Sunday, May 17, 2009

On Vacation

I forgot how delightful it is to weave something that does not require thought.



I picked up an eight harness table loom yesterday from a weaver who had passed away. I had warped the loom for her several years ago in a four harness twill. The entire warp, of unknown length, had not been touched. I decided to weave off the warp. The warp colors were pleasant and I had a variegated weft yarn that worked wonderfully with the stripes in the warp.

I could have just cut off the warp but I am so happy I didn't. It truly is delightful to simply weave. No thought required. No looking at grids to figure out what harnesses to raise. No worrying about color changes. No sticky spools or bobbins. Simply thick variegated yarn on a stick shuttle and a four combination pattern requiring no memorization. I can go more than a foot before refilling my shuttle.

It's fascinating I can actually think about other stuff while I weave and not make mistakes. When my mind wanders while doing taquete I always make mistakes. If my mind wanders when I weave tapestry, I generally stop weaving. I could actually listen to a book on tape weaving this way.

Wow, what a different weaving lifestyle. Kinda like being on vacation from work.

3 comments:

Karen said...

This is lovely. Yes, just weaving; the simple act of and for no other reason,but for pleasure and to relax. Nice that you treated yourself and I know how our dear departed friend would be smiling.
Karen

Deanna said...

What a beautiful fabric, and a lovely post. I think maybe my next warp should be something simple - I love the idea of being able to let my mind wander when I weave, instead of whispering a constant stream of numbers to myself. Love your choice of weft!

Unknown said...

Nicki, you sound like you might be a "kinetic learner." When our bodies are involved in some kind of activity, we retain more information. I always used to knit in my lecture classes and, the minute I picked the knitting back up, I would have almost total recall of what was said! When I had a professor who objected, I would try to explain. A lot of them reacted with 'Yeah, Kid, SURE, you do" but most were ok with it as long as I was participating.