Woven Connections

This week I’m *finally* going to share with you the finished product from the project I featured in my very first post on this blog. It seems like just yesterday that I joined the Lucy Quarrier Weavers and started learning how to warp my loom for the first time! Now, almost two years later, I’ve moved out of state and left behind that guild and their lovely studio, and finally completed the finishing touches on that first project.

This project was originally intended to be altar cloth for mine and Caitlin’s home altar, but when I realized how much extra warp I’d put on the loom I decided to make miniature travel altar cloths for several of my favorite people scattered all over the country. Of course, I never do anything simple, so that idea ballooned into the assembly of creating little boxes of full travel altars. The weaving portion of this project was actually completed about a year ago but I’ve spent much of the last year preparing the boxes and gradually acquiring bits and pieces of meaningful objects to include in them. (Technically, I’m still working on writing the prayer on the insides of some of the boxes, and I do have a couple more special items I’m keeping my eye out for before this project is 100% done)

Several members of LQW helped me weave this project, from lending me pattern books, walking me through warping the loom, helping me experiment with my tension, and even gifting me yarn. Almost all of the yarn used was from the LQW stash; only the purple weft was purchased new from the Kanawha City Yarn Company (my favorite local yarn store in Charleston, WV). The finished cloth before it was cut into squares was over 10 feet long, but only about 6.5 inches wide (I’d intended it to be 8 inches wide!) It took me about 10 months to weave the cloth, then another year to assemble and prepare the altar boxes.

The contents of each travel altar box is slightly different, curated specifically to the intended recipient, but I do want to share with you all some of the common contents. I’ve written the Tefilat Haderech, the Traveler’s Prayer, on the lid of each box, and an interpretive translation (written by Kohenet Ilana Joy Streit) on the bottom. The stationary I used for this prayer has been with me for nearly 20 years, originally purchased to write letters when I was a summer camp counselor so it holds memories for me of my heart home at Camp Celo, in the beautiful Appalachian mountains of NC.

Each box contains a Hamsa for protection (these were just purchased online), a tiny miniature sword for strength (purchased from a blacksmith at a renaissance faire, and matching the sword I keep in my own travel altar), and a d10 or d20 pulled from my own collection of dice for luck. To represent the 4 elements, each box includes a small candle, a shell from my lifelong collection of scavenged seashells, a feather (either scavenged from my neighborhood or collected from a friend’s chickens), and an acorn (collected on Catoctin mountain during a retreat for my wife’s UU church, and blessed during a ritual of her congregation).

As I said in my first post about this project it feel really powerful to give small pieces of ritual cloth to so many of my closest people, all woven with love from one continuous warp along with the cloth that I use on my personal altar at home. The finished cloth is far from perfect, with messy selvedges and lots of little mistakes, and honestly that makes me love it even more. And I’ve put a lot of thought and magical energy into the curation of these altar boxes and their contents; I hope their recipients find this gift as powerful and meaningful as I do!

• Featured Project: Altar Cloth
• Medium: weaving
• Pattern: from “The Handweaver’s Pattern Directory”, page
• Material:
  • Warp — unknown from LQW supplies closet (undyed cotton blend I think)
  • Weft 1 — cotton blend, lavender
  • Other Weft — miscellaneous yarn from LQW scrap bin
• Started: May 2021, Completed March 2023
• Other relevant posts: Meet the LQW

#doneisgood #Jewitch #showcase #weaving #theology #athena