Weaverly Perspective

I forgot I drafted this two weeks ago. I need one more sitting to finish this warp.

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It looked simple enough on the screen.

I started weaving the last piece of the would-have-been baby blanket warp. The weft is skinnier than the same yarn in different colors, I noticed it while winding the pirns, but that should have only flattened the pattern. When I started weaving, I couldn't see the patter, not even when I got off the bench and looked from different angles and under different lights.

When I finally could, the leafy shapes looked blockier, more square. And I saw a military (??) cemetery with identical markers for miles over rolling hills, the kind we see on films and TV with cannons and flags. Strange. If it had more colors, I might have seen rows of English beach sheds (??).

Both the single wool and possum/merino/silk will full, so I'm looking forward to wet-finishing this and two previous pieces, pale green and green and red. But these sure take a long time to weave. I think part of it is because I'm tiring of twill; I will never NOT weave these, I like them in general, the next blanket will be twill, but I think I need to get excited about getting to know another weave structure.

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I've been thinking more about stitched double weave, not studying but exploring the kind of look I want to weave. Stitched double weave, as far as I can tell, are woven for two reasons: for design, mainly to introduce new colors; or structural, to either hold two layers together, or to envelop stuffing between layers. Or both. I was initially thinking of the design/color aspect, but that can be done in other ways, e.g. supplementary warp, careful (beyond my skill) dyeing, etc, as well. Which makes the experimentation less urgent. Except a two-layer scarf/shawl would be warmer than a single. I'm not stopping the research, but am looking for some kind of a goal/purpose/reason.

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As regards the pick-up technique/book mentioned in the previous post, I have an idea I can't stop thinking about, but I don't know how practicable it is. I get the book in a week or two when Pat returns from the US, but I don't know if the idea is even pertinent to what the book covers. I'm plotting to weave a set of large-ish cloth/pictures with a theme.

The problem is, I think of weaving in terms of cloth, i.e. regular repetition of motifs making up a long rectangle. Making something with visual oomph, though, requires thinking not of columns and rows of cutesy motifs but the cloth/picture as a whole. For now I'm not planning on embellishing, especially of attaching/leaving hangy, sticky-outy bits, but making a picture inside or on top of a cloth/structure. The problem is, whatever I try to visualize, a starting point or something nearer an end product, all I see are flat cloth with perhaps a bit erratic color changes, and not too different from the usual.

This is going to take time.

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Did you see Kaz's new toys? At first I thought, oh, yeah, the freestyle Saori thing, i.e. not for me. Then I wondered if the flexible reed would help bring a new kind of aesthetic to my cloth/pictures with a theme. Well, not just yet; the reeds are expensive, and I haven't done enough thinking. Heck, I haven't even started.