Ruth Macleod on Weaving with her Granddaughter

Ruth Macleod on Weaving with her Granddaughter

Jung-Ah Kim

Ruth Macleod

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These days, I am focused on weaving more than spinning. I have two looms - a 45-inch jack and a 27-inch counterbalance - and this gives me, - well it gives me the opportunity to teach my granddaughter. Zoe has always shown interest in weaving. I casually said to her, how about it, would you be interested in weaving? And she said I would be and, as, I say, regularly once a week, we wove together and it was lovely. Because of the placement of the looms we were weaving back to back. But it was lovely having this very dear girl in the same room doing something that I love to do. And she was beginning to love to weave. It was just lovely and she's learned a lot. She's made a blanket, you know, a really broad blanket. She wove two long lengths. I showed her how to invisibly put them together, matching the pattern. I've had a lovely time with her and it gave me an opportunity to get closer to her. So I'm very, very grateful for that. In fact, she'll probably be a better weaver than I am. Well, if you're good at anything, you pay attention to details, and she is very careful. I said to her initially that, if she made a mistake, it was up to her to decide whether she should take it back or leave it. She always takes it back, unlike her grandmother! I try to repair it afterwards, but it's so much simpler to repair on the loom. So she does the right thing.