Distractions
Amazingly, today is July 15th. That means the year is well over half-gone and I’ve certainly not said anything here about how Second Quarter went, much less what’s on the docket for Third Quarter. On the other hand, this has been a year of both inspiration *and* production – with the promise of much more to come.
Going back to the post in March, I had these as targets for the past three months:
- Project for Jacey – DONE
- A thing with linen – NOT DONE (but I bought linen!)
- Shirt fabric – NOT DONE
- Dishtowels – Half-done (that 16 yard warp is done and finshed)
On the other hand, I did manage to get another vest finished, which I think will stand in for the linen vest. I had a great opportunity to get even more comfortable with Fiberworks and how to play with threading/tie-up/treadling to design patterns. I also learned good lessons about color and made some improvements to my vest sewing abilities. The second is better than the first; I can see growth.
I also will lay a bit of blame on this beauty:
I still can’t believe I have this. And that I have a glimmer of knowledge of how to use it! Granted, it’s been sitting idle since it came home but that’s currently changing. A warp is going on thanks to Jeane loaning me her warping wheel and I expect to will finish that tomorrow. I’m putting on a six yard warp and I’ll sett it for twill on all 16 shafts. Then the fun starts. And re-threading will be easy if I want to do something else.
Separately, I’m also going to use the warping wheel to put a long warp on the Gilmore so that I’m ready for dishtowels there as well. And I’ve already wound a third warp that can go on the Baby Wolf for a bit of crackle play. This all goes for dishtowels for fair – and I’ve two more weekends of dyeing and that’ll be ready as well. Then it’ll be September and another three-month window gone.
My SOAR project is also limping along; only four bags of cotton spun up since the ginned stuff is slow, but I can backfill with the four ounces I’ve already spun. It really does go surprisingly fast – so once Fair is behind me I can focus and get the shirt finished. I don’t think I’ll do anything extravagant since it’s about the yarn and the shape. But, that’ll wait until I have yarn.
But, I’ve a reason for a seemingly meager set of work – a lot of thinking. Thinking about what gets my mind working and how to turn that into a set of tasks. That’s the real work to take me until the end of the year. Some writing, some reviewing, some discussing, some planning, and then a lot of working. 2014 is going to be an amazing year. At least I hope so. At a minimum, I’m going to learn a TON.
Ok, Lynn – please, please, please share more of what happened at NEWS. The tidbits just aren’t enough!
Thinking, thinking, thinking …. yep, I’m there with you, although in slightly different ways, I think. Since I got back from Nova Scotia and went to the weaving workshop, life has been crazy, but I’ve been thinking about what I want to say here, and I’m hoping I’ll have time to write something up before the end of the weekend at the very latest. Stay tuned!
So, tell me: Where do you want to go right now, in an overall sense? It seems to me that you’re heading in a much more “useful” direction than I am, in that you’re weaving towels and clothing fabric and such. Is that where you want to go? Do you see yourself enjoying more different weave structures, or different colors, or different fibers/textures, or what? There are no right answers here, you understand; I’m just curious.