Endings. Beginnings.

 

The Nechako River in summer

A river can be a great metaphor for many things.  Today I am thinking of beginnings, endings, and beginning again; the great cycle of time that flows, like a river.  Sometimes the level of water is high and the river has more energy; at others the level drops and the river becomes languid.

Creativity is much like that.  At times we are in the throes of a fabulous new idea and we work on it, energetically.  At other times we may struggle to meet our minimum goals for the day.  Eventually, much like a drop of water that begins at the source and finally reaches the ocean, we come to the end of a project.

I have been steadily working on depleting my stash of 2/16 cotton and today I will finish the last few inches of the red warp, cut it off the loom, separate the towels and get them into the washing machine.  Once pressed they will be ready for hemming, then their final press.  And I will have sailed from the source to the ocean and be 'done' (for now) working with 2/16 cotton, making tea towels.

Am I done making things?

Not hardly!

I still have yarn - lots and lots of yarn.  However, with the end in literal sight, I have been thinking about what comes next.  

Today I will dress the Leclerc Fanny with a place mat warp.  If that goes well (my body doesn't object) I have several combinations pulled for some more mat warps.  It is a test of how well my recovery is going.  After discussing with my massage therapist, I will do as advised and take it very slowly.  Instead of 45-50 minutes weaving, I will cut back by half.  IOW, where I was when that was all I could manage on that loom.  And see how it goes.

While he has been very encouraging and supportive, he also cautions me that I am poised on a knife edge and it would take very little to knock me 'back' and I do not want to go that direction.

So I will begin today, monitoring how I am doing, resting in between sessions at the loom.  

If I still can't manage to weave on the Leclerc without sparking pain, I will go back to the Megado.  On that loom I am planning a run of scarves, using the 2/16 bamboo for warp, crossing it with other rayon yarns in my stash.  Yesterday I looked at some of them and will start to make decisions on combinations.  The first warp yarns are pulled - black and dark navy.  That should set off any of the colours in my stash nicely.  And, having done shawls in that combination previously, I know the quality of cloth that will result.  Mostly I will continue to play with colour.  

I don't know that I will set the goal of actually using up any particular yarn, like I did with the 2/16 cotton.  I may decide to just do 'enough' of something to add to my inventory, not worry too much about actually weaving down the yarn entirely.  

Making the 2/16 cotton tea towels for the past year and a bit was good for me - but I think I'm ready to start looking at being more experimental, more adventurous, more creative, than I have been for a while.

Life gets busy and bodies get worn out.  If I have learned anything in my life, it is that I cannot get too set in my thinking.  I need to stay flexible, change as circumstances change.  The power of the river is in its constancy, it's steady flow towards the sea.  It doesn't matter if it flows with energy or more languidly, more peacefully.  It keeps going.

Onwards.