When You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling

option #1


beginning of option #2

The AVL had been sitting nekkid for far too long and for that reason and a bunch of others, I needed to slam a warp onto it pronto.

My first inclination was to have a predominantly black warp with the blue and plum colour accents. Unfortunately I didn't have enough black 2/16 on hand to wind a warp. :( One of the disadvantages when you are trying to use up stash and not buy more yarn - you do start to run low - eventually.

What I did have enough of was a blued grey and since both the blue and plum had blue in them decided that should work just dandy.

Well, I don't know if it's the old 'grey muddies' at work, or my grey mood, but I wasn't really liking the warp as it was being wound on. I think it's also the big contrast in values at work. The black would have been much closer in value to the other colours than the pale blue/grey.

And then I'm crossing the whole thing with natural linen - a grey-beige.

So what happens when you're sitting at the loom with a 20 yard warp and your little heart is not going pit-a-pat?

Well, the first thing you do is get up off the stool (in my case) and look at the cloth from different angles and distances. Sometimes what doesn't look great sitting at the loom takes on more interest when you see it from a different perspective.

(I apologize for the photos - it was really hard to get a picture of this fabric on the loom!)

So I got up and walked around the loom and decided that, while my heart did not have to be coaxed to be still, it would do. Not my best work, by any means.

But since I've worked with this yarn combination before, I know that the resulting fabric will work well as tea towels and just because the colours don't make my heart sing doesn't mean that the project is a disaster.

This isn't the first time I've woven fabric that didn't make my heart sing. Believe me, when you're a production weaver weaving for someone else, you quite often wind up weaving stuff that can be a big ho-hum.

At this point I have to tell my ego to go stand in the corner because it doesn't matter that "I" don't really like the cloth, it's got to be woven off. I have to shut the nag that wants to keep whining "I don't really like this" up and just get on with the weaving. So I focus on getting into the zone - being present with the loom and the yarns (regardless of their colours, as boring or mundane as they may be), feeling the physical satisfaction of treadling, throwing the shuttle and beating. Concentrating on the process, not the colour.

After all, the next warp can be much prettier, right?