Quite a few years ago, I abandoned the idea of New Year’s resolutions that were centered on self-improvement and replaced them with resolutions to do things that I wanted to do—a bucket list of sorts. When I told my sister one year that my resolutions were now along the lines of "I’m going to see what that new restaurant downtown is like" and "I’m going to learn how to weave lace", she laughingly responded, “But that is what you want to do.” Yes, it was what I wanted to do. No guilt, no expectations of a total personality change, just some things that I wanted to try or do.
It works for me. You all can go ahead and feel bad about not going to the gym every day in 2023, for not reading all of Shakespeare’s plays, or for not yet speaking fluent Italian, but I’m not going to join you. I’m working on next year’s resolutions. Currently, they involve going to see the Hokusai exhibit at a local museum, learning to make dumplings, and making a ruana for myself using a mixed warp of silk and wool yarns.
Your crafting life can really benefit by reimagining resolutions as things you want to do. Adopt my approach, and you might find more pleasure in your weaving. Imagine weaving resolutions in 2024 like these:
Try weaving with some yarns you hadn’t considered putting on your loom before. Photo by A R on Unsplash
- Weave plain weave on an 8-shaft loom, or weave a 4” scarf on a 20” wide rigid-heddle loom, without feeling guilty.
- Cut off that warp you hate. Burn it if you really hate it.
- Throw away the cone of mohair that makes you itch when you look at it.
- Add some crazy weft to your very structured runner.
- Try a different treadling than the one you so carefully planned.
- Warp with the souvenir skein you’ve had for 10 years.
- Combine your favorite colors in a way that makes you happy but doesn’t jive with color theory.
- Break into your perfect set of Tubular Spectrum cones from Lunatic Fringe Yarns and weave something colorful and fun! (Not to worry, if you want to continue to use your set as an art object you can always buy more cones to fill it back in!)
- Weave some of those fun rosepath figures you've been eyeing in A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns edited by Carol Strickler. You know the ones I mean; there are four pages of them! Weave a few and then make up some of your own designs.
- Try "As If" weaving. Thread one structure and treadle another. Check out Handwoven November/December 2022 for some ideas.
Maybe if your resolutions are more in line with your intentions and what you want to do, you might find yourself exploring some avenues in weaving you never before considered. It’s much more fun than feeling guilty about what you didn’t do, and I bet far more productive in the end. Join me.
I’ll let you know how that mixed-warp ruana turns out!
Weave well, Susan
Originally published 11/28/2017 Revised 12/27/2023