Weaving to weave

Lately I've been working toward some deadlines, and right now it seems right to take a break.  I have some more ideas I want to explore, and some specific goals I want to pursue next, but it seems like all those need to percolate a little.  So I got the urge to do what I am calling in my head "weaving with abandon".  No real plan, no definite end project in mind.  No sprang.  (What!?  No sprang!?)

I took a bunch of odds and ends from my stash mostly from the cool side of the color wheel, measured a color until I ran out, picked up the next color... until I had enough warp ends measured to make the width I wanted at 20 ends per inch.  How did I pick 20 epi?  I don't know; it just seemed right.  If this were a "real" project, I would have measured each yarn on the McMorran balance, taken a weighted average of their yards per pound, and used Ashenhurst's formula to figure the sett.  But I didn't.

I sleyed the reed with each color randomly until it was full, threaded, wound, tensioned, tied it up for plain weave.  Yes, just plain ol' plain weave.  The weaving of this fabric is taking me back, remembering what it felt like to be a beginning weaver, teaching myself from books some 20-odd years ago.  Right now I am weaving and enjoying the simple pleasure in the wonder of taking yarn and making cloth.  Finding a rhythm in throwing the shuttle, laying the weft, pressing the beater back.

If I like the cloth when it is done, maybe it will become something to wear.  Maybe not.  Either way, I think it will have purpose.