The Last Little While

I had gotten into a nice routine of weeding for 2-5 hours, 2-5 mornings a week, then weaving for 2-4 hours most afternoons. I finished the fine merino warp after 7PM Monday night, (I got four pieces,) then I broke my routine and didn't wind the next warp right away, primarily because it was dinner time but also because I wasn't sure if I wanted to work on a commission piece next or another wool warp, and because it's about time I started fringing and finishing. (The pile is now 16 high.) I thought not having another warp on the loom would encourage me. And then there is that still-unfaded warp.

Wrong.

Tuesday afternoon I sat on the couch, dazed. The state to Wednesday so I ironed Ben's shirts with lots of breaks in the morning. After a very late lunch I still couldn't get my motor going so I wound another warp; it's a black merino warp I overdyed with walnut shells. It was lovely to have a few productive couple of hours in the end. I don't know what I'll weave, as even my notes had a big bold ? and that warp end number was wrong, but it's the familiar 110/2 and at least I know it goes in at 18EPI.

I've been enjoying getting sidetracked with the commission piece. I already made a warp, goodness me a while back, but I recently saw this picture (Pic #25; easiest to click on any pic, then select from the bottom filmstrip), (a good blog to expose myself to painters I know but never really looked into,) and was drawn by Munch's use of violet. I like purples, but not really violets (so far), and was intrigued how violet can be the shadow in combination with yellows, yellow-greens and pale blues, but it can be the light in combination with purples, darker blues and greens. I haven't progressed beyond that observation, and I don't have the exact violet Munch liked, but I've got to be able to work with these.

I can't decide if I want to go dark, or light, or maybe even both in one piece.

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We've been eating well this season. We ate a lot of veggies and fruits, less protein but more in the morning, and my breads have become tastier and steady. Until today.

Dianne and hubby Pete came over this morning, and I made a fruity loaf/cake that worked the last two weeks, (in fact two of the best,) but today's was a flop; burned at the top and soggy in the middle. And Pete made the coffee.

It was wonderful to see Dianne again. We met at Randy Darwall's workshop in October 2006 and hadn't seen each other since, though we follow each other's blogs and kept in touch. And we seem to have similar tastes in books and magazines, which extends to weaving. We promised not to leave it another eight years before we were in the same room again.

She gave me this echo-weave towel, in which I keep seeing purple that doesn't exist. (In real life it's slightly less blue, and has lighter olive green bits, so more varied in value, but this was the best pic of several versions. If you tilt the screen up a little, you may get a better view.) I also like the Mucha-like frame around the central design; she said she made a big banner based on this. And it's the most luxurious-feeling towel.  

And Dianne reckons my basement studio is smaller than it appears on the blog, so you have been told. I never thought of this, but it could be the amount of wool stash moved downstairs. And she was too polite to mention my garden is as bad as, or worse than, I say it is here. LOL.  

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Because I've been enjoying weaving and weeding, I don't go into town much, but we saw this film, and I recommend it to all makers. There's a lot about time (which good making requires,) and "the business" of making beautiful things, and loss of skills.

We were serenaded by a bagpipe band staying somewhere near me for a day and two nights but not today, because the Championship is in town. I'm sorely tempted to run into town today but I think I'll start fringing. I have a goal of finishing, tagging and labeling these 16 pieces by the end of the month. 

Garden is bad, but life is good. I feel self-contained enjoying weaving and weeding, though both the garden and the stash are endless. Re. the garden I think what I'm doing right now is still more emergency measures and not long-term, and I still fail to see "tidying" the garden as an ongoing thing. I stopped referring to the German-speaking Jewish writer from Prague because it's too real and not funny any more. But I'm not disheartened yet.

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EDIT: I met Dianne around 8 years and six months minus a fortnight ago; I last saw her five days later. Some people don't age in 8 and a half years, and it's not me. I'm envious.