3. Why Weaving?

Over the past couple of years I began to realize that retirement was on the horizon. Sam (my wife) and I begin having conversations about what that would mean. Of course, the discussion around finances took place and the stars seem to align for me to retire around the age of 65. For reference, I will turn 63 in October of this year (2025).

With the finance discussion behind us, Sam asked me several times, "What will you do?" We see many examples of people retiring and having regrets and even some have their health deteriorate. I want to avoid both of these. I have dabbled in a couple of hobbies but nothing that would really be the thing to stimulate my brain or be an activity that would keep me busy.

Last fall Sam and I took an October trip to coastal Maine, driving up from Boston to Acadia National Park. Along the way we stopped in Ogunquit, Portland, Camden and Belfast, among others. Many of them had yarn stores and one shop we stopped at was selling locally hand-made scarves that were selling for hundreds of dollars. The were very finely woven and very soft. Sam loves wearing scarves but these were way out of our price range.

Fast forward a couple of months and I saw an ad from Flax & Twine for a kit to make Callie Linen Coasters. It included a small 8" hand loom with the tools and materials

My first coaster was a basic weave and did not look quite like the example but it was not bad. My second was an attempt at twill and was worse. Another try at a basic weave and I showed improvement. Maybe I can do this, time to search the internet and see what else was out there. So began this journey down the rabbit hole.

More to come in future posts.