Looking Forward to 2020!

Marcy Petrini

December, 2019

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. I love visiting with family and friends this time of year, the fun parties, and the bubbly tastings, but I must admit that I get frustrated that not much handwork gets done. I keep on reminding myself that there is a reason why traditionally women put up their weaving and spinning for the holidays.

But this leads me to reflect on how much really did get done this past year and even though weaving, spinning, knitting, etc. are slow, and I don’t do it as much as I would like, the work gets completed. In fact, I have a drawer full of finished projects waiting to be photographed… I am not the only one that has gotten behind. But Terry (Dwyer, my husband who photographs all of my pieces) has a good excuse: new camera for Christmas!

Do yourself a favor, take a few minutes and reflect on what handwork you have accomplished in 2019. It’s likely more than you remember. Use a list, a spreadsheet, or a table like the one below, and edit to fit your needs. Fill it; looking back also allows you to think about your direction for the future. Are there techniques you want to try? Are there projects so successful you want to explore the topic more? Are there projects that were not as successful – what could you change them to make them better?

Here is the table filled with my favorite project of the year:

“Onde” means waves in Italian; here is the picture of the piece:

When counting, I see that I have finished 20 weaving projects, with 2 more on the looms, 5 knitting projects and 1 on the needles, 2 spinning projects and 1 being plied. I believe that, for me, quantity doesn’t always matter, but quality always does.

For 2020, I have 4 weaving project to complete for the Convergence^® seminars and workshop I will be presenting, then I can go back to explore the irregular motifs of “Onde” above.

For spinning, I have joined the Shave ‘em to Save ‘em Initiative from the Livestock Conservancy:

https://livestockconservancy.org/index.php/involved/internal/SE2

I am plying the last of the Gulf Coast wool; next will be Shetland, 4 oz each. While I doubt that I will spin all the threatened breeds in the allotted time of 3 years, especially since I found out about it late, I still think it’s a worthwhile project to pursue. I plan to knit a blanket using strips or squares in different stitches for each breed, so I will know them apart, and that may take a long time.  But saving these breeds is important, so whatever contribution any of us can make is worthwhile.

Now it’s your turn: what will 2020 bring?

Happy New Year!

  and 

      Happy Weaving!

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