Being new to weaving and may I add self taught, I have had my share of fails. Whether it was pulling my yarn too tight or totally missing a warp thread and only noticing it after I had done many, many rows of plain weave. And then there's the multiple times I've used Adobe Illustrator to design an abstract design only to realize it really didn't work as a weaving or I needed to do a bit more practice weaves before beginning the final weave.
I write this post after a stressful night's sleep of trying to figure out how to get my weavings out there, to a broader audience and make some sales, so I can buy more yarn, oh I mean pay some bills. It probably stems from scrolling thru too many posts on Instagram of beautifully staged photographs of weavers and their weaving and honestly playing the comparison game. Instagram (and other social media) can be very overwhelming. Anyone who posts regularly knows it takes a lot to set up a shot, the lighting has to be just right and the composition has to be spot on. Filters help tremendously but even with the filters and a beautiful layout, sometimes the weavings just don't work and as I stare at them in my home studio and I ask myself, what were you thinking!
To make myself feel better and not be so serious, and loose anymore sleep, I decided to post a few fails.
This weaving had great potential and I will probably unravel it and start a new one with a similar design and color palette but pay a bit more attention to my shapes. The turquoise shape kind of looks like a goose head, that was not what I was going for. I also hadn't learned to finish off the top and pulled it off the loom and it started unraveling. Good news, I'm much better with shapes and I have learned to finish off my weavings.
This weaving, well I wasn't completely happy with the colors and I need to do a bit more trimming. But who knows it might make it into the shop. If you're interested in this weaving, comment below and we can work something out.
The issue with this weaving is that I loved the design, but when I started the second color, I found it hard to start weaving in the tight areas it just got a bit wonky. What I learned from this design was to start the second color before I got this far along. I ended up taking if off the loom completely but may go back to this design and try a different approach, or it may turn into a latch hook design, more on latch hooking in a future post.
Some of my favorite weavers have tutorials that I have learned so much from. Hello Hydrangea is probably one my favorites, I've purchased some of her online classes and she is constantly pushing the envelope and is so creative. Another site I find myself constantly going back to is The Weaving Loom, her tutorials are very easy to follow and she has pretty much any technique that you might be interested in on her website. Sarah Harste Weavings is another weaver that has been doing workshops all over the Ohio area. I have yet to go to one of her workshops, I'm hoping to signup for a workshop the next time I visit my son at OSU. Her weavings are so colorful and lately she has been incorporating macrame into her weavings, which is so cool.
So the reason for this post, is this, how does one learn from their mistakes if they aren't willing to accept the fact that they make mistakes. And that it's a process, I'm just going to keep on weaving.
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