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December 7, 2007 by Tien Chiu

Overwhelmed with possibilities

I have now rewound my light orange warp into skeins, ready for re-dyeing.  But I am overwhelmed with the possibilities for the shawl project.  I can’t decide whether I want to do something with a larger threading repeat (which would produce wider “stripes” of pattern).  I can’t decide whether I want to put that project on hold and weave fabric for an interesting jacket pattern I just bought.  I can’t decide what color to re-dye the warp in, or whether I want to try using two colors in the warp with an interleaved threading a la Sandra Rude’s work.  I feel like the donkey caught between two bales of hay – I just can’t decide!

This reminds me of a short essay I wrote on choosing your life’s path:

It drove home a point I’d long mulled over, which is that creation is essentially an act of destruction: as you carve away, the stone loses all the things it could have been as it becomes your sculpture. To choose one path is to destroy all the others; and yet, refusing choice leaves nothing but a dumb stone.

I’m currently in a state of confusion, unable to choose which paths to destroy in the road to creation.  I guess I’ll just have to choose a couple that look promising, and explore them before deciding to (creatively) destroy the rest.  At least for these skeins of yarn.

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Filed Under: All blog posts, musings, textiles, weaving

Previous post: Sleep, sleep, sleep (and bookmarks)
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