Mindful Weaving
Or, It's Not Always the Loom's Fault
I've been in the studio a lot these early mornings, because I am still getting up as early as a pastry chef, but not actually going to work until 9:30. I've been weaving along on the dish towel warp on Tootsie, after several detours, and I was enjoying it, took this picture, and then proceeded. Below is what happened next. I didn't notice that the lace squares weren't alternating until the next set was done. That was disheartening, but not enough to unweave 29 rows to make it right. That's all right, I told myself. The first towel will be mine! And then, I noticed all the skipped threads on the second to farthest left square. Well, this towel will definitely be mine, I told myself. And after I put in the tape measure to keep track of the length--these towels are 25" x 36"-- I saw that the wefts had been busy wrapping themselves around the clips on the tape measure.
This is when weaving makes me curse. I scare the cats and the dog thinks I'm yelling at her and I feel bad. It's a hobby. It's supposed to be relaxing.
But really, it's my fault, of course. I don't pay attention. I get so excited, especially in this case when I hadn't woven in so long, and just can't be bothered with noticing all that can go wrong.
So I slowed down and started to pay attention. I still notice my mind drifting other places, to work or relationships or money or other things, and that is inevitably when things go wrong and I have to rein my brain back to the present.
I wonder why spell-check doesn't think unweave is a word. We all know it is just as important as unknit.
After weaving the natural dish towels, and knitting a gray sweater for the last three weeks, I needed a little color. I went through the dyed warps I have waiting, and picked the indigo multi-fiber warp from our dyeing afternoon two Octobers ago. I decided it would look perfect in a scarf, using Bertha Gray Hayes' Bomber Flight pattern, finally using it in a scarf for my sister. But now that I work in aviation, too, I'm going to make one for each of us.
I'm not thrilled with the extra long floats, but the alpaca-tencel-wool weft is pretty sticky, and I'm hoping it will full enough to prevent any big snags when worn. I'm beading the hem-stitching with opaque crystal beads, and have about 9" woven so far. They have to be shorties, because there's only about 4 yards of warp, but I don't think my sister likes long scarves like I do.
Yesterday, I sat down with my knitting to watch the latest episode of Fruity Knitting--if you don't watch it on YouTube, you need to!--and got immediately covered in cats. It wasn't very comfortable, but oddly comforting.
Back to the studio. Have a fine, fibery week.
I've been in the studio a lot these early mornings, because I am still getting up as early as a pastry chef, but not actually going to work until 9:30. I've been weaving along on the dish towel warp on Tootsie, after several detours, and I was enjoying it, took this picture, and then proceeded. Below is what happened next. I didn't notice that the lace squares weren't alternating until the next set was done. That was disheartening, but not enough to unweave 29 rows to make it right. That's all right, I told myself. The first towel will be mine! And then, I noticed all the skipped threads on the second to farthest left square. Well, this towel will definitely be mine, I told myself. And after I put in the tape measure to keep track of the length--these towels are 25" x 36"-- I saw that the wefts had been busy wrapping themselves around the clips on the tape measure.
This is when weaving makes me curse. I scare the cats and the dog thinks I'm yelling at her and I feel bad. It's a hobby. It's supposed to be relaxing.But really, it's my fault, of course. I don't pay attention. I get so excited, especially in this case when I hadn't woven in so long, and just can't be bothered with noticing all that can go wrong.
So I slowed down and started to pay attention. I still notice my mind drifting other places, to work or relationships or money or other things, and that is inevitably when things go wrong and I have to rein my brain back to the present.
I wonder why spell-check doesn't think unweave is a word. We all know it is just as important as unknit.
After weaving the natural dish towels, and knitting a gray sweater for the last three weeks, I needed a little color. I went through the dyed warps I have waiting, and picked the indigo multi-fiber warp from our dyeing afternoon two Octobers ago. I decided it would look perfect in a scarf, using Bertha Gray Hayes' Bomber Flight pattern, finally using it in a scarf for my sister. But now that I work in aviation, too, I'm going to make one for each of us.
I'm not thrilled with the extra long floats, but the alpaca-tencel-wool weft is pretty sticky, and I'm hoping it will full enough to prevent any big snags when worn. I'm beading the hem-stitching with opaque crystal beads, and have about 9" woven so far. They have to be shorties, because there's only about 4 yards of warp, but I don't think my sister likes long scarves like I do.
Yesterday, I sat down with my knitting to watch the latest episode of Fruity Knitting--if you don't watch it on YouTube, you need to!--and got immediately covered in cats. It wasn't very comfortable, but oddly comforting.Back to the studio. Have a fine, fibery week.
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