This past weekend was big fibre craftfest for me. Saturday I went to the local s’n’b to knit and chat, Sunday I went to the Handweavers and Spinners Guild to weave and chat.

I found myself telling the lovely spinners at the Guild how all my craft obsessions tend to last about seven years. At six I took up pottery and lost interest at about twelve. In my teens I took up sewing and in my twenties I did a pattern design course before losing interest. Silk painting overlapped the sewing thing, which then petered out when I took up oil painting in a serious way. Oil painting ‘classes’ (which were more like workshops where you painted what you wanted with an expert on hand to advise you) continued for about seven years and though I swore painting was ‘art’, not a ‘hobby’, and didn’t fall into the seven year craft cycle, I haven’t been able to rouse the enthusiasm after the classes were cancelled.

Knitting came along about five years ago. As always, I can’t help thinking that surely this hobby will last. Especially considering it was such a great activity to do while watching tv. But complicated knitting that might keep me interested in the craft is too attention-demanding to do while watching teev.

And now there’s this weaving thing.

Looking back, from silk painting onwards there was a strong social element to the hobbies that became obsessions. A friend introduced me to silk painting and we used to get together on weekends to experiment. Painting classes were very social and we inspired each other constantly. Knitting blogs and forums encouraged me to try new techniques and yarns.

The silk painting friend moved away, the classes were cancelled. The slow-down in knitters blogging has been disappointing but Ravelry, which isn’t a great replacement as it isn’t as personal as blogs, did lead to other social ways of interacting with knitters (s’n’b).

I remember there was a similar problem with getting too skilled in pottery – the only way I could advance was to start wheel-throwing, but there was only one wheel in the classroom and having to take turns meant I spent most of the class frustrated.

Sewing was a lesson in knowing when to stop. I forced myself to continue long past the point I lost interest, mainly out of guilt at the huge fabric stash I had, and now I dislike sewing. I’m not going to force myself to knit if I don’t feel the love, no matter how big my stash has got.

Fortunately, if I do end up losing interest in knitting in a few years, weaving has two big advantages as a replacement. I don’t have to lose the social side of knitting – it’s not like I’d have to stop attending a class, and I can bring the portable loom along to s’n’b meets. And I can still use my yarn stash.

Unfortunately, the Ravelry bods don’t want members to add non-knitting projects in the database. They’ve hinted weaving will be included in the future, but if that doesn’t happen there’s a new site called Weavolution that aims to work in similar ways. I’d rather weaving was included in Ravelry, so I could continue interacting with the same people and there are lot of cross-pollination possibilities with weaving, knitting and crochet.

But I haven’t quite lost interest in knitting, or crochet, yet. Who knows, maybe I’ll keep on with the tv knitting. My current projects have been good for that:

While looking for a Yarn magazine pattern in the Ravelry database, I saw a fair isle yoked cardigan in similar yarn to the Cleckheaton Country Silk I bought recently. I’m making lots of changes – waist shaping, jumper rather than cardigan, narrower sleeves.

I finished the first Rainforest Sock and started the second.

Slogging away at Summer Nights. I like the yarn but knitting in 4ply is sooooo sloooow. After this is done I reckon I’ll start something in 12ply, just to take the edge off.

But now that I’ve warped up the loom for the second time, I’m itching to weave. I have to wait until the weft yarn dries. It’s some of the same handspun I wove the Eucalyptus Placemats out of, but in a different colour, and had a fair bit of grease still in it.

What’s on the loom so far is just scrap yarn woven in to even up the warp, and some of the linen warp woven in as a stable edge for the rug.

I have to resist slipping down to the laundry and blowing on the yarn in the hopes it’ll dry faster.