Bag from pillowcase, pants leg, tablet-woven straps

This is my most lavish upcycled market bag yet: “Kivrim” trim, created with tablet weaving, forms the straps of this hand-made shopping bag. The upper body of the bag was made from a pillowcase, the lower body was made from a pair of pants. A piece of fabric woven on a rigid-heddle loom is layered onto the bag beneath an appliqued leaf cut out from another piece of fabric.

Hand-made grocery sacks extend life of T’s

Hand-made shopping bag with T-shirt logo and handwoven trim for straps

I had to retire a T-shirt from wear but wanted to preserve the logo because it had sentimental value for me. As it happened, I had a length of hand-woven trim that complimented the logo perfectly.

‘Fiber yoga’: Crafting as meditation

“You need to stay present when you knit, even if you are just doing a garter stitch and don’t have to pay super-close attention. Touching the yarn and needles gives us a feeling of being connected to ourselves and our world. This kind of connection is what yoga is all about.”

— Cyndi Lee, knitter and director of OM Yoga

The latest issue of Yoga Journal (September 2007) has a good article about knitting, a.k.a. “the new yoga.” I have long thought that handicrafts like knitting and crochet had meditative validity and it is nice to have my belief corroborated. A particular book that might be interesting might be interesting to read is Knitting Sutra: Craft As a Spiritual Practice by Susan Gordon Lydon.

In the words of Tara Jon Manning, author of Mindful Knitting and Compassionate Knitting, “Each [yoga and knitting, or in my case crochet and loom-work] allows the practitioner to leave thoughts and distractions behind and focus on a specific object or action.” To me, this meditative practice can be described as “fiber yoga.”