Designing Backwards

So. I cleaned my closet yesterday. I'm throwing away or giving to charity more than I had expected, but far less than I should. I'm seeing a new closet-cleaning trend, too; every time I clean it, there are items which I keep, even though I never wear them (or they are not even mine, but my mother's purchase/tailor mistakes,) because they are made of beautiful fabric.

This has been the longest creative slump I had: for two or three days my mind was totally blank, even during/after cleaning my closet. None of the magazines inspired anything, neither did the weaving books, not my cut-and-paste idea notebooks, not even my ultimate secret weapon, the Metropolitan Museum of Art Christmas gift catalogs. So in desperation, I began designing backwards.

It's been a hot summer, and the exhibit will start in the hottest month of the year. So, cotton.

I like the 2/60, but "around six works" need to be delivered by 4.30PM on Monday, February 11, and it would take too long to warp and thread, so 2/20, which I wove at 30 EPI last time.

The venue is the huge and dark Refinery Art Space, so though my first instinct is to weave 6-inch-wide scarves with this yarn/sett combination, I'll go with eight inches this time. And I'll use the lovely gold in the warp so regardless of the weft or structure, the design stand out and the scarves have luster.

Next, a simple threading; point, just because I don't use it much, but it's quick.

16-end point threading, 30EPI, around eight inches wide requires 241 ends, with eight repeats, plus two on each side as a floating selvedge make 245 ends, though I might later decide to use weft yarns as floating selvedge. Wind eight meters and I should get three or four presentable pieces.

So that's what I did, and was pretty pleased that even when I have no vision of what I'm going to weave, I spent my afternoon productively. What a pro! Next I doodle on the computer, or thread and sley.