Saint Brigid's Cross in Cloth

 In the past, I've felt sad as feast days come and go, and I have no time to do much more than a blog post (and often, it's a reposting of what I've done before).  If you were hoping for that kind of reading, head over to this blog post, where you can also enjoy a poem.

This year, as I thought about the feast day of Saint Brigid, I thought, I could make a woven cross.  Sure, I don't have reeds or rushes, but I have cloth.  I have so much cloth.  Just a year ago, I didn't have enough to even think about a small project, much less a bigger one.  But now I have enough cloth for several large projects and any small project I might want to do.  I used the directions here to walk me through it.

I cut 9 strips of cloth--in the end, I would need 12 strips.

I began weaving--so far, so good, although I did think that a stiffer reed or straw would make the weaving easy.

I was glad that I had the foresight to use pieces of cloth from across a wide range of colors:

Here's my finished project.  

And a close up of the middle of the cross, the knot, which is not nearly as tidy as it would be if I had used straw:

Now the question:  what to do with this cross?  I know that the traditional answer would be to hang it over a door, but to do that, I'll need to get something to stiffen the cloth:

I realize it's not over the door, but it's the only hook I had.

I am glad to have had this experience, although it took longer than I thought it would, about an hour from start to finish.  I tried to do it meditatively, giving thanks for women like Saint Brigid, who founded some of the first Christian monasteries in Ireland, most famously the legendary one in Kildare.  She also founded a school of art that focuses on metal working and illumination. 

Now let me go out for a walk.  We got our first dusting of snow last night, and it's beautiful to look at from inside.  Let me go get a closer look.