Serendipity

I've always loved that word, even before I understood what it meant!

It seems like life is full of these little (and some large) events that seem to come out of nowhere.

Here's one that happened in my life just last week...  seems like two unconnected themes were bound and determined to converge:

Thread one:  I've been lurking various groups on Ravelry where weaving and spinning tools are traded and sold in hopes of finding just the thing I need.  In fact, I found Thor on one of these groups.  Well, the other day, someone posted a link to an ad for a studio liquidation sale in Colorado, bemoaning the fact that she lived too far away to be able to attend.

I felt compelled to have a look, even though I'm too far away as well.  Turns out to be the studio of a well-known artist who has been published in Handwoven and has had an instructional DVD out.  Her name rang a bell, but didn't really register with me.  I browsed her site a bit -- she has a beautiful antique Tyrolean wheel that would have been an ideal companion for Thor.
   
                                

She's delicate and graceful where Thor is blunt and forceful.   Just look at that curving footman!  Figuring that the worst that could happen was that she would either not reply or simply say "no," I emailed  to ask if there was any chance she would consider shipping.  She replied immediately and we have had a lovely conversation back and forth, during which she mentioned that she would ship books and magazines. 

Skip to thread number two:  Since the Jason Collingwood class, I've been obsessing on Krokbragd, boundweave, and Rosepath, as methods of figural weaving. My next project is going to be a sampler of figures -- people, trees, sheep, etc., with some eventual wallhangings in mind.  Not knowing the first thing about this other than the little bit of Krokbragd we did in the workshop, I needed to find resources.   Since I already have a pretty good collection of back issues of Handwoven, I went through the indices Friday afternoon and compiled a list of articles that might be helpful.   I did find several that look promising, but that turns out not to be the point here.

Mentioned in articles were two books that sound like excellent sources:  Clothilde Barrett's book on boundweave, (which I had already ordered and was delivered later that afternoon), and The Manual of Swedish Handweaving.

So here is where the two threads converge... and get even a little more complex.  I wrote down the wrong year for the errata on one of the articles and when I opened May/June 1993 to page 75 expecting a short paragraph of corrections, instead there was a page of lovely interior design fabrics.  And the name of the artist I've been emailing jumped right off the page at me.  Seems like fate was determined to point me toward this talented designer and weaver.   Then it gets even a little stranger.  My eye kept being drawn to a particular curtain fabric shown on this page.  I suddenly realized that I have a drawer full of old table linens that are very similar in technique to this fabric.   I've been whining for years that I have no finished examples of my grandfather's weaving except for a blanket that's on loan from a cousin, when all the while I may have had some of his work sitting in my linen cupboard.  (Saving that exploration for another day.)

So here is where I wax philosophical.  Was the whole point of this fate's way of showing me something that was right under my nose all the time?  Are our lives always this intertwined and we simply fail to recognize the connections most of the time? 

By the way,  something told me I'd better look at the book list, even though I have quite a large library of my own.  And there it was -- The Manual of Swedish Handweaving.  Plus the back issues of Handwoven from my index extract that I didn't already have.  My check is in the mail to her as we speak. To my regret, the union between the lovely Tyrolean wheel and Thor seems simply not meant to be.

On a more mundane note, I got the greenhouse reassembled and (I hope) secured so it won't get knocked down again.  Started a few more seeds - details on my cotton journal entry.    I have been spending 10-15 minutes daily working on the studio cleanup, and actually spent a couple of hours on it yesterday.   Think it's time to part with some of my stash. And maybe relocate some stuff unrelated to fiber arts.   There's simply not enough room to put everything away, hence the tendency for things to pile up.  Time to make some tough decisions.  Or there won't be room for that tabletop loom I have my eye on...