Handwovens

So I was thinking of waiting for something more “official” like a business card, or a logo, to announce this; but I’m just too dang excited! I’m opening the studio of 14 Mile Farm for business.  The business license is on its way from the State, and I’ll be legit! 

I expect that at as this little one turns up earthside and grows and giggles and plays, the inventory of the shop will occasionally expand to include toys and dolls… locals may even be able to find me at the occasional bazaar or fair.  But what I’m most excited about, what is even now starting to get off the ground is a collaboration between a loom named Maggie and myself.  One thread at a time...

And so I'd like to officially introduce to you, I'd like to introduce officially to you:

14 Mile Farm handwovens!!!

I’ll be weaving (and offering for sale) artisan babywearing wraps, meditation shawls, and more!

I've got two different projects going on the loom this fall... one on Maggie, and one on my mother's loom (thanks, Ma!) – jumping in with both feet sometimes really is the best way forward! 

The first project is baby's first wrap.  Stay tuned for more details, design inspiration, and progress shots in an upcoming post.  This warp will be a long one.  It'll see a tester to make the rounds for feedback, the wrap (baby's first!) that will stay with us, and then.... if all goes well, two wraps will come off the loom for sale in time for the holidays! 

And the second exciting project is this:

I'm participating in the Fall 2015 Great Competition of Weavers!

The theme this time around is Children's Lit.  Which is such a great topic, with so many options and interpretations to choose from!  It'll be exciting to see what all books the weavers pick, and how they bring those inspirations to the wraps.  What's your favorite book from childhood?  What book would you pick?

Its an anonymous contest, so its super-secret and I can't tell you what book I'm working with or show you the project.  But I CAN tell you that I'm super stoked about it and that I just ordered the yarn!!!  I can also tell you that public voting for the winner will begin October 1st and close October 3rd. 

One wrap from the competition warp will go up for sale via draw after the close of the competition – it might even be the competition wrap itself!  So if you want to SUPER CRYPTIC updates on the progress of the competition project leading up to the grand reveal October 3, you should follow me on Instagram.  I'm hoping I can use social media as a motivational tool to get me to finish in time, despite third trimester pregnancy...  we shall see!

Meanwhile, if babywearing and/or handwovens excites you, you should totally click through to FB and 'like' 14 Mile Farm. 

And that mostly wraps up (har har) my big news.  Did I mention yet that I'm excited about it?!?  I'm pretty excited.  Because 45 yards of weaving is clearly a perfectly reasonable goal for this fall... along with home renovations, yoga teaching and oh!  right!  growing a human.  If you need to find me, I'll be playing with yarn.

Hashtag Extreme Nesting

Today I built shelves.  A few days ago I was ripping out carpeting.  It seems that my pregnancy nesting process as I enter the third trimester entails a whole lot more power tools, hammers and trips to Lowes than it does adorably tiny baby clothes.  I mean, I've got a pile or three of teensy onesies, and a handful of a few large bags full of slightly larger adorable clothing for this child that just need to be re-folded and sorted by size.  Its not like I'm immune to the charm of the tiny clothing.

But man, the siren call of shelving!  As a child I always thought the "a place for everything and everything in its place" motto was laughable.  Increasingly, I like the idea.  Especially as I embrace the lifestyle changes that I hope and expect this child to bring with it: fewer long days in town, fewer days in town at all, more time on the homestead, more homebaked bread; I find myself less and less tolerant of the general malaise of spreading stuff that two adults –packrats at that!- living in a too-large house are prone to create.

It’s all a metaphor, really.  Symbolic.  The renovation and interior design work that preoccupies my mind of late is a way of making physical the spiritual and emotional and energetic process of this pregnancy.  Of making space for baby.  Of dreaming forth the mom I want to be, the woman I want to be.  As I embrace this shift, I realize more and more just how much I've told certain dreams to wait, just how many aspects of myself I've tucked away for later.  And their time is now. The baby's time is now.  And baby deserves a space to live in that will nurture baby's growth, that will nurture baby's parents so that, as parents, we can do our best by baby.

And so my nesting process entails skill saws and screws as well as shuttles and yarn.  It means undertaking renovations both major and minor to create functioning systems in this home of ours. 

Snail Mail

Writing letters is one of my favorite things to do.  Getting letters comes in a close first, or second, depending.  While email and messaging has the immediacy of time, there's a different sort of immediacy and a beautiful sort of intimacy that comes with ink on paper.  Letters bridge gaps in time and distance, drawing hearts and minds close. 

I've always loved the story of two famous (and perhaps literary) lovers in the late 19th/early 20th century who would write each other love letters from their separate studies across the hall from one another.  Perhaps it was just the early form of texting, but that is not the parallel I'd hoped to draw!  It seems to me from time to time that there's a sort and a depth of expression that comes through differently, or perhaps that we have trained ourselves to access differently, in the written word than in the spoken.  And when that is coupled with the tactile experience of paper or cardstock, the energetic imprints of distant places that the paper carries with it.  Molecules transferring through time and space, bundled into form, imbued with thought and attention. 

I love it.

Besides which!  There's so many pretty papers and cards!  And so much opportunity to make a collage/paper crafting card to send.... this may or may not be one of my next projects...

Do you write or receive letters?  Postcards?