Time becomes more precious the less of it we have (paraphrase from Bonnie Raitt)
When I first started weaving it was with the intention of earning an income from it. With that intention front of mind, I paid attention to the things, the processes, that took the most time. As I became better at weaving, I began to see where things could be stream lined. How spending a little bit more time at one stage wound up saving me a whole lot of time at the next.
One of the things I do that sometimes puzzles people is that I slip knot each group of threads as I thread them.
On the Leclerc, which has four shafts, my usual group for threading is four or six ends. When I have them pulled through their respective heddles, they get put into a bundle and tied in a slip knot. The video clip above shows how I do that. On the Megado, it is generally 4, 6 or 8 ends in a group that get slip knotted together in preparation for sleying. It depends(!)
Now it takes a whole lot longer to explain and show what I do than it does to do it. I think tieing the knot takes one second. What it does, however, is save me a great deal of time when I sley the reed.
People frequently assume that I have some sort of magical powers, or that I must spend hours every day at the loom in order to produce as much as I do.
Well, I used to. My productivity now is a small fraction of what I used to be able to do. But I’m ‘retired’ (for certain values of) and there is little need for me to produce at the levels I used to be able to do.
But my efficient processes continue, in no small part because I don’t want to work artificially slowly (as one friend put it).
The aging process has already slowed me down, I don’t see any benefit in working in ways that slow me down even further. I can find other ways to spend my time than sitting cramped in front of a loom threading and/or sleying the warp.
I’m not saying everyone must do things my way. I have fine tuned my skills for 4 decades. People can only rarely pick up a threading hook and thread a warp as quickly as I can, even now with my aging eyes and growing cataracts.
But here’s the thing. It isn’t a contest. I’m not the ‘winner’. So I share what I do. I encourage people to find their own ‘best practices’. And above all, enjoy the process. Because in the end, that is literally all we have – our lives, and living them to their fullest.
Do what makes you happy. Make what brings you joy. Invest your time in the way that brings you pleasure.