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The Year of Playing at Home

On January 1st of this year, I woke up and decided I was going to weave an item for every room in my house. I mean this quite literally—I sat bolt upright in bed with total conviction that I was going to do this.

The idea quickly turned into a book proposal that my publisher snapped up, so my original intention has pivoted. I have woven something for every room of a house, just not necessarily mine. Pivoting is a good and necessary part of resolutions and life. This is how we feel successful and positive about our choices.

While on this particular journey, I also rediscovered the importance of playing with my yarn. I’ve approached each project with a sense of adventure instead of thinking that I know what will happen. “Playing” is code for “sampling”, a dreaded word for many—right up there with “warping”. Here is a smattering of the play I indulged in this year—adult recess if you will. Each little piece of cloth gives me an incredible sense of joy.

My 2015

This year was also about engaging with weavers on the fundamentals. The newly revised and updated Weaving Made Easy was released in January. It was awesome to have an opportunity to revisit this book with nearly a decade more experience in working with new weavers and walking them past their little stuck places.

I also had the amazing opportunity to launch a new column for Knitty on the four pillars of weaving—warping, selecting yarns, design, and finishingKnitty is a great venue to talk directly to knitters about weaving. The column inspired me to make a funny little video to show that warping really isn’t all that bad.

Warping in 3 minutes

All of this good stuff got in the way of my grand plan to publish more patterns. I only published one pattern this year, but if I had to pick one pattern to publish, Jean Ahearn’s Pinwheels is a great one to pick. Jean does so much to encourage weavers on the Ravelry forums and she is an incredibly clever weaver.

As a new year dawns, I’m happy that I followed the intention of my resolution and didn’t get bothered by the absoluteness of it. Making a big, bold resolution is not a contract. You can change your mind along the way and, in doing so, you just might have a lot more fun.

Happy Weaving,

Liz

 

4 thoughts on “The Year of Playing at Home”

  1. Fun video to watch. Do you know where to find rolls of packing paper that will fit the 10″ Cricket loom or do I need to cut down paper? Thanks!

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