I feel honored to say I may have once seen a weaver throw her first pick. I was demonstrating weaving at a local crafts show, and she came up and asked me if she could try. She threw a couple picks and started to set the shuttle down, but then asked if she could try a few more. Sure, why not? “Better you than me; I’ve got 4 more hours to go.” She kept weaving, and she didn’t stop until the people she was with got antsy. That‘s when she told me she had always wanted to weave but was waiting until she retired from teaching in a few years. I encouraged her not to wait. I don’t believe there is any reason to wait. Weaving doesn’t have to take over your life. You can control it. At least, that’s what people tell me.
Adam Lazar wove this scarf on a rigid-heddle loom bit by bit. Can you tell? Does it matter? Photo by Adam Lazar
.I was taken with what Adam Lazar said about weaving the scarf that he submitted to the Reader’s Gallery. “Creating something doesn’t need to be complicated. The act of creation is so powerful to our self-esteem that making it easy should be a priority. My loom was set up in an area I could leave it all the time so that on the days I only had five minutes to weave, I could make progress. No barriers of setting up the loom or finding space or time. A couple of picks each day and the scarf got made.”
I really hope that non-weaver took my advice and became a weaver rather than waiting. Learning to weave can happen over a weekend, in only a few minutes per day, or for many of us, over a lifetime. Learning something expands and focuses your mind in ways you may not have considered. Creating something with your own hands satisfies other parts of you including, as both Adam and I believe, your self-esteem. If you already know how to weave, I still encourage you to try something new whether it’s a yarn, a weave structure, a color combination, or creating your own design. You may find parts of yourself you didn’t even know were missing.
There is joy simply in learning and creating whether it’s perfect or not. Adam said it best, "Creating something doesn’t need to be complicated."
Weave well,
Susan