Fabric and Transport Problems

I am shocked. But by my own behaviour. I grant you that I do buy lengths of fabric ostensibly to be made up just because I like them not because I need them or have a special project in mind. Without foreseeing the shock on its way, I decided I had to clear out the cupboard where I store lengths of fabric (commercial and my weaving) I have six lengths of jacket fabric, three of which are Linton Tweed and three my weaving. I have nine lengths of fabric for shirts and tops. I have one partly made jacket for my daughter Anne (that is going to be discarded). It has been around for too long and both of us are bored with it. There are lengths of fabric which are the wrong length, thickness, colour for anything anyone would want ever want to wear. All very unsatisfactory. It is all back in the cupboard with the difference that every length is in a separate plastic bag with a label on the outside stating the contents and what it is intended for. I have dealt in a similar way with lengths of handweaving. Now all I have to do is clear up in the studio. Which I need to do before Sunday as I am teaching a class here that day.

Today I was in London at a course on Block weaving run by Complex Weavers. The day was dominated by transport problems. The Underground was closed down in some bits which were the bits I wanted to use so it took 90 minutes to get to the venue instead the usual 20. And there was worse to come. When I arrived back in Paddington happy because I would be sure to be in time for the 1705, I found there had been a death on the line and all trains in and out of Paddington had been stopped for several hours and they had just started sorting this out. When I asked when the 1705 was likely to leave (assuming in my naivety that if it said DELAYED on the departure board, the train would be shortly be ready) I was soon corrected. That train, said the officer, is being cancelled. It is not an express and only expresses are leaving. When I inquired as to when one might be around. The answer was at least two hours. So I caught the Penzance Express to Reading and my sister fetched me and delivered me to the right local station to pick up my car. Honestly I cannot think why they bother to run trains.

But I have not said that it was a good day weaving-wise. The course was Block weaving by Rosalie Nelson. But not block weaving as you or I know it. She has a book on the topic coming out next spring and I recommend weavers to have a look at it. It is like nothing you have ever seen before. Lots of people there I knew including Stacey Harvey-Brown who is halfway between the UK and France. She will be in France in a month or two.