Progress

 

Progress.  It's a thing.

Progress comes in many forms, from the tiniest to the largest sweeping advances and everything in between.

Weaving is full of ways to measure progress.  

Every piece of woven cloth is measured, in multiple ways, multiple times.

We can focus only on the 'big' steps, or we can appreciate every little step along the way.

Life is also about progress and can similarly be measured in small increments or large ones.

Weaving looks 'simple' - and in many ways it is.  But it is also complex beyond imagining.  And each person can choose which approach they decide to take.

For years, decades, I measured progress in large increments.  In completed warps.  In numbers of items made, ready for sale.  I planned out months ahead, weeks, days.  But I also measured out quarter hours.  Got 15 minutes?  Wind bobbins.  Choose yarn for next warp.  Do quick n dirty inventory and start building a yarn order so there would be yarn on hand for the coming months.

Got 20 minutes?  Start working on another article to submit for publication.  Design project to illustrate it.  Or take photos for it.

Got 30 minutes?  Do some inspection/repair, get load of textiles into washing machine, press damp towels.  

Got an hour?  Weave.  

Now that I am no longer producing for sale as my focus, my attention is more on the smaller chunks of time.  I don't plan so far into the future.  But I am still aware of my long range goals and make sure that I have what I need when I get there in a few weeks/months.

And so last week I inspected my yarn stash of 2/16 cotton.  I counted up how many (partial) tubes of the 2/16 cotton, did the math and realized I didn't have enough of the white to finish weaving off what was left.  Last night I ordered another 16 pounds.

What I am left with is a whole lot of red, a significant number of different shades of beige and a much larger number of cones (different supplier) of a kind of turquoise.  It's a good thing that colour is among my favourites because there is going to be a whole of of weaving of that particular colour coming up.

The guild is participating in a Gourmet Show in June and my tea towels will go into their booth.  Hopefully some of my towels will sell.  Checking the calendar, and the size of my hemming pile, I started hemming over the weekend and now my progress on that is measured in how many towel ends I manage to do in an evening.  Given I weave about two towels a day, I have to hem more than two a night or I'll never catch up with myself (as my mother used to say.)  

Now that I'm feeling better, I find myself enjoying getting back into the rhythm of hemming.  Grab towel, pin, thread needle, stitch, stitch, stitch, then tie off.  Rinse, repeat.  It was quite satisfying last night to see how much the hemmed pile had grown over just a few evenings of getting back into the routine.

Progress.  In weaving that can be one thread at a time, or entire warps.  Time to celebrate the individual steps, not just the completed hike.