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uring this season of reflection and celebration, I want to take a moment to say thanks for being here. Three years and a dozen weave-alongs later, we have our virtual little school house in the sky. Instead of building it brick-by-brick, we have constructed it in bits and bytes. It still feels very physical to me. I imagine a classroom on an actual cloud drifting above your homes, scattered throughout the world.
At the core of our learning community are the weave-alongs—robust, time-encapsulated, aspirational weaves that we do together in—or on, as I like to imagine—the cloud. The Yarnworker School was born to both host these weave-alongs, and to offer supplemental learning opportunities, so weavers could beef up their skills in-between weave-alongs and build a common understanding around how threads operate in the weaving universe.
Grateful doesn’t even begin to cover how I feel about this opportunity to build a business around my strengths; one doesn’t crumble because of my weaknesses. I am eternally thankful in not having to rely on a modern transactional models but instead be able to lean on community funding. The school has grown because of user support, the amazing patron community; working with contractors and colleagues, who get and support what I’m trying to do; and collaborations with other like-minded fiber businesses, namely—Cotton Clouds, Gist Yarn & Fiber, Purl & Loop, and SweetGeorgia Yarns.
Learning to weave did not come easily for me. It took me a long time to get it, and in many ways I’m still trying to get it. That is what makes me entirely empathic to those who are learning to weave. I don’t have all the answers, but I’m happy to share the ones I have. And, I’ll be frank, there are times when I’m not sure I’m going to be able to pull off this, that, or the other thing, or my enthusiasm starts to wain, but if I just give the work some space the enthusiasm returns in force, largely because making weavers is what I do. I’ve tried doing other things, but I keep coming back to this.
As I look to the future, the weave-alongs will be a constant in all that we do. I’ll continue to strive to improve the way we weave together and to take advantage of what new opportunities come along to enhance the school experience. I am still one woman with a loom, camera, a computer, and boundless exuberance for weaving cloth on a very specific kind of loom. Thanks for making this possible.
Heddles Up!
Liz
Thank you, Liz!
I would have given up weaving long ago if friend had not pointed me your direction.
So I want to Thank You.
Gosh that makes my heart happy. There was a time when I considered walking away, too, but then I found my way back to the rigid-heddle loom and it changed everything. Thanks for being here.
Thank you for your continued support of rigid-heddle weavers. I for one always look forward to your posts tips & tricks.
Thank you Liz for the way you encourage and promote rigid heddle weaving. You have a gentle, quiet tone that is exactly what I need when working at my loom. It is a place of serenity. Having a simple 2 shaft loom, I sometimes feel most weaving sites leave us behind as too simple. Being a relatively new weaver, I feel I have so much to explore in color, texture, patterns that I don’t need more moving parts! Your site is is a nice place to visit and makes me head for the loom.
Made my day and I’m right there with you. This particular tool helps me focus on the thing I love best–yarns that interlace.