Sunday, June 14, 2015

Very Nearly



Once I can see the knots and the guide strings through the warp I know I'm nearly done.  And not before time, either, as I'm getting a wee bit tired of this rose warp.

On the other hand, the biggest investment made in a hand woven fabric is setting up the loom so it only makes sense to get as much out of that investment as possible.  Which is why, as a production weaver, I tend to do 20, 30, 40 yard long warps.  For my investment of three days of set up time, I get a week or two of weaving.

Quite often I will change weft, tie up and/or treadling during a 40 yard long warp.  On this one I changed weft and treadling once and just wove off nearly 25 yards all the same.  I was pretty happy with the floral nature of the design given the colours.  Don't know if customers will find it appealing - time will tell.

Speaking of time, I have rather mindlessly been weaving without too much regard for the up coming fall shows.  Yes, the thought of doing four sales in Oct/Nov never really leaves my conscious awareness, but I haven't really been weaving with A Plan in place.  Just trying to get my fitness back and use up stash.

Once I'm home from Olds, however, the deadlines are going to start going critical.  I am going to have to sit down at some point, maybe during the 11 hour trip there or back, and start making some goals for myself.  I'm good for scarves, low on everything else.  I do have yarn for another shawl warp which is in the queue, but I also need tea towels in a better selection of colours, and place mats?  I pretty much sold out last year so I have to make at least that many this year, preferably more.

The coming months are going to be pretty busy with a focused drive to make sure I get to the loom every day and pound out the yards of cloth needed.

And just think of all the stash I will use up!

2 comments:

Peg Cherre said...

So are you back to your old fitness level about time spent at the loom? Sure looks like it to me!

I love the blues/greens in the last post, too. The rose colors don't speak to me as much.

Laura Fry said...

Getting there. Still working on building fitness/stamina. I've been told recovery time for this surgery is at least one year. I'm fortunate in that my fitness was pretty good going into it, but nearly nine weeks of enforced idleness means fitness dropped way down. My daily walks are helping but the older you are, the more difficult to get it back once 'lost'. :-/

Cheers
Laura