The following post was graciously written by Handweaving Academy founding member Joy Hogg.

My friend Julie has disassembled, sanded, and stained two Norwood looms she picked up from Marketplace for her two daughters, all while weaving a deflected doubleweave and a fabric cover for her new loom bench. In a month.

I am not lying. There really are people with that much energy!

Then there is me. I stir design ideas, structure choices, and thoughts on color in my head, like savoring a soup. I sniff the possibilities. By the time I have the project on my loom, months sometimes pass.

But I visit the Handweaving Academy constantly despite my lack of physical production. I think the value of the Academy for me is primarily mental.

If my slow pace and the demands of my life preclude hours of bliss at the loom, I can hone my skills and techniques through other people’s challenges. Now that I have a project on my loom, I am solving issues with the knowledge I gained while reading courses, forums, toolbox techniques, and watching Zoom meetings.

Banking knowledge is a different – but worthy! – kind of productivity. And sometimes I just want to experience the creativity of others. Often, I discover I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

I love the Peer Support Zooms, becoming familiar with other weavers, their projects, and their puzzles. I pick up skills from “Live at the Loom.” I learn best while watching the Live Lectures. When new courses come out or old courses resurface, I delight in the designs and the amazing “aha!” moments I read in the connected forums.

I constantly relearn how to use the Draft Editor, since I forget during the long gaps between the dreamtime and the decided project. Quick trips to the Weaver’s Toolbox teach me processes from Janet’s amazing mathematical and systematic mind. I expand my weaving knowledge.

While I am feeling the wonder of new learning and the warmth of friendships, I may not be physically beating the weft threads in. There is equal value in slipping through the Learning Portals and reading about the world of weaving.

My project is on the loom now, and I am recalling Janet’s advice on selvages and Tien’s system for determining color value, along with people’s suggestions on sett and their experiences with different kinds of fiber.

How can I determine shrinkage? Can I combine different weights of yarn? With their advice, I was able to change the design for a different width and alter the treadling for the result I wanted. With their guidance, I am making the project my own without fear.

So much of my beautiful cloth on the loom grew from meandering through the Handweaving Academy during months when physical weaving was not happening. My time in the Academy, even when not weaving, produces beautiful results when I finally sit down and weave.

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