an orange-red shawl, rumpled on a transparent background. it is soft yarn in a loose grid, and inlay of blue, purple, and yellow squiggle over the surface. the fringe is tied in diamonds. a close-up, in morning sunlight, of the thick interlocking basketweave. a similar shawl, this time with the inlay tracing a twisting serpent across the width. a low-angle view of the shawl, showing the inlaid wool bound between the red grid lines.

Trellis Shawl

These two shawls were both commissioned as gifts. I wove them in a merino-tencel yarn that is cloudy soft and lustrous, and changes from copper to brick red with the time of day. The structure is strong yet delicate—an open grid reminiscent of basketweave, formed from nonstop huck lace.

Snaking through the grid are organic squiggles, like plants on a trellis, growing into abstract multicolored figures. They burrow through and bump over. I love improvising these passages on the loom, since I get to listen to the fiber telling me the direction it wants to go.