Weekend Project: Jumping into the Deep End

Challenge is a dragon with a gift in its mouth.

Tame the dragon and the gift is yours.

- Noela Evans

Last summer, a friend and I attended a convention hosted by the Handweaver's Guild of America called Convergence, which was held in Tampa, Florida. For the most part, I attended sewing-related classes and she attended beading-related classes. However, in the exhibit area, we each tried a bit of weaving on a floor loom, and I fell in love...

One day, I promised myself, one day...

Maybe after I retire, when I have more time...

So, what showed up on our doorstep last week as an early Christmas present from this friend? One of the books that kept calling to me at the conference:

You've probably seen comparable books for knitting - page after page of instructions for different patterns that could be incorporated into any project. This friend and I met in college because we were both math majors, and one of the things that appealed to me about weaving (and this book) was the decomposition of beautiful, complex patterns into systematic sequences of actions...

Now, I don't have ANY time in my life for another hobby... Between family, work, sewing, climbing, blogging, my sewing lessons, my internet friends, etc. I can barely squeeze in enough time to sleep!

But flipping through the book brought it all back - the comfort of the rhythmic motion of weaving, the satisfaction of seeing a beautiful piece emerge from my efforts... I couldn't help myself and had to do just a little bit of searching on the internet...

And that is when fate pulled open the curtains and revealed my dragon for 2009. A woman less than 100 miles from my house was selling a NEW Harrisville floor loom (the very model I used at the conference) for HALF PRICE!

If you re-read that last sentence, you'll notice that I said that she "was" selling a loom. Past tense. Enough said... ;)