Chenille has been the favored material for some years – understandably – it has such a plushy hand and the colors are great to play with. I do love working with the natural fibers, though, and just picked up some of my homespun wool yarn to create a richly textured, more organic warp for a buttoned shoulder wrap.
One hank of homespun needed to be wound into a ball to get to a usable state, so I put the hank in a basket on the floor, and proceeded to pull from it to wind a ball. As it unwound in the basket, it created arms as it bounced on the walls of the basket – sections of the yarn loosened from the hank and hung out the sides. Because I was pulling on it rather quickly, it was bouncing about in the basket as the yarn came off the hank. The newly formed arms flailed with the movement of their hank body as it shrank. What I saw in that dancing hank of yarn was me flailing around, bouncing off the walls, seeking ground, equilibrium; me asking the universe to wind me up into a whole, protect me from tangles, make me into something beautiful.
As the hank shrunk, so did the flailing arms; and the newly formed ball of beautiful homespun wool became its own whole, self contained form, content, full of potential, bursting with bounce. Transformation complete. For now.
The finished shoulder buttoned wrap contains that homespun: gold, brown and grey, the colors of late autumn woods. I measured enough warp for three pieces. The first has a white mohair boucle weft which makes me think of the first snow in the forest in November. The second has an olive rayon boucle weft, and the third a chocolate brown cotton slub. Now to find the right buttons - all vintage.
These pieces have been delivered to LiPon in Brattleboro, where Linda has them beautifully on display, for sale. The shop is on the corner of the Harmony Parking lot. Her number is (802) 257-4969. It's a lovely shop and Linda is most gracious. I'm grateful to have my work in the world again. 
