I’ve spent a lot of time at a spinning wheel, lately.  It is relaxing, productive for the hands and leaves the mind free for contemplation.  Our days are often so busy around here that it is hard to find time to think, and I like thinking.  It helps me plan adventures and not repeat the parts of previous adventures that didn’t work out so well.

I have been knitting, on and off, for about thirty years.  Just not with any consistency.  Finally, last year, I got rather more serious about crochet.  If you happen to be easily distracted and a touch accident prone, crochet is a much more sensible hobby.  There is only one end to come undone and it mostly holds itself together without much outside help.  Knitting, however, can go wrong literally anywhere, and fixing it is the kind of thing that drives sensible people to hard liquor.  I have tremendous respect for accomplished knitters.  Those people have something I just can’t even imagine.

A few weeks ago at a local fiber festival, I ran into a dear friend who has had a table loom sitting in her garage for several years.  Rather than watch me make poor financial decisions about looms without ever having actually used a loom, she gave me hers.  This purple yarn that I’ve been spinning up is meant to be the warp for the first thing I’ll ever weave.  In just a few days, the last of the parts I need to dress the loom will be here.  This really is the beginning of a whole new series of adventures.

Learning to Weave