One by One

 

After spending so much time on the puzzle, I thought I would share it once it was done.

A lot of people find doing such things - like making a jigsaw puzzle - is a waste of time.  I agree it is a way to spend time.  But a waste?  I guess that depends on your definition of what is productive and what isn't.

Jigsaw puzzles are like a lot of other things that take time.  If the person doing them finds some satisfaction in the making, then it's not really a waste.

Just like pretty much any craft...

I love tv and now the internet because they have introduced me to things made - in some cases - hundreds if not thousands of years ago.  When the technology we now have did not exist.  When things were made by hand.  Making glass, metal, pottery, fibre things did take time.  In some cases a lot of time.  But the people making them still took additional time to make them beautiful.

Metal and pottery items were decorated, either by carving into them or adding things - glaze, mosaics.

Buildings have been unearthed with incredibly fine mosaic floors, tiled walls, frescos.

I gave a talk once on National Women's Day and since I was speaking to a primarily union member audience, I talked about making things, by hand, slowly and with care.  And that while we needed our bread, we needed our roses, too.

And so I make things like jigsaw puzzles.  At the end of all the piece fiddling, trying them here, there, sometimes every damn where, the pretty picture exists to brighten my day.  

I nearly gave up on this puzzle.  It was difficult because the colours were blobby, there were no straight lines to build, the change in colours was extremely subtle and sometimes changed at the cut line.  So while I might be looking for a blue piece, it was a green one that actually fit.

But every time I sat down to work on it, I would find a handful of matches.  And so, having made progress, I would leave the puzzle board on the table, and try again the following evening.  And find a few more pieces that fit.

In many ways making a puzzle isn't much different than weaving.  I start with a vision of what I want to end up with (the photo on the box lid), then I make choices.  Then I keep at it, adding more things - choosing the warp colours, deciding on the weave structure, then, one by one, every weft pick gets laid into the warp.  And just like the puzzle, the weaving grows.

I have been telling myself that once the puzzle was done I would dig out my spinning.  Now the puzzle has been put away, the table has been (more or less) cleared, it is time to go digging in my spinning stash.  But I also have hemming to do.  

Yesterday I reached the halfway point in the current warp so I cut off the 9 towels, cut/serged them, tossed them into the washer/dryer, and they are now ready to be pressed.  And hemmed.  And pressed again.

Piece by piece, step by step, they are coming into physical being.

For people interested in possibly buying some tea towels, the local shopping has been shut down due to Covid, but I can still mail things.  If you are interested in seeing what I have, I can go up to the guild room and take photos (or check my ko-fi account ).   The photos posted there the past few weeks show towels that are currently here at home.  We are not taking down the guild sale because the closures are for two weeks, initially, and we may be able to continue in December...  But I can still go to the room and take photos if someone is looking for something in particular.  I might just have something to suit.