Organizing Stuff

 

I bought a whole bunch of these plastic bins about 20 years ago.  They were initially purchased to help organize and sort the pages for Magic in the Water.  Since then they have proved to be very helpful in various ways.  Since they are clear, I can see what is in them, unlike cardboard boxes.  They protect better against critter damage plus they aren't so large I can't lift them onto and off shelves.

They have also become useful for sorting and organizing yarns for warps.

Sectional beaming (usually) requires that you have the same number of ends as you want per inch.  (There are exceptions I'm not going to explore right now.)

For the 2/16 warps, that meant 32 or 30 (it depends, sometimes more, sometimes less) was pretty standard.  For the 2/8 warps, I'm using 20 ends.  So, 20 yarn packages.

Pulling yarns and keeping them together in a bin does a couple of things:  I can choose colours then let them sit for a while and let myself decide if I'm going to like the combination.  The above combo has been adjusted a few times.  The rose in the bin is an alternate weft choice, not part of the warp.  What is missing from the warp choices is the variegated yarn that comes on cones and needs to be wound onto a couple of plastic spools to make beaming easier.

The weft for this warp will be first the dark green I didn't use up on the last warp, then a bit of pale green the same as the lighter value green in the bin (enough for two towels), then whatever warp is left will be woven with the rose weft.

The threading will be the same as the last warp - a large 'fancy' twill.  The weft is a cotton flake so anything very fancy would wind up obscured, so I'm keeping the overall design fairly simple - just a centre ground of large point progressions, 'fancy' twill borders at the edges.  The selvedges are straight progression.

The bin below is blues/greys and I'm waiting for an upholstery sample to see if I can do something for a person who is wanting a table runner to go on their dining room table.  And another bin has neutrals pulled - a variety of beiges, a darker olive green and dusky purple.  Those will be woven with a charcoal black for weft.

As I work through these warps I will be looking for other combinations.  I still have a few pounds of white cotton flake, so expect to see some warps coming through with white as weft.

But these bins help me in determining if I am satisfied with the combinations I've pulled - is there a pleasing ratio of value?  Is there an accent colour to provide interest?  More crucially - do I have enough yarn to do a warp?  When I don't have enough yarn packages of the colours I want to use, then I reach across to see if there is something else I can add.  Or if the tubes are full, I can wind off onto plastic spools, like I'm doing with the variegated.

And now that I've decided to add variegated to the mix, I will revisit those other two warps and see what I have to go with them.  Pretty sure I do.  Because I have lots and lots of yarn!