Those are big concepts…. and words that come to mind for anyone who is at the beginning of a new project. Excitement for the new idea and the commitment to try it jostles with the anxiety of entering the unknown and doubts about one’s ability to tackle this new idea. In the case of weaving, and especially weaving tapestry, there is the calming process of making the warp, spacing the warp threads and weaving a header. This process involves relaxing repetitive movements with your hands that help chase away the negative doubts and worries. If you are very lucky–and I am!– you are holding a bobbin made by John Moss, a beautiful tool that you know was made with great care and precision and feels good in your hand.
I am trying a continuous warp this time, where I have all the warps on both front and back of my copper pipe loom and will advance the warp around the loom as I progress. Normally I make a continuous warp that has half the warp on the front of the loom and half on the back and I bring the two together with a shedding bar. Making a warp the way I have this time allows me to weave something twice as long as my small loom. The downside is that when I advance the warp around the loom I will have to be very careful about keeping things straight! I have been meaning to face this fear for years! I also have to keep the back warps from distracting me so I have inserted a card so I will only see the front warps!
There is just nothing so soothing as the look of a brand new warp. There is no other time in life when things are so neat and tidy and every warp thread is perfectly parallel with its neighbor, with even tension across the whole surface. Life is certainly never as even as a warp!
Several weeks ago I made an acquaintance with a tapestry weaver from the Baltimore area, Ann Booth, whose works I’ve enjoyed seeing online. I’m using up a data this year keeping myself inspired by looking at artworks online and staying in communication with other weavers. Next year Ann and her husband may be out here sailing down the coast and across to the Bahamas. I hope our paths will cross. Perhaps we can even weave together!
When I mentioned that I had only met one other weaver during our three years of cruising (and that woman, a Canadian, had left her looms behind and brought only knitting along for her trip), Ann introduced me to Doris Florig, who is currently living on her sailboat in Guatemala. Doris is such an inspiration! She reminds me of the enthusisam and quest for knowledge of my younger self, when I was so intrigued by learning everything from the ground up: spinning my own yarn, dyeing, weaving cloth. It was in my young adulthood that I learned these techniques. Somewhere along the way I have lost the wonder of these things. I still spin and dye and weave, but over time that original awe and wonder has left me. Doris is still cultivating and nurturing that spirit of adventure. The main saloon–or cabin– of her boat is not very different from my own on Pandora, and she has set up a large tapestry loom in that space. Wow!
I can tell Bob is worried I’ll want a set up like this soon!
We sailed from Miami to Marathon, with a one-night stop at Rodriguez Key near Key Largo, over the past couple of days. The wind has been extreme but mostly at our back which is far better than sailing into the wind. It was a hard couple of days for me since I get seasick easily, but even Bob found the long days hard going. He has to do all the hard work by himself.
We are now in Marathon, and it is the most crowded harbor I have ever seen in the US! You’d think every boat from the US and Canada is here. There are no moorings available for rent, which is no surprise. We are #32 on the waiting list for a mooring, and I thought that would mean we had small hope of getting one before June, at least! The bigger surprise was that there is no room to anchor in the harbor. We arrived late in the afternoon, not long before sunset and I was quite worried when I saw how crowded things are.
Here’s a layout of all the moorings, now full. All additional space is taken up with boats on their own anchors. Sheesh!
We motored up into a creek off the harbor that leads into a mangrove swamp. There were already about a dozen boats up there “Med-moored”–short for Mediterranean moored– to the mangroves. This is a technique where you put down your anchor in the middle of the creek and then back the stern of your boat toward the mangroves and tie your stern onto the trunks of the mangroves. The boats end up lined up next to each other like in a parking lot. There was less room than we’d like between boats, but we managed to squeeze ourselves in. Luckily the two boats on either side of the spot we chose were very welcoming! We barely got ourselves settled as the sun went down.
Tied to the mangroves!
The wind is still howling, but we’ve learned that once the wind stops there will be gazillions of no-see’ums. I guess I hope the wind stays up! There are some cautiously optimistic weather predictions that March may come in like a lamb this year. If the weather truly does get milder many of the boats here in Marathon will head off to the Bahamas. We do not plan to go yet, so that may leave us room to move into the harbor. Maybe we’ll even get a mooring! Early next week we plan to meet up with old friends who have a 2nd home down here, and our older son is planning a visit next week after he finishes a business meeting in Miami. I am really looking forward to that!
On our first trip to shore yesterday we encountered this manatee. Shortly later we saw a group of four floating together in one of the small canals. Amazing creatures! The water is very green in this harbor.
So, now that I have done all the preparations I will start weaving today. I want to explore some ways of depicting water in cotton thread, and attempting the Portuguese Man of War that we saw in Boca a couple of weeks ago. For those of you who have seen my past postings you know that I plan to weave a large tapestry of a Portuguese Man of War. I’m looking forward to playing with water images today! Hopefully I will gain some insight on what I can do with the larger tapestry that is waiting for me at home.
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