Watercolor Tapestry step one and go time


Good Morning and Happy Sunday Internetland! It's a proper fall morning here in my corner of the Fort after our taste of winter last week. October is cruising along and it's hard to believe that Marching Band regionals are tomorrow already. 
It's been a quiet week from a production standpoint with Daddy here but I am making progress on the afghan that he brought for me to repair. I crocheted him one many years ago and some of the squares were coming apart and seams making holes. This last week I took it all apart, sorted and repaired the squares that I could and am now in the process of sewing it all back together. Many thanks to Pockethouse for recommending the mattress stitch, so much easier than whipstitch! I'm also making progress on the project for me. October tends to be the month that I do things for myself, don't know why just happens. Made a shrug about five years ago and now I'm using my leftovers from an afghan that I have hoarded for myself. Then again wouldn't you keep the Madtosh Pashmina all for you too? I've tried to come up with small projects to use it in but other than one shawlette/neckerchief that I love and get a ton of complements on nothing has sparked. I made an afghan with the original yarn, what's to keep me from doing the same thing with the leftovers? Duh! Three minutes later online and I find a Star pattern that fits perfect. Easy enough to knit and still be able to follow postseason baseball and it makes me happy.
Okay! I also told you this I would be detailing the watercolor tapestry process this month. Here's the first installment.
warp chain
First, measuring the warp. From previous play on the loom I knew that I wanted the pieces to be approximately 12" wide with a thread count of 60 per inch. Yes that is 720 threads of 20/2 tencel each measuring four and half yards. 
threading the loom
Next comes threading each one of those 720 threads onto the loom. For the tapestries I use a 1-2-3-4 pattern as this group was woven in plainweave. Once each thread is placed through the heddle they are tied in groups and attached to the back beam and wound on. Many weavers are looking at this picture and thinking "Why haven't you gone through the reed first since you are threading front to back?" Because I love to be different I have my own style of warping. Thread the heddles from the front, wind onto the back with a raddle (best piece of equipment ever invented for a solo weaver) and then I pull the threads through the reed in order and tie on to the front beam. 
Ready to go
In this shot my threads are tied on to the front beam and I have woven with some waste yarn to even the threads out. Next week I'll show you the next step. At the moment I'm trying to come up with the next theme so suggestions are welcome!
Been doing some thinking this week. Saw a quote on Instagram a while ago," The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities." That along with the one that I already love "Change 'I don't have time' to 'it's not a priority' and see what happens." I schedule the gym, I schedule time with the girls, I schedule deadlines when I have them for other companies, I get my blog written every week but I don't schedule the business. I haven't made it a priority yet and it's time to do so. I don't quite know what that going to look like yet but I'm going to work on it the next couple of months and see what happens. Life is too short to be stuck in a situation that you don't want or need to be in. I have to remember the dreaded 'P' word (Patience) and realize that progress is made gradually. I hope that you all have a great week and good luck to all of the Marching Bands across the state compeiting in the their regionals :)

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