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The very first loom I ever owned was a piece of junk. Literally. Judge for yourself.
This loom was found in a my partner's family barn in New England where I suspect it had been for about 100 years. I can hardly believe Uncle Les paid shipping to send this to Nevada, but there it was. It was missing a lot of parts but it was clear it used to be a two-harness counterbalance loom.
You blink your eyes and it is February again. Anyone else feel this way?
Last year I posted the #thetapestryheart project on my blog. To be honest, hearts have never been my thing, but I enjoyed that weave-along a lot. So, since it is already February, I thought we'd do it again.
. . . .
I never was a real heart girl. On Valentine's Day when I was a kid, I used to wear black. I think it was the mark of a lonely, shy kid. Today I'm a happily in-love adult and I am perfectly willing to weave pink hearts... This year I sat down during the State of the Union address determined to bring more love into the world. No black Valentine's projects. I doodled this little heart-inspired shape and started weaving.
I've spent much of the last week in my dye studio. I will likely spend another couple weeks there. I do love the dyeing and putting together colors for a new project is a whole lot of fun. And global warming has hit Colorado and it isn't even that cold for January. This particular tapestry will need about 25 pounds of yarn, but since there are so many colors and I hate running out, I always make enough extra that I won't. I suspect in the end I'll have dyed about 50 pounds. I don't like games of yarn chicken and the extra yarn is always welcome in the tapestry classes I teach or for my next piece.
If you're newer to weaving, you may not realize that not all yarns are made equal. In fact, there is so much variety in yarns it is rather hard to qualify what are the best combination of characteristics. And it can be even harder to purchase yarn that has those characteristics. Throw in the need for a large color choice for tapestry weaving, and the options do narrow somewhat.
I live in the USA, so I mostly talk about yarns that are easily available here with one favorite exception from the UK.
So what does make a good tapestry yarn?
Growing up, I thought yarn was just yarn. I was perfectly happy with a big skein of Red Heart and my crochet hook. Then I learned more about yarn and dyeing and I became a little snobbier. I do apologize for that. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Red Heart yarn and a crochet hook. But I maintain that if possible, there are better yarns for tapestry weaving.
Knitting has been very popular over the last decade and yarns made for knitting are everywhere. There are so many indie dyers out there creating incredible yarns that it is hard to resist them when it comes to choosing yarns for tapestry.
But resist you probably should.
I think any practice that gets you in the habit of creating is a good one. Only you can answer the question if doing a daily tapestry diary is the thing for you, but it is one way to get yourself going to your loom every day of the year. (Or make your own rules! Maybe you weave one bit every Sunday morning or once a month.)
I think the quesiton to ask yourself is do you have a practice of creating regularly right now? If you do, then another thing to do might not be the answer for you. But if you have difficulty making time to create on a regular basis, then making some rules for yourself around it might be helpful. A tapestry diary is one way to do that.
Before we know it, another year is upon us. It seems like just a breath ago it was the beginning of 2017. Last year was a difficult one for many people. But I think we can say that about the start of any year. I am beginning this new year with a short list of intentions. I have a general list that I always think about and a more specific action-oriented one. Here they are.
