Mundane: of this world, worldly; of the universe, cosmic; dull; routine
I was on a panel at a conference once and referred to my weaving as mundane - to a chorus of groans from the audience.
But I didn't mean that my work was dull; rather I meant that my intention is to make something of and for this world, textiles that I hope will be used every day, not tucked away in a closet for 'special' occasions.
There is something rather comforting to return to a tried and true design, one you know is successful in terms of its function, one that you don't have to think about very much, one you can just do.
After 18 months of nearly non-stop critical deadlines I am, this week, looking forward to enjoying a little mundane.
Doug mailed off the samples for the designer and spent much of the weekend winding pirns for the 50 yard warp on the AVL. It will take a few days for the go-ahead from her, though, so in the meantime I am working on another place mat warp. I weighed the several cones of yarn I want to stash bust and one of them is nearly 5 pounds, several at 2+ pounds and several more at one pound each. That's a lot of yarn! But it will be great for place mat weft and since I'm low on inventory of mats, it's a good time to plough through as much of this yarn as I possibly can.
The weft is one strand of the stash yarn plus two strands of 2/8 cotton. They are not exactly the same colour which is giving the cloth a nice richness to it. This rose is one of those 2+ pound cones so I expect I can do two 11 meter long warps - and still probably have a little bit left over. But it is a pretty colour and so far I'm enjoying the weaving.
Currently reading Gold Digger by Vicki Delany
2 comments:
Hi Laura -- every time you bring up your placemat warps, I mean to ask...how do you wind your multi-thread wefts? Just hold them together under tension as you wind the pirn? Or do you jump through some kind of hoop(s) to make sure they come off evenly? I have one of your placemats from eons ago, and have always marveled that there are no escaped loops.
And because I don't say it often enough, thank you for all the sharing you do on this blog.
Amy
Hi Amy, I just set the tubes/cones below the winder (electric), then use my left hand to act as a 'guide' for the threads to run through while my right hand fills the bobbin. There are slight discrepancies, but they tend to even out during weaving. If there is a truly horrendous loop at the selvedge, sometimes it just gets trimmed off. Since there are several threads in the pick, having one be cut isn't going to compromise the integrity of the selvedge. :) Sometimes you just have to let it go - it's rarely particularly noticible. If I'm doing just two ends, I generally use my doubling stand just to make things a bit easier.
cheers,
Laura
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