Weaver, Writer, Brain Injury Survivor
What's the connection between brain injury and textile traditions?
I learned to knit when I was seven, and I've been having fun with textile traditions ever since. At 35, when I learned to weave, I felt as if I'd come home, as if I'd been a weaver in a previous life. My love of weaving reached new heights when, wanting to contribute something positive to the world after the terrorist action of Sept. 11, 2001, I joined WARP (Weave a Real Peace) and began writing a column for their newsletter.
Six years later, two clusters of thin-walled blood vessels in my brain bled, wreaking havoc on everything I knew and ultimately leading to three brain surgeries. For a long time, I couldn't write, couldn't work, couldn't be the mom I wanted to be. But within my first month of recovery, I started weaving again, and discovered something remarkable had happened to the way I see and experience the world.
