Travel without Leaving Your Loom Bench!

Working on the March/April 2022 issue of Handwoven brought home the fact that we haven’t traveled much for a very long time. As I wrote, read, and edited, I had feelings of nostalgia for the parks that I have visited and a longing to travel again to visit the parks and museums I’ve never been to. Looking at Christine Jablonski’s Mesa Verde Mats reminded me of the starkness of those cliffs and my overwhelming curiosity about what living there might have been like. Deborah Jarchow’s Grand Canyon Ruana brought back memories of a completely crazy night on the shores of the Colorado River when an unexpected monsoon washed away the sand under our tent, a story that has become one of the family legends brought up regularly when we get together.

Travel to beautiful places with Christine Jablonski’s Mesa Verde Mats (left) and Deborah Jarchow’s Grand Canyon Ruana (right), both featured in March/April 2022.

Other projects were based on places I haven’t been. Nancy Peck designed a scarf to honor and to wear when going to one of her favorite places, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Lake Michigan. Sand dunes always have a mysterious feel to them, and her description of the wind, dune grass, and whitecaps on the lake drew me in, as did her scarf that can be woven on a rigid-heddle or a 4-shaft loom. Malynda Allen based her Ticking-Inspired Linen Towels (pictured at top) on the ticking mattress beds she saw at Utah’s Cove Fort. Ticking was a sturdy fabric to keep straw from poking you as you slept, but in Malynda’s towels, it is also a beautiful fabric.

Nancy Peck’s Dunes Scarf (left) not only represents the park she loves but is helpful in combating the wind that blows there. Whitlynn Battle based her shawl (right) on the brickwork at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

Things seem to be opening up again. After an extended period of watching photo shoots on Zoom, I’m traveling to Colorado this week for the September/October 2022 shoot. While I’m there, I’ll take a couple of days off to take in the sights I’ve missed and perhaps visit some places that are new to me. In July I’ll be in Knoxville, Tennessee, for Convergence, and if all goes well, I’ll be able to see parts of the Civil Rights Trail that Whitlynn Battle brought to my attention with her Threads to the Past shawl. Other than that, perhaps like you, I’ll be traveling from my loom bench, thinking of places I’ve been and those I’d like to see. Check out Handwoven March/April 2022 for the many interesting articles and 11 projects that are inspired by places you may be missing or places you may be wishing you knew.

Weave well,
Susan