Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Are we there yet?

A subject has been coming to mind frequently lately, that of cutting off warps. As you see from yesterday's blog entry, I took a very bad phone photo of Bonnie cutting off her warp. She finished those pretty huck lace towels that she has been toiling over for many weeks, possibly months. I use the loom to the left of Bonnie's, and Bonnie and I often make remarks about what we're weaving on, some printable, others... well, this is a G-rated blog!
It has struck me as funny lately that we are all so eager to start a new project. We pore over our books and magazines and web sites, looking for the next project. We gaze at the Center's huge wall of yarn, wondering what will tickle our fingers next. We chat and share and experiment. When we have finally decided what to do next, we calculate yardage, make our guide thread and get to measuring out that warp. We dress the loom--front to back? back to front?--and get those first toilet paper rows going. We wind our bobbins, choose our shuttles, pin up our treadling sequence and off we go!
We giggle and smile and make everyone come see the beginning. We glow when innocent bystanders walk by and say, "Oh, my! How beautiful!" We finish our first towel or placemat or scarf or whatever it is, and we celebrate a little. One down, X many more to go!
We get halfway through the warp and lift up off the bench to see if we can see the ties on the back apron. We sigh a little and make another whatever it is. We go around the back of the loom to see how much more could possibly be left to go, because, how long was that warp, anyway? Does anyone remember how long this was? How much more should be on it? Isn't it almost done? If we make X more, won't that be it?
Already, just a little over halfway through the warp, new ideas are churning. We're thinking about the much-more-fun warp we have on a loom at home, and we wish we hadn't made this darn warp so darn long!
Knots creep through and our hearts leap a little! Soon! Soon, this boring old warp will be done and we won't have to use this boring old pattern anymore! Won't it be nice to put a new warp on! Totally different colors! Ooooh! We can't wait!
Last whatever it is! It's a little too short/long/just the right length! Yay! Break out the scissors! Where's a camera? Doesn't anyone have a camera? Applause all around!
Let's get out the magazines and the books and look on websites! We're ready to start another project!

4 comments:

Tina J said...

Oh, so true Maggie!

LA said...

Yep...I believe you got it right! Kind of like climbing a mountain: "I did it, now can I slide down the other side???"

Anonymous said...

I really like how we all cheer and applaud each other when a warp come off a loom and then oou and aawww when we see the cloth all stretched out.

Linda

Bonnie said...

Touche, Maggie! That is so true.