“Weaving Saved My Life” t-shirt, photo from Midwest Weavers Conference which was held at Butler University in 2017.
I have a t-shirt that says “Weaving saved my life.” I’m not sure that is actually true, however, the amazing Sarah Neubert gave it to me and when I put it on I think of her courage and work in the world of weaving and it makes me smile. What I do feel this year is that backpacking has saved my life or at least my sanity over the last couple months. I was feeling mighty anxious and a bit frantic last weekend for reasons I can not pin down, and three days in the woods made an incredible difference. Sleeping outside, watching moose through my binoculars, seeing osprey and marmots, and watching the full moon rise over my tent in the middle of the night* provided space, perspective, and calm.
I am lucky to live in Colorado and to be self-employed so that I can access these mountains and go during the week when there are fewer people out there.** The mountains are busting this year. I’m not the only one who realized that backpacking was the safest way to get out of the house during the COVID pandemic. Just try searching backpacking tents anywhere in person or online right now. There aren’t any.
My backpacking kit includes a small loom and there is nothing I love more than sitting somewhere high in the mountains weaving or spinning. I’ve talked about my “tapestry diary” many times on this blog. I weave these little pieces as a way to keep myself working and processing ideas in tapestry but also as a way to remember places and events. It is quite effective actually. Spend a couple hours weaving a tiny tapestry about something and that memory comes back when I see the piece months or years later.
Tapestry weaving in the woods
This week’s trip was into a nearby wilderness area that is one of my favorite haunts. The wildflowers were amazing. There is an Indian paintbrush that grows all over the mountains of Colorado in various colors and the version we saw this week was the deep pink color which is always a bit surprising to see among fields of yellow arnica and violet larkspur.
Indian paintbrush, Colorado, USA
The beginning of a tapestry diary weaving to remember the trip by.
The first half of the weaving was about that pink Indian paintbrush. I decided I wanted to memorialize more of the trip and include some of the colors of the alpine tundra and the snow fields that remain. Many of them won’t melt this season. I wove the first half of the piece in camp. Emily came with me on this trip so we did a lot of laughing and talking and I didn’t do as much weaving as I might have were I alone. But that gave me the opportunity to look through photos and build the second half of the weaving later at home.
The fiber I’m using that is multi-colored in the photo above is silk ribbon painted and sold by Claudia at Mirrix Looms. I found it worked really nicely at 12 epi and that the colors were so beautiful. I was fascinated with how the variety of colors built on each other. It was a similar experience to weaving with handspun that changes colors. The loom is a tiny Hokett loom (no longer available but look HERE for others), warp is 20/6 cotton seine twine, other weft is weaversbazaar 18/2 wool.
As we were packing to hike out, this is how far I had gotten.
At home this morning I started working on the second half of the tapestry where I wanted to remember the snow fields. There was one a few feet from our tent and many others we walked by above treeline. My intention in such a small piece is only to remember some basic shapes and colors. I’m not all that interested in a realistic documentation of any place. For me, the act of weaving while I consider something I’ve seen either while I’m there or from a photograph, helps me maintain a connection to that place and experience. Making things is quite powerful in that way.
At home this morning, I started adding the weaving of the snow fields.
Snowfields above treeline.
I’ll finish this little piece up in the next few days and you can see the final image on my Instagram feed. I’ll also be posting some short videos of waterfalls and moose from the trip in my IG stories.
If you’re looking for a way to keep yourself fascinated with both tapestry weaving and the world around you, taking small bits of what you see and weaving something about them is a useful practice. It doesn’t have to be something you do every day, but as often as you can, spend time really looking around you and make a tapestry sketch of something that strikes you. Do it for yourself first. If you feel like sharing it later, great! But you don’t have to.
It is a great form of self-care, this tapestry weaving thing we do.
Tips for making your own tapestry diary
Interested in this practice but not sure where to start? Try these tips or make up your own!
Don’t try to include too much information. If you’re weaving something quite small, you don’t have room for lots of detail and trying to include it can lead to frustration when your idea doesn’t match the outcome. Simplify.
Look for a line or a shape or a color that interests you. That could be the whole point of the weaving, just one of those elements.
For example, in this Indian paintbrush tapestry, the color of that flower was what I was interested in. The shape I’ve woven is easiest to weave in tapestry, but it doesn’t represent the actual flower well. I was absolutely fine with that. I was focused on the color. The truth is that I didn’t have the right color yarn to match the flower exactly, but I did the best I could by mixing two different pink yarns. It was close enough to please me. I also enjoyed the process of weaving with the variegated silk tape.
Use what you know about tapestry technique. Want to make the texture of the rocks you see in the distance? Maybe you should mix two colors of yarn with different values in your weft bundle or perhaps trying a little pick and pick would give you the texture of the area without trying to weave each little dot to represent separate rocks.
Use value to help you. Want something to stand out? Make the area around it a much darker or much lighter value.
Don’t be so hard on yourself. This creation is for fun. Just engaging your hands, mind, and eyes in an activity like this is worthwhile. The outcome is not as important.
Have fun!
Image gallery: Tapestry weaving in the Colorado mountains
Below is a gallery of further photos just in case you need some time in the mountains yourself. Click to enlarge, hover for captions, arrows to scroll. (If you get the blog via email, you may want to view these online HERE so you can see the captions.)
I hope that you are finding the things that keep you feeling grounded these days. The unknown nature of this global pandemic on top of a big election year, the USA’s reckoning with ongoing racism (or failure to do so), and so many other questions about my place on the planet have brought up a lot of anxiety and grief. Staying grounded for me most often means I am doing a lot of walking and as much weaving as I can. I hope you find the things that keep you steady and make the time to engage in them.
Are you doing any weaving or creating this summer? Tell us in the comments!
*Drinking too much water before bed and having to pee in the middle of the night does have advantages—you remember to look at the stars.
**If you’re waiting for an answer to an email or course question this summer, check out the News page of my website to see if I’m away for a couple days backpacking. I’ll be back soon and will make up for lost time on the weekends.