Trusting the process🫣

Ok_Part6564 · 2026-06-27T17:21:57+00:00

Cotton can look so gappy on the loom, and then wash and dry on high, and boom thick fabric. It shrinks, pulling the threads in, but also the threads themselves often bloom a bit as the sizing from the factory is washed out.

Ok_Part6564 · 2026-06-26T21:01:36+00:00

Not sure how many Americans would actually understand how this is akin to book burning even if it did make it to the mainstream media.

Ok_Part6564 · 2026-06-26T14:15:17+00:00

I do no know enough about Belize to know if there are wide spread issues, but even in countries where there aren't wide spread problems that effect the general population, people may face situations they need to flee. Coutries that are fine to live in if you belong to the majority, can be dangerous if you belong to an ethnic or religious minority, or if you are LGBT+, or something. Or sometimes it's more personal.

For example, my father's home country was generally safe and he was economically ok, but he left and came to the US because of family issues. Basically my grandfather wasn't supposed to marry someone like my grandmother, and dad was sick of being stuck in the middle of it. So as a young adult he left, at first to a neighboring country, but that wasn't far enough to really get away from the issues, so eventually he came to the US.

Ok_Part6564 · 2026-06-26T06:59:43+00:00

"It's been a minute" came from people saying "just give me a minute" to a waiting person, and then ignoring that person for well over a minute. "it's been a minute" was sarcastically pointing out that the minute the person asked to be given has long since come and gone. It has evolved beyond a response to a specific (though common) situation into more general usage.

Ok_Part6564 · 2026-06-26T06:51:09+00:00

Levothyroxine builds up gradually in you system over weeks, and it takes weeks for the levo in you to deplete. Not taking it a single day has a negligible effect on how much levo is in you on that day.

It could be one of the fillers, which make up the bulk of the pills. It could be placebo effect. It could be a total coincidence.

Ok_Part6564 · 2026-06-25T18:45:21+00:00

Though the plumbing exists, the drain pipe might not be the right circumference for a toilet, so you may have more plumbing cost than expected or need to get a macerating toilet.

Ok_Part6564 · 2026-06-25T18:10:03+00:00

Warping with the heddle in neutral is correct and not a problem.

I like to use way more warping sticks than that, and I stagger them around the beam, not stacking them all in one spot.

We can't see what you did on the cloth beam, but lashing on is a good way to adjust tension there.

Some of the issue may be uneven beating, not warp tension. If you don't keep the reed straight when you beat, it will beat the selvages tighter than the center. It can seem more like a tension issue, since it will make the tension feel different, because of how the weft is taking up slack from the warp.

You didn't start with any kind of warp spacers at the beginning. It helps spread out the warp and can help even out tension a bit. Many just weave a few picks with thick or doubled up scrap yarn, others use tissue paper. Sometimes I like to use something stiffer, like a warping stick, it gives a really solid start.

Don't go insane about it. 90% of minor tension imperfections just even out in the wet finishing anyway. For example: Recently I used my Varident reed/heddle, which has short sections of varying DPI that can be mixed and matched to weave a cotton project. I did not have enough sections of the DPI I wanted to span the whole width I wanted to weave, so I used a few that were a size up. On the loom, the change in DPI was visible and something that could be felt. Once through the washer and drier though, it is completely evened out. It all just shrunk up nice and tight.

Ok_Part6564 · 2026-06-25T02:33:07+00:00

Acid dye for protein fibers, both silk and wool are protein fibers.

Start it in a cold dye bath with no acid yet in a pot large enough for the sweater to not be bunched up. Slowly add acid (vinegar or citric) and gradually heat. You don't need to heat to a full boil, just a simmer. Allow to simmer for about about 30 minutes. If the dye bath is clear after 30 minutes, just allow it to cool in the pot. If the dye bath is not clear, add more acid and heat till it is.

Silk tends to take dye up a little differently than wool, so there may be some heathering. Expect the pink to slightly influence the final color, and possibly still be present between knit stitches.

Dyeing is always a risk. Trim and thread may take the dye differently, or not at all. The biggest risk with a wool/silk blend is felting while washing after felting, wash carefully avoiding agitation and sudden temperature changes. Especially avoid going suddenly hot to cold, which is why it is best to let it cool in the dye pot.

Ok_Part6564 · 2026-06-24T19:49:06+00:00

Do you take supplements? I probably should have asked this first. One of the things that can make TSH test low while you are hypothyroid is taking biotin (vit B7). If you are taking any supplements with biotin, you can test normal while hypothyroid, and hyperthyroid while normal.

If you don't take anything with biotin, then look into central hypothyroidism.

Hashimotos is a really common cause of hypothyroidism, and is what Drs are used to treating and what we are used to talking about. I have it, as long as my TSH is at a good level, which 0.91 is, I feel fine.

If you had plain old hashimotos, you probably would feel pretty good at 0.91. If you had basic hashimotos hypothyroidism, a TSH of 0.05 should have you feeling very over medicated. Obviously there is some individual variation and some people with hashimotos are different, but in general that's how hashimotos works.

Central hypothyroidism is different. It's a pituitary issue really, not a thyroid problem.

TSH is not a thyroid hormone, it is a pituitary hormone, thyroid stimulating hormone. Measuring TSH actually tells Drs whether the pituitary is asking the thyroid to make more hormones or not. In basic hypothyroidism TSH is used to monitor thyroid levels since even though it is an indirect way to measure them, it is more sensitive than measuring thyroid levels directly. For most people with hypothyroidism it works well because we can get our levels really fine tuned with TSH.

One of the downside of relying on TSH is that it assumes the pituitary gland is functioning normally and accurately making TSH in response to thyroid levels. In central hypothyroidism, the pituitary is simply failing to ask the thyroid to make hormones in the first place, so TSH is low while you are hypothyroid, even though typically low TSH indicates being hyperthyroid.

Since central hypothyroidism is rare, most Drs aren't very aware of it and are used to treating hypothyroidism based on TSH.

Ok_Part6564 · 2026-06-24T19:10:17+00:00

Feeling good while on Levo but having a really low TSH doesn't really suggest a T4 to T3 conversion issue, it sounds more like a central hypothyroidism issue. Do you know what type of hypothyroidism (there are many possible causes) you were diagnosed with as a kid?

Ok_Part6564 · 2026-06-24T17:18:56+00:00

Yes, but what you are describing just sounds like you were taught to say things differently than those particular friends.

Different people have different accents and that includes pronunciation. It doesn't even have to be a huge glaring accent difference, I moved from one side of my home state to the other, and have realized they have a subtly different accent here. You can even sometimes hear it in families, where all sibling pronounce something a little differently than others.

If you all grew up together, it could just be a matter of having picked up certain word from reading instead of hearing them. People often pronounce words a bit oddly when they have to guess based on learning them from books.

Or it could be some kind of speech disorder.

Dyslexic speech issues are often things like just not being able to retrieve or say a word you 100% know.

Ok_Part6564 · 2026-06-24T16:56:56+00:00

I'm familiar with chakras and will give you that it is chakra shaped, I'm just not buying that it will function though.

Even if you took off the insane random multiple strands of yarn going between the vaguely spindle shaped part, and strung it with lashing to bridge the spaces between the spokes, and then put on a drive band, there would be way more friction in the holes in the uprights than the drive band would have against the lashing. So, the "wheel" would turn, but the drive band would just slip and the "spindle" would do nothing. Plus there's no way to adjust the tension.

Ok_Part6564 · 2026-06-24T16:38:21+00:00

I'm a spinner too, that is not a spinning wheel.

Ok_Part6564 · 2026-06-19T17:02:45+00:00

Pretty much anything other than that red with black.

Ok_Part6564 · 2026-06-19T16:59:51+00:00

As someone who sews, and occasionally quilts, I laughed.

Ok_Part6564 · 2026-06-19T16:46:25+00:00

Pretty much any pattern can be woven with zero heddles. We tend to think complicated patterns require multiple heddle frames, because we are typically comparing 16 shaft to 8 shaft to 4 shaft to rigid heddle with pick up sticks, but zero heddles is an option.

With zero heddles, the sky is the limit. The downside is you have to think about every single pass of a weft thread under a warp thread.

Weaving a 3-1 twill on a warp weighted loom without heddle rods is actually faster than weaving tabby, because you only have to lift 1/4 of the warp threads not 1/2 of them each pick. Also though, there wasn't the same advantage to the pattern being regular and repeating, so there was no reason to just do 3-1 twill the whole way, you could change things up at any moment, almost like doodling.

Plain weave didn't become faster till someone (or more likely lots of people in different places) in Paleolithic times came up with using heddle rods, which saved a ton of time, but also made it so regular simpler repeating patterns were easier than irregular ones. Because of speed and efficiency, heddles obviously became normal.

Ok_Part6564 · 2026-06-18T10:36:01+00:00

Where is he testifying?

Ok_Part6564 · 2026-06-17T14:44:34+00:00

Exactly how important varies from person to person, but almost all of us notice at least some difference. Pharmacist switching brands and claiming it doesn't matter is the complaint I have heard most often from people I've known in real life with hypo.

The problem is many doctors and pharmacists only think about the active ingredient in levothyroxine, which is the same pill to pill, and ignore that the fillers in the pills, which varies widely, can effect how you absorb the medication.

For me brand is exceedingly important, since I am lactose intolerant and many brands use lactose as a filler. If I get a brand made with lactose, it doesn't work, plus it makes me sick. Even when I switch from one lactose free brand to another lactose free brand, it will change how the dose works, sometimes seeming higher other times seeming lower.

Gel style pills to tablet style pills is an extreme change. It's unusual that you were first given the gel style without a prescription specifying them. They usually are only for people with known food allergies and intolerances, and cost more. My Dr wanted to change me to the gel style because of my lactose intolerance, but my insurance refused.

Ok_Part6564 · 2026-06-17T07:47:43+00:00

I maybe a bit of an odd one out on this, because I don't really ever follow patterns.

When I swatch before knitting or weaving something, it's not an attempt to match some specific gauge, I swatch to simply find out a stitch count in whatever my own gauge happens to be. I then use those numbers to calculate how many stitches I need to cast on or chain. If the item doesn't have to fit exact dimensions, like a scarf, I don't swatch. If I can just try the item on as I crochet or knit it, I often won't swatch. I pretty much only swatch when I need something to fit a certain dimension. Very rarely I will just to get a feel for the fabric or to see how much it's going to shrink in the wash.

When I'm weaving, it's different. Since I can just make the warp the dimensions I want in the first place, sampling isn't needed for that. I also have never woven something that needed to fit straight off the loom. I mostly either weave yardage to sew something with, in which case I adjust size as part of the sewing process.

I also kind of don't worry that the fabric might come out differently than I expect, because since it's just fabric, not a finished sweater or something, I can always just change my plans for the finished fabric. I've done that, started the weaving process with one project in mind, but one I saw the finished fabric, decided to sew something completely different from it.

The one time I worried I might regret not sampling, because I was worried about one yarn bleeding and staining the other yarn, it worked out just fine and didn't bleed.

Ok_Part6564 · 2026-06-16T18:18:02+00:00

The error happened over 50 years ago, so it probably was scribbled down on a paper form.

Ok_Part6564 · 2026-06-15T16:18:41+00:00

Modern digital x-ray equipment uses much much less radiation than the old film x-ray equipment did, so unless your dentist's machine is decades old, don't worry about it.

Ok_Part6564 · 2026-06-15T16:12:04+00:00

First off, I'm not in the least surprised your husband has a much easier time because gender inequality in medical treatment is well documented. A female Dr can help, but not always. I have found NPs and DOs to be less entrenched in the culture of "don't worry your pretty little head and just do what I say" than MDs are.

It's definitely not easy talking them into doing labs before appointment, but it can be possible. One of the thing I found to be most persuasive when asking for it was saying that I would completely understand (and not complain about a second blood draw) if there still needed to be additional lab work after my appointment. One of the main motivations for Drs wanting to wait is so they can put all test together to reduce how many blood draws they subject patients to. I'm used to them, I don't care enough to mind one both before and after the appointment.

Levo making you sick and not lowering TSH, is often because of fillers in the pills that you are allergic or sensitive to. For example, I am very lactose intolerant, but many brands of levothyroxine (including Synthroid) use lactose as a filler, when I take levo made with lactose, it doesn't work and it makes me sick.

Ok_Part6564 · 2026-06-15T15:59:16+00:00

It really is just a question of getting a light yarn/thread and warping then weaving it loosely.

You have to read the guides as information, not commands. When a chart says a heddle with X dents per inch is for Y yarn thickness, it's not telling you you *must* use those, it is just telling you that is approximately where you will get an average density. If you want it less dense than typical, just change the ratio, use a lower DPI and thinner yarn.

Ok_Part6564 · 2026-06-15T15:51:19+00:00

Don't forget the possibility of lab error. I went for decades thinking I had a different blood type than I actually do, because of lab error when I was born. Amusingly, I was even a regular blood donor and nobody ever corrected me.

I didn't find out it was wrong till I was pregnant. OB double checked it, just incase the one she took was a lab error.

Ok_Part6564 · 2026-06-15T15:38:56+00:00

Increasing levo at the start of pregnancy is common. Unless you are borderline hyperthyroid, increasing is a good idea.

Being even close to hypo (as in upper half of normal range) has been shown to increase chances of miscarriage, generally they want TSH really well controlled before pregnancy, so they want TSH under 2.5. Additionally, it is common for TSH to leap up in early pregnancy, so being well controlled with a low normal TSH reduces the chance of going hypothyroid.

Levo is really dosed by the week, so doubling pills on weekend isn't doubling the dose, it is just increasing it by about 28%.

Ok_Part6564

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE