Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Weave Like a Pirate



Obligatory visual - and yes, that's an all black warp on the AVL I'm just going to start threading....

Weave like a Pirate?  What?  Where did that come from????

Blame insomnia.

I couldn't sleep the first night at John C. Campbell in January and while the thoughts roiled through my brain I thought about what weaving efficiently was, how some people were adamant that their method was the only method to use or you courted doom, etc.

Out of those swirling thoughts came the idea that when learning how the process of weaving works, you have to accommodate your loom, your dis/abilities, the cloth you are attempting to weave.  The more various ways a weaver knows, the better able s/he is to select the appropriate approach.  Since people remember things if they are broken down into short concise catchy phrases, I distilled all that into three words:

Accept
Adapt
Reject

Or, for short - AAR

Or, in other words, Weave Like a Pirate.

Be a little out of the mainstream.  Be a little daring.  Be a little piratical!  Go on, I double dare you.  AARRRR!

(International Speak Like a Pirate Day is Sept. 19.  Just saying.....)

4 comments:

mmhaber said...

Laura, this is the best advice I've seen in a long time, and particularly appropriate to my situation (rheumatoid arthritis and a 40-year-old loom. Thank you so much for the insight, and a hearty laugh as well!

Meg said...

So interesting, and easy to remember. Reject being one of the important things! I'm just slow and, well, slow, but that I'm short and fat does make working on standard looms uncomfortable, either, even if Hubby has done quite a bit to make it ergonomically... better. Still, I would rather be weaving than not weaving so here we go, AAR!

amyfibre said...

Amen, sistah! Or the pirate equivalent.

It's one of my most oft repeated tidbits when I talk to new weavers. "This is how I do it and why...there are other ways. Find what works for you!"

AAR!

Laura Fry said...

Started a page on FaceBook
https://www.facebook.com/weavelikeapirate?fref=ts

Welcome all ye hearties. :^)

cheers,
Laura