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Blog
Jun 26

Travel Weaving Adventures

A walled Mexican hacienda draped in purple flowers

It’s not every day that you are given the opportunity to spend a month in a foreign country. When the moment came for me to decide if I should go to Mexico with my wife for a month as she studies opera, I said yes!

Since I knew that I would be away from my studio for 5 weeks, I had to pack accordingly.

Even before packing clothes, I grabbed my Zoom Loom and placed it in my suitcase – a fiber artist cannot be too far away from yarn!

First stop: TNNA – Columbus, OH, United States

I was on the lookout for some yarn to use while traveling. On the last day of the show, I saw a picture on Instagram from Dream In Color Yarns. They were giving away their mini skein samples! I jumped on the opportunity and came back with a huge bundle of skeins, which joined my Zoom Loom and other travel necessities for the next leg of my journey. Did I need all of this yarn? No! But I knew that the mini skeins would be perfect for the Zoom Loom, since each one would yield at least 2 squares each.

A large pile of colorful woven ropes

Next Stop: San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico.

As soon as I arrived, I was greeted by so much color and texture. Everywhere I looked, I saw something that inspired me.

Since I had so many colors of yarn available, I decided that I should start weaving squares that matched my surroundings. It became a fun challenge to see if I could produce the perfect color for whatever I encountered!

Yellow square for the yellow door on our casita.

Yellow square for the yellow door on our casita.

Rebecca Mezoff, a tapestry weaver now based in Fort Collins, inspired this project, which is based on the mini tapestries she wove to document each day spent as an artist in residence at a National Park.

A deep red square matching the wall of our casita.

Square for the wall of our casita.

While her tapestries were more representational, my final project will just be blocks of color. So far, I’ve drawn inspiration from buildings, flowers, plants, and other sights.

Since I have two more weeks to go in San Miguel, I am sure I will come home with more than enough squares to make a wall hanging to remember this amazing trip.

Follow us on Instagram for more inspiration photos and Zoom Loom squares to match!

Speaking of Travel Weaving…

What could be better than to escape the heat of August and cruise along the Alaska coastline? How about going with a group of knitters and weavers or soon-to-be-weavers? Friends and Fiberworks and Constance Hall are heading to Alaska, and small loom weaving on Schacht looms will be the focus (with a bit of knitting, too!).

A whale's tail emerging from the ocean

No weaving experience is needed! We will be weaving on Zoom Looms, Crickets and the newest loom in the Schacht loom line up, The Lilli Loom. Find more cruise information here.

A weaving begun on a Lilli Loom