Expect the Unexpected

Twill scarf woven by Marion Kirkwood with Soxy Lady yarn from Diamond Yarns. 

Sometimes in my weaving projects I have many false starts. One problem after another seems to arise and it seems that I will never arrive at the point when I will start weaving. There may be mistakes in the threading. The loom may be giving me challenges I had not anticipated. Problems come up I hadn't expected. Sometimes I can't figure out how to fix it and can't give it my full attention because life is just so busy with other demands on my time or my mind too full of other things. This mirrors life. Weaving lures us into its hypnotic trance while we throw the shuttle, and at first we are not aware of what pitfalls might lie ahead. Like life. And as in life, weaving is very much about one's attitude to  problems in life. Sometimes these problems are easy to solve. At others time they are not. This elicits various emotions and reactions. Impatience, anger, discouragement, frustration, swearing. I am no exception to this. It's important to see though, that weaving is at some point, about problem solving and altering one's attitude towards it. An attitude that will make life more pleasant and bearable especially for an activity that we so love. When an especially big challenge comes up, I sometimes have to walk away from it for awhile and let myself calm down and return when I am in better spirits. Problems are a part of life. When things go smoothly, I don't take it for granted and instead, feel gratitude. Weaving has taught me to move steadily forward, thread by thread, pick by pick, persevering and seeing the project through, and to learn the lessons I need to learn from it , whether it be a weaving one or life lesson. I try now instead to enjoy that kind of journey too, to relax about it, for it brings along with it, the supportive relationships and situations I  need. When problems arise, we really need others to be alongside us giving us their encouragement, support and understanding. 

Bronson Lace wool scarves woven by Marion Kirkwood, taken from the Handweavers Pattern Directory, by Ann Dixon. 

In his book The Statesman,   Plato uses weaving as a metaphor to explore some of the ways fabric and its forms provide us with excellent metaphors to conduct ourselves, as well as govern society.  In it Plato outlines that ruling is itself a kind of art, in the sense that the ruler must make decisions often in the absence of laws, using intuition and perhaps good judgement for the benefit of those he manages or is responsible for.  Plato reviews an exhaustive list of arts and discards each one as not providing  good moral paradigms for governance.  To paraphrase,   the web of the state should be  fashioned by weaving. The strands run straight and true, and these strands are the gentle and the brave who are woven into a unified network. Unity is valued for it draws individuals into  fellowship by mutual concord and by ties of friendship which creates the finest and best of all social fabrics. 

Christine Shipley brought this Monk's Belt potholder made from loom waste warp threads. It was woven by Anne Lewis and she sold them at the Cedar Ridge sale. 

It is surprising that Plato exalted weaving at a  time it would have been  'merely' a woman’s craft, and it is almost always an attribute of female characters in Greek literature, such as Helen in the Iliad , Penelope in Ulysses, Clytemnestra’s tapestries that entrapped Agamemnon. Kant says that Plato thinks of weaving as exercising a kind of judgement which is not formulaic. It is a judgement that is formed by the planning , foresight, discipline, calculations, consideration for parameters and limitations,  that need to be anticipated, which create in the weaver a measured judgement, and an ability to deal patiently with the challenges that present themselves.

There are always some positive lessons to be extracted from problems and challenges. Always some fruitful result if you are willing to wrestle with it honestly and authentically. And in these challenges, there can be nuggets of joy,  if, like a miner, you dig for it and realize that what you thought might have been a problem is a gift, because it forced your hand in transforming you, your life or your relationships in some incredible way you could not have imagined before. On your weaving journey, expect the unexpected. Sometimes it's problems we'd rather not be dealing with. At other times it exceeds our expectations in the most exciting way!