A bright idea…

One of the gifts of having a picked up studio, is taking a closer look at what’s around, while you are putting things back in their proper place.  I highly recommend it.  Just taking the cones of yarn off the shelves, dusting them and rearranging them back on a shelf is enough inspiration for at least a couple months.  And dusting looms and weaving/sewing equipment is such a mindless job, I’m always thinking creative thoughts when I’m cleaning.  That’s why it is difficult to clean the whole studio, because I get so distracted by some pretty great ideas.

Anyway, a couple of years ago, I attended a conference (not for weaving) in Atlantic City, I probably blogged about it, and did some outlet shopping.  One of the things I picked up was a Kenneth Cole vest.  On sale.  Very cheap.  Even though there were fit issues on my body, I loved the vest style and construction so much I brought it home with me.

I’ve always meant to copy the vest, and rework the pattern with a zipper closure and longer since it is so short waisted.  I can see this in a number of fabrics, and even with sleeves.

Meanwhile, as I was dusting and cleaning off the cutting table, I revisited one of my many inkle looms with a complex dual 7 thread pick-up pattern from leftover hand dyed warps from a project from a couple years ago.  I tend to keep some looms like the inkles warped with projects that I use for demo purposes and I sort of forget about them as something I can really use.  I’m in a sewing kind of mood, and the vest idea kept popping up in my head.

It is a three inch wide band, mostly rayon so light and flexible, and I keep seeing it as garment trim.  Coincidentally the front panels of the vest are three inches wide.

I rooted around my fabric stash and came up with a khaki linen, I picked up a couple of years ago at Vogue Fabrics in Evanston, IL.  I probably blogged about that as well.

There are probably other options in my vast stash of fabric, but the first job at hand, as I think through the possibilities here, is to finish weaving the band.  I’m into a rhythm here, and knocking it out, even with the slow tedious pick up, in record time.  I wanted a project that wasn’t too intense and complicated because really, I have some other things to contend with in the studio, like exhibition deadlines and photo shoots, and local and online teaching commitments, and my lovely wonderful husband is home, for only a couple weeks, so he will get top priority in my daily schedule.

But I’m intrigued with the possibilities here, I love having an idea mull around in my head, and I’m never quite sure where it will take me, but that’s the point of a journey, at least the kind I like to take, to places I’ve never been before, and experiences that will challenge and excite me…

Stay tuned…