This year’s theme word was “weave” and I made good use of it. Metaphorically I wove myself more tightly into my community (unfortunately, I feel like a loose end much of the time). And though it took me most of the year to get around to actual weaving on a loom, I did it.
When I was maybe ten, my father gifted me an Ashford Inkelette loom. It was complex to warp. Probably a bit above my ability. I made some belts on it using the Herculon cone ends Dad brought home from Chromatex, the upholstery factory where he worked (now a Superfund site due to TCE and PFAS). The single ply Herculon yarn was really hard to work with. It worked great in the high speed industrial looms, but it was fiddly and snagged on my loom’s heddles. I spent more time fixing things than I did weaving. I persevered and finished a light blue and black weaving with a simple stripe pattern. I didn’t use the Inklette as much as I could have. It’s a shame I don’t have it now, because 50 years later I am finally ready for it.
This autumn, I bought some inexpensive flat looms and started to play. Rekindling the skill was pure nostalgia. I have a lot of happy memories of Dad and the design team at Chromatex, the plasticy-y smell of the Olefin, TCE, and PFAS used to waterproof the fabric, and the loud white noise of the machinery when someone opened the door between the plant and the office. (Mom was plant nurse; Dad was plant manager. We had many “bring your daughters to work” days.) Spending time with the designers, I got good at identifying colors, especially the earthy beiges of the late 1970s. “636” and Honey Beige were not the same color.
With my new looms, weaving vocabulary all came back; even my fingers regained their muscle memory. After completing a simple flat weaving without swearing at it, I decided that I have the patience to do the detail work necessary for tapestry weaving.
Never one to do anything in private, I took my looms to the Cotton-Indigo Trust meeting earlier this month. It was weaving day. I had a good time with everyone, even offering suggestions and helping the new weavers where I could.
And when I attended Handcraft Club last week, I got drafted to participate in the Kamogawa Kominkan Matsuri, the annual festival of all the city sponsored clubs. I whipped together a couple of samples to display and prepared a “mini taiken” with the hope that people would add a few rows and we’d end up with a community created weaving. And we did: bright, colorful and wonkily shaped. I am delighted.
So as 2025 draws to a close, I feel that my theme word not only worked to guide my actions, but will weave its way into 2026 and beyond. Let’s weave some memories together.
