Coming Down to the Wire

 

We make plans.  The universe laughs.

Hope springs eternal.

Even as I despair of meeting my (self-imposed) deadlines, a tiny part of my brain is thinking, thinking, thinking and even as I say "I'm done" that little kernel wonders, what if...?

The taping for the next two classes will soon be history and filed under 'things I have done' instead of the 'things I will do' category.  Vowing they would be my last online classes a few weeks ago, the other night (damn insomnia) I was unprepared for that little part of my brain to send out a teaser 'what if'.

And now, of course, like an ear worm, I can't seem to put it back into the little box it popped out of, like an evil jack-in-the-box, tempting me to consider, to propose, to start thinking about the whole thing more, adding this, adding that, planning warps to exhibit the principles.

Every time it drifts through my conscious awareness, I push it back, push it away, shove it aside.  And yet...here it comes again.

I may yet decide to roll with it.  Or sanity may prevail and I'll let it die of a lack of oxygen, a lack of energy to do All The Things required to make it happen.

After 40+ years of weaving I have a broad base of knowledge.  As the years progressed I focused my attention on certain aspects of the craft that I felt needed to be promoted more (wet finishing, ergonomics) and let go other things about cloth construction that interested me.  

Lately those things have begun to reappear.  They are, in fact, facets of wet finishing, largely the special effects that come about *because* of wet finishing.  How weave structures that depend on the deflection of the threads in the cloth develop to their full potential in the wet finishing and other approaches.  In fact I used to offer a workshop with that very focus.

And now I find myself revisiting it - even as I threw away the workshop notes thinking I would never need them again.

Ironic, right? 

Oh well.  It may all come to nothing.

But the fact that this is happening, right now, tells me I'm not done yet.  Even as I come down to the wire in terms of my health, energy and drive to accomplish things, a part of me wants to do 'more'.

Time will tell if I can scrape up the will to actually *do* more.  Or if I will be content simply weaving down my stash.

In the meantime, there will be two more SOS classes launched in the new year and the lecture series continues.  I have a couple of bookings for guild presentations.  The topics are listed on my (new/refreshed) website

Two garments, woven for my master weaver monograph, exhibiting significant fulling