Flow

 

I listen to music when I work in the studio.  For weaving, I have headphones that do two things - block out the loud bang of the solenoids, and provide music.  The type of music is eclectic, shall I say?  But mostly I enjoy rock and roll, although not exclusively.

When I'm beaming or threading, I tend to listen to instrumental so that I don't get carried away, singing along (in my head).  But when I'm actually weaving, pretty much anything goes.

I have a rather large collection of CDs, ones I bought, then more that I inherited from my brother which doubled my options.  Recently someone gave me a whole bunch of their CDs because they weren't listening to them anymore, which really expanded my listening options.

It was interesting to note that my brother and I had very similar tastes in music, but only two CDs were duplicates.  The same happened when I got the box of CDs from my friend - another selection of titles I didn't already have except for the two duplicates.

I have a couple of boomboxes, and buy the ones that do both CDs and cassette tapes because I use the tapes to time how long my weaving session is.  Generally I weave for 45 minutes, then when the music stops, I stop and take a break.

This morning I grabbed a random tape (I rarely write on the tape which CD I taped on it) and listened to Billie Holliday in the morning, then Sade in the afternoon.

When Smooth Operator came on I suddenly snapped back into awareness (weaving is a working meditation for me and I'm only half 'here', if you understand what I'm saying).  As the music played and I wove, I realized I was in sync with the music experiencing that flow consciously instead of sub-consciously.  

This warp was a bit of a bother to get set up (see previous blog post) but once it was finally ready, it appears to be behaving nicely and I've been really enjoying the motions, the rhythm, and the flow of it all.

The fine linen is looking 'balanced' and the web in the loom looks promising.  But mostly the linen, well steeped in humidors, is being co-operative.

It's really nice to just sit down and get into the rhythm and watch the picks flow by.