From loving hands

I scooped these from the shop. The darker handwoven blanket somehow went un-noticed on consignment for a month at the shop before I noticed it. Washed from fleece in the grease, dyed, carded, spun and then woven and some fulling. Four of these blankets now keep 2 homes warm with the hands of love.  After Martina's first four blankets sold, we found out she has more! The orange, log cabin style, heavily fulled is a dream to lay under in the cooler winter nights. The kids and the cat can also be found curled up in either blanket. These are blankets that I have not seen of such complexity and richness that can only be achieved by the hand of a human. 

Overshot weaving and coast salish weaving

And we are off weaving, with a little help from our friends. Thank you Jean and Ryan! Definitely a journey in patience and persistence, and well worth the journey. Once weaving, it all comes together and is hard to believe that I am capapble of making such a pretty pattern.

And on another thread...Yesterday I was sitting in the Songhees Big House as part of the welcoming ceremony for the new Aboriginal Interns, a Provincial initiative that I have participated in the last 3 years. Each intern was wrapped in a blanket which had me off on a tangent imaging the days past when people in the big house would have been wrapped in a Cowichan woven blanket. Which led me back to my frequent thought about "dressing like you live here." Clothing yourself with materials that are in the nature surrounding us, for me, defines what traditional clothing is and recognizing that wool is my connection to the land. As is it for many of us, aboriginal or not.

Women weaving in Chiapas, Mexico

KBN was lucky enough to be asked to host a talk and weaving demo. Celia Santíz & Marla Gutierrez speaking on behalf of Indigenous Women's Fair Trade Weaving Cooperative Jolom Maya’etik and Women’s Organization K’inal Antzetik from Chiapas, Mexico. Celia (in the pictures) is the president of the collective and has been traveling around North America to find out what people are interested in. The sales have been declining the past while. It has been a full week since the event and it is amazing how my memory does not do well. I may be wrong, but I believe that they have been in establishment since 1996 and are made of 180 women. The work they sell through the collective adds to their household income and it is done primarily by women only.

In one area, the women work mostly with wool, raising their own sheep and working with the wool and dye with natural dyes that they harvest at certain times of the year. In other areas women predominately buy cotton and weave with it.
The patterns are taught at a young age and passed on from generation, Celia was weaving without any charts, going purely from her memory.
I found what looks like a good site on how to make your own back strap loom. Let me know if you try making one! I hope to make one this summer....