Producing a 'Line'

There are a number of reasons for producing a 'line' when you are selling your products.  I do several craft fairs that appeal to the higher end of the market.  As such, I need to have a cohesive display, one that is enough eye appealing to entice people out of the aisle and into my booth to take a closer look.  

What that means as a creative person is that I first need to develop a quality of cloth appropriate to the function of the finished textile.  Then I need to come up with a design.  And then I need to execute it in a variety of different colours, again in a range that, when displayed together, looks attractive.  

There are a number of advantages to working in a series like this.  

Once the cloth is designed and prototyped, I don't have to re-invent the wheel for each warp.  I have worked out the technical details (epi/ppi), width in the reed, length of warp, how long to weave each scarf and how much warp to be left for fringe twisting.  I can go on auto pilot.  

The creativity then becomes all about the colour choices for each warp.  

Since I am primarily selling my creativity, my designs, I like to have a large number of different colours for customers to choose from.  One way I do this is to make short warps, just two scarves per warp. One gets woven with one colour of weft, the second gets woven with a different colour. 

People often ask why, when dressing the loom is so large a part of weaving I would 'waste' time putting such short warps on when I could do longer and save the loom set up time. 

Partly I do it because I am very fast.  If I don't allow myself too many distractions I can easily dress the loom and weave off two scarves a day.   Partly it is because I want the biggest variety of different colours I can make.  

But I do get tired, eventually, especially as I start running out of different options.  It becomes more difficult to come up with choices I find attractive.  As my choices run out I know it is close to wrapping up the series, especially when I see that I actually have plenty made for the upcoming season.  

So, even though I could eke out a few more warps, I have decided that once the warps already wound are woven, this design will be complete.   As for the above scarf, I like it so much that I am going to make two identical scarves and keep one for myself.  

And once these warps are woven it will be on to the next thing. 

Currently reading A new Kelley Armstrong, title escapes me...City of the Lost, perhaps.  The book is upstairs and I'm too lazy to go check.  Because I'm supposed to be weaving!