On Friday & Saturday afternoons the weather was just lovely. Although the temperature wasn’t high, the breeze on my face felt more like spring than the bitter wind of winter. I took my old camera outside with me Saturday afternoon and took some pictures of the sweetness of animal tracks in the snow.
Today is the first of the month and March is certainly coming in like a lion – I think we’ve had about 4″ of snow fall today. I hope that the old saying is correct, that if March comes in like a lion it goes out like a lamb. I’m definitely tired of winter. Of bitter temps. Of shoveling.
On the weaving front, by yesterday afternoon I had finished winding the warp for the next baby wraps. Here’s a shot of the 6 bouts on my warping valet, ready for beaming.
Baby wraps offer me what seem to be unending opportunities for learning. Sometimes learning the same thing over again. This time the lesson was something I was told way back in elementary school – go with your first answer.
In this case, my first answer was, sorry, I can’t do what you’re asking. I later relented, and wished I hadn’t while I was winding and beaming the warp. The question: will I warp long enough for 2 long and 1 short wrap? At first I somewhat reluctantly said I would, since the desired total finished length was 10 Meters, my maximum willingness/ability. As planning progressed, the requests expanded to 11M. I said I couldn’t do it, and the involved moms made modification to bring it back to the 10M.
But I didn’t let it rest. The mom who backed down was EL, the woman who’d designed the warp. Her 2 sister wraps were going to get what they wanted, and in my mind, EL should, too. So I told her I’d do my best to get her the length she wanted. Now, mind you, this was my decision – I got no pressure from mom. But I won’t do this length again.
As I mentioned in the last post, that meant I had to wind the warp in 6 bouts instead of 4. Then the beaming was a bit of a bear. All of the colors except the lilac and the royal blue behaved very nicely. Those 2 colors, not so much. Lots of tangles, errant threads, problems. Took much more time than usual.
I finally got it beamed last night, and today got both the heddles and reed threaded.
Hopefully the weaving will proceed smoothly.
What a lovely warp though, even if it did give you fits. Love the warping valet, is it like Laura Fry’s?
Thanks, Theresa. The warp is lovely, and I’m hopeful that the hard part is over now. Yes, my warping valet is a replica of Laura Fry’s. I’ve learned much from her – her blog and her DVDs. I wouldn’t warp without a valet now!