A Week of Weaving: Day Two

When I woke up on Tuesday, our second full day of class, I woke up with a new attitude. I had gone to bed feeling discouraged about my feeble attempts and slow progress the day before - especially when I compared myself to others in the class. Many of them were ready to start weaving Tuesday morning. I still had threading and tie up to look forward to. But for whatever reason, I woke up thinking that I was here to learn as much as possible and enjoy the process. I had not "enjoyed" the day before; and that's a feeling I'm not used to and don't like. I decided then and there that I was going to take my time, not worry about how much I got "done" or how quickly, and that if I only completed one project instead of two, then that was good enough.

So on Tuesday, I took my time and spent most of my day threading the heddles. Our instructor, Pam, wanted us to play with twill, so she insisted that we "come up with" our own draft design. I understood only the basic ideas behind a draft, and even though I really, really wanted to follow someone else's pattern, I came up with a threading pattern that was at least symmetrical and started threading. I didn't take the time to even think about what the weave structure might look like; I was just ready to get started and learn as I go.

I was in the right frame of mind on Tuesday, so Ruth (my loom) and I got along just fine. The threading was tedious, as was getting all those threads through the reed, but it was a much easier process for me. By late afternoon, I was ready to weave!

By the end of day two, I had completed several inches of plain weave. I was on my way!