I'd Like to Buy a Towel

(Actually finished sometime early 2022-just getting to adding here)

 Have wanted to make a towel for my SCA medieval husband to have when he's out doing and teaching archery in the hot sun to wipe his brow, something to compliment his outfit.  Bought yarn for this in the long-ago before-time.  Visions.  Life is about having a vision and moving forward to make it happen, right?  With everything else going on, though, I was at a point where I was thinking buying one would be faster and better.    

One thing that's struck me repeatedly is how a woven fabric is a metaphor for people or groups--bringing different strands of different colors and textures together to make something else entirely from the constituent parts, an interesting, beautiful whole piece the individual parts didn't even imagine.  Combining these multiple different lengths and colors of individual strings to make something useful of them, something completely different from the original pieces struck me as quite the metaphor for the SCA Barony of Concordia of the Snows.  The colors work together to make different aesthetically pleasing patterns and combinations.  There is no definite pattern, but it still works, and that this will be a working towel speaks to me of the work we accomplish together as Concordia.

I’ve had all sorts of learning experiences, frustrations, disappointments, surprises, joys and growth in this project.  One of the things my laurel/mentor has been after me to do is to be less dependent on using a pattern and be more willing to just do, so I tried that with this project, randomly choosing warp threads, randomly choosing when to change weft colors.  

The colors, laying out the warp (it's an adventure so why not the Falcon?!), starting weaving .. and ...

after a wash: !

There was much encouragement from others to try something new, to make a thing, to not worry and to let the art happen--even to enter it into a competition (out of my comfort zone, something I don't naturally do).   Thanks to all who encouraged and kept encouraging!

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