Static

silk warp for Magic in the Water

My camera was intent on focusing on the wall behind, not the warp, which is the point of this photo.

The temperature dropped overnight and with the cold weather comes low relative humidity.  As I wound the warps for Magic in the Water at the folk school today, the silk became very charged with static electricity.  The threads were determined to stay as far away from each other as possible.  My solution?  A quick spritz with some water when the static seemed about to take over and start causing problems with the winding.

The warps for the workshop are now all wound.  I may toss in a bonus warp I wound for another workshop and made a mistake - something I didn't want someone else to have to deal with but won't faze me - it's just samples, after all.  :^)

I still have to do some photocopying but otherwise that workshop is about as ready as I'm going to get.  One demo warp for the Boot Camp is done, and I'll wind one more for that class.  The rest of my 'spare' time during Boot Camp will be dressing the looms for the weekend workshop.

As I dealt with the silk threads I thought about how life always hands us static in one form or another.  Christmas holidays can be particularly fraught and I, for one, would be happy to just ignore it.  We don't have any kids, therefore no g/kids, there is just us - and my mom.  I have no desire to cook a huge meal and have turkey leftovers for days afterwards so we booked a reservation at the one eatery that will be serving a buffet Christmas dinner.  I don't think mom is too anxious to cook - and clean! - either as she didn't protest too much when I told her the reservations were made.  :^)

But life will always present us with challenges - we just have to figure out how best to deal with them and not get overly anxious about them.  There is always a solution, after all.

And remember when the metaphorical oxygen masks drop in front of your face, put yours on first before you try to help others.  Sometimes the solution to static is simple - we just have to be willing to use it.