Weaving has been around for 20,000 years, probably longer. Granted it has changed in that amount of time as materials and technology have changed, but people have been interlacing fibers to create wearable, useful, and more often than not, stunningly beautiful fabrics, utensils, shoes, and even dwellings. Humans have woven on everything from fingers, sticks, looms laid out on the ground with pegs, vertical looms hung from trees or roofs, back-strap looms hooked to belts tied around the waists of the weavers, and multi-shaft looms with levers or treadles, to industrial looms driven by computers. Some of the most complex and beautiful fabrics are still woven on very primitive looms.
I feel honored to follow in my ancestors' footsteps by continuing this age old art of interlacing threads. Unlike them, I am fortunate to have modern floor looms and a wide variety of yarns and fibers to choose from. I am also blessed to have the dyes to color those yarns in any way that I like. My ancestors would surely be envious.
Susan Porter
