Choosing

 

Realizing that the current sample warp could be off the loom as soon as (gasp!) tomorrow, figured I had better get cracking on choosing the next towel warp.

I still have some (quite a lot, really) of the 2/15 natural white cotton to use up, and a small amount (for me) of the dyed 2/16 so I rooted through a few boxes and decided I would go with a medium blue and a pale-ish buttery yellow/cream for the warp.

I'm still trying to *not* challenge myself (too much) and wound up with this draft.  Nothing grand or particularly 'fancy' but I like the little 'fancy' circles in the middle of the diamonds so I'm going with it.

The other day someone asked about 'dummy' warps and explained their issues when trying to use one.  Several times.  With consistently 'not great' results.

I know some weavers love them.  I've become disenchanted with them.  

But each to their own.

There are some issues with using one that just don't sit well with me.  One of the big ones is that people say they only need to get their threading correct *once* and then they don't need to worry about it any more.  Which is fine, if you like using the name number of ends in the same design over and over again.  Not necessarily a detraction if you don't mind weaving the same thing multiple times - which I do not.

I did, in fact, use dummy warps for a while as a new weaver until I got fed up and decided I was better served by figuring out how to become more efficient in dressing the loom, and then set about making that happen.

But that's the thing - hardly any of us in the 21st century need to earn an income by weaving.  (Note I rarely use the term 'living', just 'income'.)

So it doesn't matter what you choose to conserve - or waste.  For me it has always been my time I wanted to stretch thinner and thinner.  I was very young when I learned one of life's hard lessons - we can always buy more 'stuff' but we cannot negotiate our way into more time.  Once I have spent the coin of my available time, it's gone.

Sampling?  Never a waste of time to learn more before committing to a rather major task - like designing, winding, threading, sleying and weaving, then wet finishing.  So, yes, I weave samples.  The more I know about my materials, the more likely I am to wind up with acceptable results.

Tossing away (recycling) left over yarn?  When I add up the loom waste against the labour of setting up the loom, that few ounces of yarn pales in comparison.

If someone wants to use a dummy warp, they should do that.  But if they get fed up with it, then they need to figure out what to do instead.  Everyone has to figure out what is acceptable to them, and what is not.

What I do is not 'magic'.  If someone likes my results, I have been consistently generous on a number of platforms sharing what I do.  

Online classes at Long Thread Media

Online classes at School of Sweet Georgia

Books at Blurb.

Books at Ko-fi

WEFT - magazine

This blog - check out the labels at the side

I hang out on School of Sweet Georgia and Handweaving Academy sites and of course if you have questions you can email me laura at laurafry dot com