Stymied
I've had the worst case of weaver's block lately! It's like the baby wraps sucked every bit of creative juices out of me, leaving only a pathetic, empty husk. OK, a bit overly dramatic, but it's a terrible feeling. Now is the time to stock up for the holidays (I know, I know - seems way too soon to me too!), but except for a merino/tencel scarf requested by a coworker, I've been unable to come up with any ideas or designs at all.
I know I need to make some more tea towels. Check. Structure first? Hmmm..tabby? twill? overshot? summer and winter? Um, I dunno. Maybe if I concentrate on colors, I'll be inspired! Dum, de dum... I toodle on up to the studio; look at all the pretty colors!! What if I combined this one with..er, that, or maybe this other.. Oh, I really don't have quite enough of these here to make much. But I have shelves of yarn!! Surely something can come of all this! What if... Or how about... Nuthin'! Well, gosh, I'm kind of hungry, so if I go downstairs and eat, I'll have more energy to design something!
Yum, that was good! So, back to the towel conundrum. What if I made twill stripes with these two, separated by the natural...well, no, the natural weft would wash out the colors. I think... no, I'm not thinking at all. I. Have. Absolutely. No. Idea. What. To. Weave!!
That's the mindset I went to bed with last night. No wonder I had trouble falling asleep! Got up this morning, read the paper (yep, I'm that boring), finished my breakfast, visited with the Second Son who was up for a visit, and, as is our usual, we went for a walk together. Miraculously, while discussing everything and nothing on the walk, I realized what I could weave for my next batch of towels. Nothing earth-shattering, but an eight shaft, turned twill Drall design, with a natural warp, and several different colors for weft. No stress about having enough of any one color to make a set - each towel can be different from the next one. I think I just needed to get out of my own head for a bit. I'll be measuring out a 13 yard warp sometime this week!
And here's a quick shot of the merino/tencel scarf in progress. This yarn is sooo soft!
Those slight irregularities you see will even out in the wet finishing process. This will be a super quick project, though I have to be mindful of not beating in the weft, but placing it consistently. Actually, that is a really hard thing for me to do. Give me a good ol' "wham the yarn into place" any day!
I know I need to make some more tea towels. Check. Structure first? Hmmm..tabby? twill? overshot? summer and winter? Um, I dunno. Maybe if I concentrate on colors, I'll be inspired! Dum, de dum... I toodle on up to the studio; look at all the pretty colors!! What if I combined this one with..er, that, or maybe this other.. Oh, I really don't have quite enough of these here to make much. But I have shelves of yarn!! Surely something can come of all this! What if... Or how about... Nuthin'! Well, gosh, I'm kind of hungry, so if I go downstairs and eat, I'll have more energy to design something!
Yum, that was good! So, back to the towel conundrum. What if I made twill stripes with these two, separated by the natural...well, no, the natural weft would wash out the colors. I think... no, I'm not thinking at all. I. Have. Absolutely. No. Idea. What. To. Weave!!
That's the mindset I went to bed with last night. No wonder I had trouble falling asleep! Got up this morning, read the paper (yep, I'm that boring), finished my breakfast, visited with the Second Son who was up for a visit, and, as is our usual, we went for a walk together. Miraculously, while discussing everything and nothing on the walk, I realized what I could weave for my next batch of towels. Nothing earth-shattering, but an eight shaft, turned twill Drall design, with a natural warp, and several different colors for weft. No stress about having enough of any one color to make a set - each towel can be different from the next one. I think I just needed to get out of my own head for a bit. I'll be measuring out a 13 yard warp sometime this week!
And here's a quick shot of the merino/tencel scarf in progress. This yarn is sooo soft!
Those slight irregularities you see will even out in the wet finishing process. This will be a super quick project, though I have to be mindful of not beating in the weft, but placing it consistently. Actually, that is a really hard thing for me to do. Give me a good ol' "wham the yarn into place" any day!
I know just how you feel!! I think the problem is we have too much choice. I have a HUGE pile of fleeces and stacks of weaving yarn, but sometimes there is nothing that I can make with it all. Not the right colour, not enough yarn, which pattern, spin to weave or knit.....and so it goes! Quite often I spend an hour or so going through my stash and end up leaving it all in pile and heading for a cuppa! Hope you can get your mojo back soon.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the pep talk, Rachel! I did indeed get my mojo back, so all's well! But I SO agree about never using up stash. How on earth do I need to order more yarn for every project?? There's so much already here!
Delete