meandering into existence

One of the lovely things—

—about living in a house—

—that is also a studio—

—and of working on a pipe loom—

—in the midst of laundry, life, furniture, fiber and food— ¹

—is that you are actually there—

—to notice when everything glows.

Another handy thing is that when it’s time to release your tapestry—

—you can put the loom at one end of the house—

—walk backwards to the other—

—and unleash the strands with almost no tangles.²

A third excellent thing is that when the tapestry is free—

K tog, A Manifesto; hand woven tapestry; hand spun wool warp and weft; 13” x 13” copyright Sarah C Swett, 2026

—and the loom dismantled—

—all the pipe parts can can hang out together in a corner—³

—leaving space for the next loom-worthy idea—⁴

—and its warp—

—to meander their way—

—into being.

1. A micro-green growing experiment. I’m using a container that once contained farmer-purchased micro-greens. The lid makes it a mini greenhouse while the seeds sprout, and though not deep enough for long term plant nutrition, it seems a fine place to grow some greens that I’ve already begun snipping (YUM). I think I planted them a teensy bit too close together, but as this is my first experiment. So far it’s super satisfying: to re-use an annoying plastic container, to grow delicious food in February, and to live with this unfolding explosion of tiny leaves. Seeds are just amazing, eh?

2. Fly line backing (supplemental warp), all ready for the next Fringeless four selvedge tapestry.

For those of you who use this technique, you probably figured out sooner than I did that stretching it out across a room (rather than piling it in a heap at the base of the loom), in this final releasing phase is a great way to eliminate tangles and wind the backing onto bobbins for storage.

3. Undemanding (no empty loom angst), out of the way and tidy.

4. Having to put together a loom for each tapestry is just enough work that many off-the-cuff notions are not worth the effort. Sometimes this seems like a good thing (“sure glad I didn’t waste materials on that idea”), and sometimes a loss, (“wish i’d had the wherewithal to give that a try while the fire was hot”). Ideally of course, it helps me trust that I really DO want to give a thing a go. And now and then it actually work out that way.

Also, what’s not to love about being friends with a pair of big red pipe wrenches?