Let's Do This!

 I made a big deal out of moving my tapestry loom into the Loominaria this week on the Tuesday Weaver's blog, and I've had some ideas brewing in my wee small brain about what to weave on it for several weeks now.  So, I should just do it, right?  Especially since the yarn I had sitting on the front porch had finally become moth-ball-smell free.
  On Wednesday afternoon, I cut off the little bit I'd started of some vague notion of it looking like my back yard, something with way too much detail for my novice hands to handle, and tied the warp back on.  I got out my booklet from the class I'd taken with Tommye Scanlin over a year ago, and started the new tapestry the correct way.  Imagine that!  Following directions!

My crayons

  I had three photos I wanted to choose from, and ended up with a photo of the Joseph's Coat rose I'd taken this past summer.  I selected my colors  and plunged in.  I frequently look at the instructions, sometimes look at YouTube videos and search old Handwoven magazines for help when I get stuck, but I keep going.  You know how it is when you're learning a new technique.  I feel uncertain, and it almost overwhelms me, but then I try to make myself believe that it doesn't matter if I make a mistake.  It's my first full-blown tapestry, and there WILL be mistakes!  I can look at it years from now--assuming I'll finish it and there will be more--and think, oh, look at that!  That little error hardly shows!
  And when I find myself frustrated with it, and need a break, there's a new project ready to go onto Jenny.  I've just got to hemstitch the purple and gold warp, cut that off and then I'm going to make place mats with a hand-dyed carpet warp, surrounded by some lovely contrasting colors.  It'll be Rep Weave, inspired by an article in Handwoven, written by a nun who weaves.  Hers was inspired by a garden, but mine is inspired by a desert sunset.  I'm excited to get started, but need to hold myself back until I get the whole thing drafted out in a color order that works.  We've got some rainy afternoons projected, and that sounds like a perfect time to bust out the colored pencils.