This Holiday Season: Worry Less, Weave More

How is it that we’re already in November? I swear just a minute ago October was starting and we had months—months!—until The Holiday Season (TM). Take a guess at how many holiday weaving projects I’ve started—I’ll wait. If you guessed, “I bet you haven’t even finished that baby blanket yet, have you?” you would be correct.

I don’t have grand plans for weaving this season, but I would like to get at least one present on the loom—provided it meets certain criteria:

1. It either uses up yarn I already have or I can buy the exact yarn I need to make the project with none leftover. H is crawling and pulling himself up to stand—and pulling whatever he can off of shelves. My yarn stash that formerly took up four shelves has to be condensed to two shelves to keep it out of reach.

2. If I do have to buy the yarn I don’t want to have to shop around from multiple places to try to find the yarn I want in the color I want it in. I want my holiday weaving to be as easy and carefree as possible—and that includes the shopping.

3. The project makes more than one item. It could be two scarves or a set of towels. If I’m going to take the time to wind and warp a project I want to get the most boom from my buck. (Plus this way if I make a mistake on one I have backups!)

4. It needs to be fun to weave. I’ve woven projects where I cursed every pick and could not wait to be finished. If I’m going to use my precious free time at the loom it should be on something that brings me joy. For me time spent weaving should be self care.

5. Last, it needs to be a pre-designed project. I normally love designing my weaving, but this year I am not feeling up to the task. I don’t want to miscalculate warp because my baby was teething the night before and I didn’t get enough sleep. I want to weave something that I know will work out.

Discovery Towels by Karen Isenhower.

Do I want to make the gorgeous and modernly geometric Discovery Towels? Or do I want to do something that has a classic look to it like the Starry Sky Placemats? Whatever I choose, I know I won’t need to worry because the patterns were already woven and proofed in Handwoven. And that is a gift in and of itself.

Happy Weaving! Christina

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