Seasonal Change

Day 297: When I first described summer-and-winter weave in a post, I referred to the dark side as "winter" and the light as "summer," not really considering that there might be another way of looking at it. While my definition has its foundation in the amount of ambient light in the Pacific Northwest during those two seasons, friends elsewhere saw the lighter side as being frosty and the darker, lush with growth. I can see the logic in both views, and it makes me wonder if I had woven these towels during the winter months, would my choice of terms have been reversed? In any event, this was a very quick project as weaving goes. I strung 18 feet of warp on July 13, and here I am, done already. The towels have been fulled yet, i.e., put through the washing machine to plump up the fibers. Weaving yarns are tightly spun as a general rule so that they can withstand the friction of the heddles and reed and so that they have as little stretch as possible. Fulling relaxes the fiber and lets it expand into the small gaps between threads. Now the loom is naked, and will have to stay unclothed until Tuesday or Wednesday, waiting for the arrival of a new, heavier thread. The Plan is laid out, the calculations done, but the warp must be measured and hung before the shuttles can embark on their flight across the seasons of summer-and-winter again.