Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Weaving & Card Shuffle

Tuesdays are usually one of my more favorite days but last Tuesday was a little sad.  I got my letter regarding Graduate school and I did not get in.  I'm not upset about not getting into where I applied as I am upset that I have to continue to stay in a stifling day job that is completely without challenge and any sort of artistic endeavor. I have my teaching on Thursday nights and the summer I have that month long stint of teaching both CE and College Preview, but throughout the year sometimes crafting on my own just isn't enough to deal with the depressing day job.

Thankfully from my friend Claire I've found this weaving class.  It is a complete gem. This is something I have been looking forward to on my Tuesday nights which makes the day go by so much more quickly. I really needed it last week and was happy I drudged through and went instead of sulking at home watching Korean Dramas ( which I am now watching Bachelor Vegetable shop)

This is the warp another women set up, It is just so pretty with all the colors.  It's not my personal taste but I can appreciate the visual candy of it.

Every single one of those threads has to go through it's own heddle.  If there is a pattern like the one I am intending on doing you have to thread your heddle into a pattern on a multi harness loom.

This particular loom she is working on is an 8 harness floor loom.

These are the colors I am working with.  I was inspired by a blog I read the day I picked my colors where someone is knitting a scarf row by row each day depending on the clouds or color of the sky that day. Even though I won't be doing that with my weaving the Idea of cloud colors was really nice to me so I wanted to use those.

There is so much prep work to weaving that I had forgotten because in college the Teacher did it all for 3 looms that we time shared in the beginning fibers class.  This is the Inkle loom where we measure out the distance for our warp before we thread the loom.  It took me a little less then two classes to get this done.

There is also a computerized loom in this class that looks amazing!  I want a turn at it so badly!

The full room of looms (swoon)  I could stay in that room forever.  There is just enough space to work and sometimes not even enough space to walk around each other when we are all working.

I'm on a humble little 4 harness loom since my work isn't too wide or complicated.  I got everything threaded in about two classes even with a few mistakes.  My teacher Pat Bullen was impressed that I got it done that quickly (gold star).

Another look at my  390 some threads on the loom.

I also got to do my foundation weaving and play with my design for a little bit 

Tonight I look forward to continue my weaving and getting into my final pattern colors.  I'm hoping to make this simple square bottom tote bag with a flap that I can line with padding for another easy to carry camera bag.

As for Graduate school, it's just not in my cards this year.  I'm going to shuffle the deck again and start over.  Keeping my eyes, ears and heart open while continuing to do the things I love like sewing, craft, being a part of my community.

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