It seemed a simple enough idea: our province seneschal gave a moving speech about our participation in the Pride festival as not only a message to the outside world, but more importantly a reminder to our populace that we are a safe space and hate has no home with us.
This message hit my heart and resonated so deeply within my soul that I needed to do something to support this. Since weaving is my happy place, I settled on created handwoven favors with the 6 original Pride colors. I did a bit of investigating (not deep enough to be called research) and settled on a 3/2 cotton from Webs. It was a safe choice: cotton was unlikely to be an allergen (unlike wool) and acrylic tends to stretch so I wasn't comfortable putting it on the loom as the warp. It seems most of my projects lately have been in herringbone twill, an easily documentable threading pattern and I find most people find it aesthetically pleasing.
So I laid out my design for sewing and assembling, then added in the colorwork, and did my math. I tossed a 100" warp on the loom to see how many I could realistically make and got going. That first warp yielded 7 favors, and because I was impatient, I tossed it in the dryer because I couldn't wait for it to air dry after fulling. . . I found the banners shrunk by about 2 inches each, and while they afforded proof of concept, it was a mistake I didn't make again.
I shared these with our local and they were met with great enthusiasm. We decided to sell them as a fundraiser for the Trevor Project and Equality Maine, keeping just enough to cover material costs. In total, I made nearly 50 banners and was thrilled to be able to make a sizeable donation to both causes.
It was my intent to participate in the Pride parade as part of our A&S Demo, but personal life intervened and my presence was required at another event 3 hours away and thus unable to even split my time between the two. Next year I hope to be physically present, and have already planned the designs for favors for the next 2 years!
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