Rambling Thoughts

 One of several bins full of the first half of the assembled project pages

Today I worked some more on stapling the second half of the samples, sewed some more of the fringe on all four side samples, beamed a warp, spent way too much time on the computer and thought about how producing this sort of publication is probably a whole lot like giving birth (although I wouldn't know for sure as I've not actually had that experience!)

From the time of conception until today it has been just about exactly 9 months and apart from the month away in March I worked on this project nearly every day.

There were a number of reasons why I decided on 150 (in actual fact 145 copies to be sold) rather than more.  It took 10 years to sell the copies of Magic and quite frankly I didn't want to have to work that hard, finance the project for that long or have lots of copies hanging around for that many years until they finally sold.

If there is nothing else that I have learned the last four years is that 'tomorrow' is not a guarantee.  It's been a bit schizophrenic as I try to live my life in the now while being all too aware that if I am going to accomplish what I would like to do, I also have to plan for the future.  After all, there are events that I want to participate in and therefore things that must be accomplished in order for that participation to be of value for everyone - such as teaching events and sales opportunities.

Preparing for these events is not something that can be accomplished in a day or two.  The creation of textiles from scratch or even teaching about the creation of textiles - or writing a publication - falls squarely into the 'slow' movement.  Nothing about preparing for these events can be rushed or be completed in a short period of time.  The only reason A Good Yarn got done in 9 months is that I've done this before, had all of the equipment needed to do the job and by steadily applying myself to get down into the studio every day that I could - which means most days, holiday or no - and by having a deadline by which I wanted to get everything done, I was able to make that deadline - or near enough.

So I declare today, July 9, to be the 'birth' day of A Good Yarn:  Cotton.  Since today is my birthday, it seemed appropriate.  :)  

As some of you have surmised, this might possibly be the start of a series.  It will depend on how quickly AGY: Cotton sells whether or not I find it worthwhile to begin the next.

I am very grateful for the good wishes sent today and that I am still here, still weaving.  I'm on Bonus Time and I try to remember that every day is a gift - a gift that I should not take for granted - because so many people run out of time far too soon.

Currently reading Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris