It feels good to be weaving again, since my last (and only) time on my loom was over Christmas break. My first scarf, although I love it so much, was full of mistakes and a wee bit shorter than I anticipated. Luckily I’m short, so it doesn’t really matter, and luckily I’m learning to live with imperfections (even though the perfectionist in me vehemently objects). I’m excited to see my newest weaving project coming along much better than the first.

Last Friday marked 3 years since my sister Heather’s death. I took the day off from work and had some time in the afternoon to myself. I felt listless, like I couldn’t make up my mind on what project to work on. Lately I’ve had the urge to KNIT.ALL.THE.THINGS, so there’s been a lot of project-starting and not a lot of project-finishing. Since none of my current projects seemed like the right thing, I decided to pull out my weaving loom and start weaving a new scarf. I pulled some yarn out of my stash that I got on my birthday back in 2008 that I’ve been struggling to fit with just the right pattern. As soon as I saw those skeins, it finally clicked: weaving. It’s like they’ve been waiting all this time for just this moment when I would have a loom and need yarn in just this weight to weave.

The other special thing about this yarn is that my sister Heather was there when it was purchased. It felt appropriate to remember good memories as I warped the loom, wrapped the shuttle bobbins, and then begin weaving. After perusing some pictures of weaving projects done by others, I realized that plaid is actually a lot easier than I imagined. It is created by alternating colors on both the warp (vertical yarns when looking at the loom) and the weft (the yarn that goes back and forth horizontally when looking at the loom). When done at the right intervals, it creates the little squares of color. I always feel so clever when something ridiculously easy looks ridiculously difficult.

This scarf already has a special story, and I can’t wait to finish weaving it and take it off the loom for the first time to see just how it came out.