Fretting

Things at work are slow right now, so I’ve been sharpening up my project management skills.  I’ve bought The Microsoft Project 2007 Bible and read through the first 299 pages today (okay, I skipped a few sections and skimmed some others).  Mostly what I’ve discovered is that I knew a lot more about project scheduling than I thought I did; there hasn’t been anything really earthshaking in the book so far.  But there are another 530-odd pages to go, and I have hopes of learning some more interesting stuff once they get into what can be done with the new Project Server.

Whee.

In Weavolution news, the two developers are installing and getting to know Drupal on their home machines.  Our user interface designer, Marian, has promised us something to get started on by the end of next week.  So there’s not much for me to do in the interim, given that the prototype is already built and that most of the remaining tasks require customization beyond what I can comfortably manage.  I do need a graphic designer and have been working on getting one.  Beyond that…it’s a matter of waiting.

Have I mentioned that I am very BAD at waiting?

So I have been fretting and champing at the bit, wanting to move ahead but not being able to.  This is very frustrating, especially considering that it’s happening at work at the same time.

So…I am going back to working on weaving.

Sectional beaming continues to be a challenge. I have, thank goodness, managed to get two warp sections on with even tension, nice and flat.  I have also cut at least four sections off the beam.  I think I am going to use my remaining cheap warp yarn for practice, and then start over with commercially dyed mercerized cotton yarn in four colors that I bought just for the occasion.  There is clearly a learning curve here and if I don’t want to be miserable with an unevenly tensioned warp later, I had better get it down now.  Which means practicing, of course.

I am now considering what project to do next. I had planned to weave doubleweave samples, but have realized that since doubleweave requires very even tension to weave up well, it is not the best choice for learning how to beam sectionally.  So I am thinking that I will make my next project another network drafted project – this time on 24 shafts (eyes glaze briefly with greed at the prospect of so many shafts!), and use it to explore the color play that was so interesting in Liquid Fire.  I have wanted to do a shawl that goes from turquoise to fuchsia (Liquid Fire went from red to gold), and this would be a good opportunity. I would love to do a painted warp, but that isn’t consistent with wanting to practice sectional beaming from the AVL warping wheel.

I haven’t really thought about the structure, though.  Network drafting is fun, but I’ve done a few projects in that structure and would like to explore other possibilities.  I might just thread up straight draw and play around…so many options, so little yarn and so little time!