I’ve been weaving at a rapid clip, fast enough to finish everything in time, if I can keep it up. I wove half a yard yesterday (slowed down by a terrible number of broken warp threads), and one full yard today. I’ve been weaving about three or four hours a day: 1.5 hours in the morning, 1 hour at lunchtime, and about another 1.5-2 hours in the evening after work.
It is borderline obsessive, but it’s working – and, remarkably, I’m enjoying it. It’s giving me a chance to really focus on technique, to do the equivalent of spending three hours doing T’ai Chi or flying down mountains on a bicycle, carefully cornering each switchback and fighting gamely up the hills. Today, for example, I spent fine-tuning my hand movements, seeking the smoothest possible transition between throwing the shuttle and reaching for the beater.
(To me, incidentally, boredom = inattentiveness; if you’re really paying attention to the finer points of whatever you’re doing, you won’t be bored. Or, in the words of a friend’s yoga instructor, “If you are bored in a pose, practice boredom.”)
At any rate, metaphysics aside, I am now at the 7.5-yard mark on this piece, and the 10-yard mark in total yards woven. The cloth is building up visibly on the beam:
And, for those who just joined us, a recap of the coat fabric I’m weaving:
The pattern is a traditional Asian one, often called “the eternity knot”. It pairs with the double-happiness characters (traditional Chinese wishes for a happy marriage), which will run down the front of the coat, to give the meaning “eternal happiness in marriage”.
The draft for the eternity-knot pattern, which is three-end floats over a 6-shaft broken twill, can be found on Weavolution, here.
