Looming

When you lose a friend, you tend to remember previous losses. In 1996, I lost a dear weaving friend named Kay, from the Compuserve Crafts Forum online community (perhaps the first of those.) We had a weaving swap in her honor - the goal being to move out of our comfort zones and learn something new - to use a new piece of equipment, a new fiber, a new weave structure. My contribution was my first network draft design, woven on my new at the time Louet Magic Dobby Loom, using linen, which I had never woven with before. The design looked like little angels to me. I actually wove this without the mirrors in the threading and treadling, so it looked more like a grid of angels. If I ever weave this again, I like having a ring of angels with a diamond in the middle. :-)


In addition to sending samples, I also sent a poem which I wrote, a poem about loss and love.

Looming

I weave my life
on a warp of friends and family
using weft threads of joy and pain.

A warp thread breaks.
I sadly replace it,
glad that it will always remain,
firm in the fabric of my life.

And I remember to delight
in the pattern unfolding before me now,
and treat my warp with care,
cherishing its bright shining possibilities.