Rebecca Mezoff Blog — Rebecca Mezoff

To find your online classes on Pathwright, click HERE.

Staying pain free while you weave: Wellness for Makers

Staying pain free while you weave: Wellness for Makers

Missy Graff Ballone’s new book, Wellness for Makers: A Movement Guide for Artists is a book I’ve been waiting awhile for. It is finally out from Schiffer Publishing.

Many of you know I worked as an occupational therapist for 17 years in a wide variety of settings including adult inpatient and outpatient rehab, work rehab/pain clinic, SNF, home health, and I worked for many years in pediatrics in outpatient and schools. Ergonomics was not my specialty, but any OT has to know quite a bit about how to to adapt environments and habits for health and to adapt after injury or disease.

I hear many stories on social media about weavers who give up weaving because they have too much pain with the practice. I think a lot of times that is because they do not know how to adapt their practice and equipment for pain-free use as well as long-term health. It is sad when people give up activities they love because they think they’re too old or have too much pain due to other factors than age rather than learn to adapt the way they approach that activity so they can keep engaging in it. Before you give up weaving, please get a referral to an occupational therapist who can help you figure out ways to continue!

What makes a good tapestry yarn?

What makes a good tapestry yarn?

For many years when I first started weaving tapestry I used the yarn that my teacher used. After all, it was a great yarn, dyed well, and I was able to get most of the effects I wanted in my work using it.

When I started teaching tapestry, I began experimenting with other tapestry yarns and then with some yarns that are not specifically designed for tapestry weaving. It became a bit of an obsession and over the years of teaching tapestry weaving, I’ve collected and used something like 30 different yarns. Some were difficult and not suited to tapestry and I’ll never use them again for weaving. Others were yarns I loved because they suited the effects I wanted to achieve in my work.

I have a small set of favorites that I use myself, but there are many yarns made in the world that can be used for tapestry weaving. The question is, how do you know which ones those are?

If you’ve taken any of my online classes, you probably have some version of my Yarn Sources handout. As my list of yarns got longer and longer, I realized I might have a problem. I like to collect things and yarn is one of those things. In the name of research I have more tapestry yarns than I can possibly ever use. But the upside of that is that my students get to benefit from my hoarding collecting nature.