Soothing

The end of the navy (almost black) cottolin and the beginning of the purple cottolin.

A quick-ish change in the tie up and here is the more traditional 'snails trails and cat's paws'.

And here is the back side - which in both cases will likely become the 'right' side of the towels.  This is a 16 shaft design and in order to weave it 'right side up' would require lifting 10 shafts.  Weaving it 'upside down' requires just 6.

I like both designs but will more than likely finish the warp - once the purple cottolin is used up - with a pale yellow cotton in the cat's paws - it should look a little like flowers on a green field?  It seems that this time I have wound a warp long enough to use up all the rest of the cottolin from the summer tops I wove last year.

Of course, I've just ordered more cottolin for a special order and no doubt will have yarn left over from that project!  Never seems to end, somehow.

This is the warp I had to stop and re-thread about 2/3's of because I relied on my memory to hold the threading repeat accurately.  Big mistake when I'm this tired and stressed.  Seems like memory is the first thing to go when you get to be my age.  Actually, it's always the first thing to go - doesn't matter what age you are.

But never mind, once the lease sticks were in, it was a fairly simple matter to get it re-threaded - this time double checking each repeat before moving on to the next.

The warp is 30 yards and it isn't likely I will come close to finishing it before we leave again.  Tomorrow the first eBay auction ends with the second one ending on Friday.  I am hoping (really hoping hard) that I can get paid for everything so it can all get shipped by Monday at the latest.  That will clear one volunteer obligation off my schedule.

What with the guild sale happening this weekend, it isn't likely that I will get much loom time for the next few days, either.  But hopefully once the trip south is done I can concentrate on doing the experiment for the Handwoven article, finalize the class at John C. Campbell Folk School - it was looking promising that the Boot Camp at least would have enough to 'go' - work on the Project That Cannot Be Named - and who knows, maybe even take a few days 'off'.  I've got a stack of books and some jigsaw puzzles I'd like to veg with for a day or two.

My calendar for the first 6 months of 2014 is full to bursting.  I'm going to have to stay on my game in order to not slip up and miss a deadline or two.

Now that I finally have everything 'right' - and the loom is behaving - it has been very soothing to just go to the loom and weave.  My 'happy place'.  :)