Beyond the Plans

When last we chatted, I was weaving away using neckties donated to me from the J Family. Well, I’ve come to the end of the neckties and the question is, “now what?” What is beyond the plans?

Let’s Play!

I love having extra inches left in a project! It represents time to simply try stuff! The pressure is off. There are no wrong answers. Just throw it in. And weave. Woohoo!!!

Up to this point, my focus had been on distributing the colors of the neckties in a pleasing fashion. Not too many reds or blues together. Sprinkle in the bright yellow tie sparingly, etc.

Now? Now I am left with the colors of the warp yarns and nothing else. In this case, I have blues and purples. So, I started off using a series of blues and teals. Nothing crazy. I threw this lovely metallic yarn into the mix that made it all sparkle just a bit!

Why Not?

Then, I started to get a little bolder! How about a green? It’s still in the family of cool colors. After that, I did some real stretching.

I found this fuzzy, variegated yarn in ALL the cool colors! Blue, turquoise, purple, green – it had it all! I’m not sure if it was a true eyelash yarn, but it was soft and fuzzy just like it. So, I incorporated it into the project. Bingo! So much fun! It created an intense block of color with an incredibly soft hand. You couldn’t really see the rest of the yarns in the shuttle, since the fuzz blocked it all out. But, talk about a fabulous overall effect!

I only had one ball of this fuzzy phenom. So, it didn’t go very far. But I definitely need to give that some thought for future projects! Yum!

After the soft, fuzzy star of the show ran out, I added in a fine, handspun yarn with interesting slubs in different colors. (Slubs are thick spots in a typically thin thread or yarn.) They pop out of the fabric in random places, which is pretty exciting!

 

All Good Things…

And then, suddenly, I was at the end of the warp. This project was a fabulous exercise for my creative side. As a weaver with a weaving business, there are plenty of occasions when I have fairly strict parameters I need to follow. I have to create “x” amount of inches, or match a specific color, or evenly sprinkle in these (2) neckties.

But every so often, the joy of simply listening to my gut is the perfect palette cleanser. To have no concern for anyone else’s expectations is an incredible gift. This bolt of fabric? Just what I needed!

If you find yourself doing your art to other people’s specifications for too long, I highly recommend setting aside time to just do you! It will be time really well spent! Happy weaving, friends!