficient form of love. ...
... Look at all that time and energy we spent hating them and working SO HARD to turn them into people whom we would find it easy to love.
If i were halfway awakened, i'd just start loving those people that irritate me and then see if we can meet on the discussions and thought levels....

Thekla McDaniels wrote:
One more question:  would you say the set up you have can stand up to the heavy beating that goes in to rug making?

brad roon wrote:i'm convinced that hate is a very inefficient form of love.

r ranson wrote: - poof! - it is now impossible and everyone stopped doing it.  Everyone except the rest of the world who didn't know any better and kept on doing it.  

Travis Johnson wrote:when a caring person is accused of the opposite, it can make you mad. I say this because I know.

Travis Johnson wrote:My only outside-the-box advice on anger might be to look into medical causes for rage and anger. I know I was seething inside for a long time and thought MAYBE my anti-seizure drugs were to blame, but that was not it. Ultimately I found out my Pituitary Gland is not functioning which is causing a loss in hormones which is causing me to be extremely agitated. Now I say all this in the present tense because my hormone levels are not right yet and I am better, but not where I should be. So it might be a medical condition causing irritability too.

r ranson wrote:

Thekla McDaniels wrote:Raven, I thought you wrote  somewhere that you are weaving on an Ashford table loom, and now I can't find where it "is" written.Maybe I made it up, but maybe not, so could you please post what kind of loom it is in these photographs, and did you also say it will fit under a table or bed or out of the way?  These are mighty attractive ideas to me. Thanks

What I wave on is a four shaft, 32 inch, Ashford table loom with treadle stand.  I love it.  It's the perfect match for me.

I've had over a dozen looms over the years and all of them hurt me to weave on.  I gave up on weaving completely until I met the Ashford table loom at a festival.  No pain weaving!  Easy to use!  I'm in love.  It's small, portable, folds up, but is strong enough for daily weaving.  Finally, loom makers are starting to understand that people with limited space also want to weave.  Before, table looms were for workshops and children, but now, they are seriously awesome for daily weaving.

4 shaft ashford table loom

I got the 32 inch because I want to weave clothing cloth from my handspun yarn.  I think I could be content with the 24", but someone convinced me to go up a size.  The 32" has been quite useful and I'm glad I did.  It's about as wide a cloth as I need, and I can always sew two pieces together if I need wider.  

I may upgrade to a floor loom in a few years, if (big if) I can find one that doesn't hurt me to weave on.  On the Ashford table loom with treadle kit, I can weave for about 5 hours streight, on the floor looms and other table looms  I've had, I can only weave for about 20 minutes before needing to walk around.  

If you're ever in the market for a loom, try out as many as you can before investing in one.  Each loom is different and each make has it's own style.  It's really important to have a loom that matches you.  

Yewotch and DROOL....

Oh yes!  I did have to get a job to save up enough to afford it (only loom I've bought new) - but boy oh boy, it's worth every cent.  My loom is my independence - or it will be once I start making my own clothing.  Like khadi, it's my way of fighting against what I see as broken in our world.

Cindy Haskin wrote:

r ranson wrote: ... Do I understand correctly that you weave barefooted? I see slippers left under the loom in the photo. I kick my shoes off when I'm sewing (electric machine with the foot control on the floor= barefooted I feel I have better control! But then I have nearly prehensile toes in that I can pick up things with them, like the small-dog tennis balls my Punky loves! Or marbles, and such.)

Maybe we're going off-topic here ... I like doing things with my bare feet too. Sometimes (not often enough) practice my toes in picking up things, like you describe here Cindy.
If I had floor heating (or at least not such a cold floor, with a wet crawling space underneath) I would be walking barefoot at home all the time.