Discipline

Once again, I remember that discipline is the only thing that will allow me to produce weaving. When I was unemployed a couple of years ago, I sat down every morning to weave -my mental resistance to doing so soon surrendered - and as a result I got things done. The weaving started evolving. It takes time to weave - it is not a quick process. So to see results, as Tammye said in an earlier comment, you have to put time into the warps.

I regularly feel there is just no time to weave, but I realise again as I sit here typing that this is just a feeling - not the reality. I can create an hour every day to weave. I can prioritise it. So I'm going to do it - starting right now.

More later.

Tipping the balance

Repetition is paying off.

I sat down spontaneously last night and wove for half an hour. It didn't take any planning or coercing myself into doing it. I just felt like it. The mental resistance to weaving is fading once again. Ego (my fear of failure) is giving way to curiosity in seeing the weaving evolve. The balance is tipping in the opposite direction.

This design is quite textural. I've been wrapping up the warps. It looks a bit like brickwork gone wrong which I like. I took a look at the weaving sideways and I am going use this quality later.

Weaving a design sideways: When weaving vertical lines up a tapestry, the vertical warps dictate that you can only create very straight lines. However, if you turn your design sideways before you mark it onto the warps, you are able to horizontally weave across the warps what will later become vertical lines - ie once you cut the tapestry off the loom and turn it the right way up. This gives you as the weaver much greater scope to play with vertical lines and make them less severe.

A surprising find

I've started weaving the second circle now. But lapsed. My motivation seems to come and go in fits and starts. I remember from previous weaving experience that sitting down to do it every day - no matter how resistant I felt - paid off dividends. My resistance weakened with each new sitting. It was the regularity and repetition that were the key factors. This year, it has been fits and starts - not the ideal. But better than nothing.

I have just done a little experiment and viewed several of my weavings under UV light. The whole point was to make patterns that glowed.

Strangely, the woven pattern that I thought would be the least effective was the most effective under UV. Fancy that! There is definitely a balance to be struck between black and white to make the design work effectively.

So that has given me fresh energy. Back to the mental drawing board - I'll mull it over while I complete circle 2.