The Messy World of Real-Life Weaving

According to Instagram the world of weaving is filled with pristine yarn-filled studios, organized bins of rainbow-colored beads and sunlit rooms with big windows and ample storage. Projects are planned for and finished in a timely manner (there are no looms with that project you’ve been working on for a year but just can’t finish) and there is no cutting pieces off of looms (because they ALL work out). Weaving is done on wide oak tables or sitting in the grass (wearing a tulle skirt, of course). Dogs don’t bark, cats don’t bite warp threads and babies certainly never cry. 

The reality? Probobly not that. 

This morning a friend invited me to a last-minute birthday brunch. I decided I should get her a gift, or even better, make her one. 

I found a blank loom (I have a lot of looms, and finding an empty one when I need it is still almost impossible), shoved an ever-growing pile of magazines back on the coffee table and warped the loom (using some gorgeous pink hand-painted silk) for a bracelet. I decided I didn’t want to bother balancing the warping bar, so I just kept it in the clips (like this). It was the laziest warping job ever and took about 60 seconds. But hey, it worked!

I started to weave with some beads and crystals I found in my stash.

I crossed my fingers that I’d have enough.

I turned on some music and wove the bracelet, getting up every few minutes to write an email or two. Sometimes I can’t sit still. 

The cat sauntered over at some point and tried to steal the leftover silk.

The dog tried tirelessly to sleep (pun not intended) on my lap. 

I finished weaving, found a pretty little clasp that I’d been saving and finished off the bracelet by just knotting the ends and tying on the clasp. 

It actually turned out to be really cute. 

But the point of this post is this:

Sometimes weaving is messy. Sometimes we are in a rush. Sometimes we weave on cluttered coffee tables. Sometimes our supplies are so disorganized we can’t even deal with it. Sometimes we use cheats to make creating faster and choose supplies based mostly on how easy they are to find. Sometimes weaving doesn’t look how it looks on Instagram. 

But I still see the beauty in that. 

(Oh hey, you should follow us on Instagram @mirrixlooms!)