Weaving

This is I feel quite often this summer.This is the mental state I am aiming for.

Thus, I am trying to motivate myself to get a project that I enjoy onto my loom.

It has been so long since I've used it, and I have been thinking, this summer, about the wonderfully meditative rhythm of weaving as a way for me to ground my sense of constant movement with little proof of coming any closer to a destination. (I'm getting a few metaphoric signposts, when what I'd like is an overnight stay, mentally, with some of my goals.) Recently, I read that scientists are speculating that our brains are becoming programmed for over stimulation, and though I am venturing down that rabbit hole too often, I have tried, this week, to reduce my field of attention as much as possible. No, don't be dialing the cellphone, even if the light is green. Cereal for breakfast? Okay, then forget about the bagel. Knitting the Fiddlehead Mittens from HelloYarn, finally? Then commit to the chartreuse green and grey, and ignore the bright red skein in the stash. Effort/vairagyam. Practice/tapah. Reawakening patterns/samskara of fractured attention. Begin again...

I found a good blog, Leigh's Fiber Journal, which is Step One in moving back to weaving. Many very inspiring posts on this blog, and she is a knitter and a spinner and a dyer as well as a weaver.

I am wondering, however, if most of the weaving world is stuck in 1965. Last week, at the Midwest Fiber Festival, I took a look at a few current issues of Handwoven as well as the weaving being demonstrated. And I was amazed to still see giant cocoon-shaped jacket patterns (maybe this is why shoulder pads are making a comeback?), inkle-loom belts, and table runners. Has the world of weavers missed the tidal wave that moved knitting to where it is today, with a diversity of designs, voices, and creativity to place knitting into the twenty-first century?

My goal for the loom: design something simple with plenty of color. Perhaps some dishtowels? Or the napkins that I promised my older daughter, oh, five years ago? Order the yarn. Warp it. And start weaving a little bit every few days