Two more... and two more...

I have finished weaving two more boats; and I still have two more boats to weave. I am coming to the part of the tapestry where I know I will have to do some serious talking to myself. There are design things going on that, up close as I weave small details, will seem 'wrong' to me. But I already worked all these things out in the maquette (the painted design I'm working from), so I will have to just keep telling myself to 'have faith' and to 'trust the maquette.' In other words, to just WEAVE IT, even if the little bits look 'wrong,' trusting that the whole, completed work will come out 'right.'

I often have to talk to myself this way. I teach my students to do the same kind of self-arguing, and to try to WIN the arguments, whenever possible. To not win, would be to keep un- and re-weaving little passages, not trusting that they will come out right if I just persevere through them. The hard part about these arguments is that if I'm wrong and I keep going, there is no real way to 'fix' a woven tapestry. But I have proven to myself many times that trusting the maquette and the design choices I made in it is the best way to go.

So... deep breath, and into the deep end I go!