Faithful - Part II

Faithful is easy when the other partner or project cooperates so willingly. Faithful is easy when the project is a good sport and provides clear, easy to follow instructions which any idiot can follow. Faithful is easy when one has a past history of using the same tool in a similar way with hideous loops to create a stiff acrylic potholder. Faithful is easy when you create something new which is not stiff, acrylic or a potholder but rather soft and woolly and possibly the beginnings of a blanket combined with crocheted granny squares and knit log cabin squares.

Faithful is also easy when the ebay enablers surprise you with a perfectly intact, vintage "Weave-It". It's in its original packaging. I love the note on the front - "A fascinating and useful pastime". It came with it's original instruction sheet and two mini-cones of cotton yarn to play with. She also pre-warped the loom. Now I'm not so embarrassed to say I paid $25 for this treasure! Side note - for some reason, probably related to where it was stored in the seller's home, Tigger will NOT leave the box alone. I've had to hide it several times. He rolls all over the box, licks the box, rubs himself on the box...it's way weird!

Faithful .......

... not so much!! The booklet that came with this package said it takes three days to become a beginning drop spindler. I know there is someone out there that will say keep trying or can suggest other resources besides the black & white, hand drawn pictures that came in this package. Because, seriously, this looks like it could be fun (I don't expect it to be easy), but right now, I'd rather just take a lesson from Homer Simpson - "You tried and you failed. Lesson: Never try!"

"Mmmmmmm.......box"

Faithful - Part I

People sometimes talk about being "faithful" to a craft. Whether it's quilting or sewing, knitting or crocheting, they want to remain "true" or "loyal" to that one particular craft. They hold their particular craft with such a passion that moving on to a different, but related craft, can be referred to as being unfaithful or "crossing over to the dark side". Most of us are multi-crafted I know....

... But welcome my friends, to my dark side.
Alerted yesterday by Chris that the old Harrisville potholder loom could be used for weaving with yarn, I dug it out of Kathryn's toy box and began practicing with it. It's very simple and produces a great six inch square. A video tutorial which will show you everything you need to know to get weaving can be found here. Go get yours - you know you have one!!

The 2x2 Weavette, picked up at Needlework Unlimited, has been busy cranking out little squares in all sorts of color combinations. I was inspired by Karrie during her "Week of Weaving series. Who knew? Who knew how hard it would be to find these little looms?? The 4x4 looms are pretty much only available on ebay - and even then, they are vintage. I bid on 7 before finally winning one. I can't even tell you what I paid because I'm rather embarrassed. I'll need the 4 inch square loom for the Weave-a-Long I joined over here.

For me, this is still "faithful". It's faithful to a creative process, to my love of all things fiber, to hand-work, to a time and space that is quiet and meditative, to an art form which is centuries old. Now tomorrow, something maybe not so "faithful".