Maybe there’s a problem when one has four weaving looms, two spinning wheels, one backstrap loom, 3 sprang frames, one tapestry loom, and maybe ten drop spindles, and that problem is there are possibly a lot of projects going on simultaneously. How does one choose what to work on? Your guess is as good as anyone’s, and that helps explain why something might take years to finish. Take this piece here that was recently cut off from one of Caroline’s table looms (for clarification, we have two-floor looms and two table looms, not counting the others I mentioned); after a concerted effort over the previous month, this 10-foot (305cm) length of handwoven cloth was finally done.

Finally, you say? Not to shame my wife, okay, maybe a little, she “dressed” the loom, which means she wound a warp and tied it on the loom, for a workshop back in 2019. Should you go thinking that COVID-19 played some role in the delay, you don’t know fiber artists. Too many projects all going on at the same time is their signature malaise, a kind of chronic condition that sees them wanting to work on everything at once. Before they lose sight of an amazing new project, they just go to work setting it up, telling themselves and you that this is just a small one that will go quickly between the other stuff. If pressed, you’ll hear some cockamamie story about how the other partially finished project needs some yarn or requires a friend to be consulted on some issue or that they are stuck in the uncertainty of how to proceed. None of this is true: chaos is their domain, but you already know that as you have to bear witness to their ever-increasing supply of gear, yarn, and various projects gathering dust.

I do have to give Caroline credit as earlier this year, she cut off several handwoven towels that were on the Baby Wolf floor loom; she’s made great progress on an incredibly tedious and complex scarf she’s been braiding on the sprang loom, and she knit me a pair of socks, is working on a new sweater, and of course, the table loom is now ready to have another multi-year project tossed on it.

Should you sense that I might be poking fun at Caroline, you’d be correct, but I’m also delighted that she is so adept at keeping herself engaged with things she loves doing and feels inspired by. I can’t remember a day in the past 34 years that she’s expressed boredom about what to do with her time, so while I might give her a hard time here and there, I admire her tenacity and ability to ensure she’s always invested in doing things that bring her happiness.