Sometimes my brain decides to short out on me what with too much input and not enough time to digest it. That’s a little opaque. Over the last two years I did the Bible-in-a Year and then the Catechism-in-a-Year. Either one of those was a lot to take in. I also finished writing two completely unrelated books, over the same two years. I wrote a short story about something else, mostly unrelated. I read about ten books, using Project Gutenberg Australia, just during this Christmas, and New Year. Some of them were rereads but not all. 

Added to this, I spent three days of intensive thinking, in order to understand a (stupid and otherwise unimportant) personal moment, that had knocked me for a loop. At the end I had everything squared away, and my brain was mush. The solution in my life for this, is to undertake some manual project, to make something with my hands, instead of torquing my brain any tighter. 

I’m doing some ‘mönsterplock’. {Just the name, in Swedish or Sami**, (it’s got to be Swedish…?) makes me feel better. It seems to mean pattern.} I’m using ‘mönstertrådar’ to do this ‘mönsterplock’ along with a mini-suohpan, aka ‘warp lasso,’ about which more later. A Swedish company, Stoorstålka, which can sound sinister if you try hard, produces several kits for people to learn the art of weaving Sami bands. It is based in Jåhkåmåhkke (Jokkmokk) Sweden. 

My husband gave me one of the kits for Christmas. It comes pre-threaded, with the shuttle pre-loaded, and the colors, obviously, pre-chosen. I tied it up to a weaving platform I made out of PVC pipe, and peacefully made my first band. 

I learned a lot, especially that I’m probably not pulling the sides in far enough. I also have a book on band weaving, so this week, when the necessity for some intensive hand work arrived, I went to work on another band. 

Behold my band weaving project.

I ought to know better than to allow 53 threads, each about 7 feet long, to get out of control. Eventually, I got them back where they belonged, and threaded them through the white object, which is called a heddle. Lifting it up and down creates patterns.

This is where the mini-suohpan comes in. It is supposed to help you slip the thread through the heddle during your preparation. It is tiny. Two came with the kit from Sweden. I lost the first one in the middle of rethreading the heddle. I swept the floor, found it, put it down while I got the dust pan, and lost it again. 

I could order a pack from Stoorstålka, or I could look at the second mini-suopahn carefully. Then I could go check the medicine cabinet.

This is where I am at now. See the header also.

I think it is pretty, and it is certainly doing wonders for my brain. I also think the pattern is too elongated. That would mean I’m not beating the thread in hard enough, … perhaps … but I’m going to worry about that on my third or fourth try, not this one. 

** The Sami are the people who live in the north of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia, and speak their own language, related to Finnish and Urdu.

… ‘mönsterplock’ means pattern band and ‘mönstertrådar’ means pattern threads …