Training Wheels

I love to see a ‘new’ weaver learning to fly. Some people get SO excited, they want to leap into the deep end. Not something I want to discourage, but here’s the thing: I want people about to leap into the deep end to be wearing a life jacket. Or, at the very least, water ‘wings’.

Weaving is not ‘difficult’ but it IS complex. Part of that complexity is learning how many variables there are, and begin to understand how they need to be tweaked in order to get the results desired. (It depends…)

Plus learning about weave structures and how to use them to create design takes a while. (Sample.)

So, when I see someone who has been weaving plain weave on a rigid heddle loom proposing to do a double width twill on their brand new 8 shaft loom, I worry – a bit.

Are their wings strong enough to fly? Will they know enough to make the choices they need to make? Do they understand the complexities they are engineering in their cloth? Understand their new loom well enough to make sure it is working properly? That they understand how to dress it? Follow a weaving draft to get the resulting cloth they desire?

I really hate to be a wet blanket, but sometimes I just have to say something. At times my words of caution are not taken well. And I understand that. People get excited and don’t like to have anyone curbing their enthusiasm.

So, I try to be discrete. Polite. Kind. But it’s kind of like watching someone about to launch themselves off a cliff. Do they know about the rocks just below the surface? I can’t stand by and watch.

This morning I made a suggestion to a new-ish weaver who just finished setting up their new-to-them loom. I hated to suggest that they were, perhaps, biting off more than they could chew, especially given I’d previously crimped their plans. But I wanted – I *want* to ensure that they get positive results, not a tangled mess. Thankfully they realized that they needed to go in smaller steps. Keep the training wheels on for a bit longer.

One of the comments I am hearing after the seminars is that people are appreciating the ‘detail’ I am providing. Most of the people in the class are not ‘beginner’. They are experienced enough to understand that weaving *is* complicated. And some of them have noticed things without understanding what is happening. My goal is to try to explain those subtle effects in order to help weavers factor all those ‘it depends’ considerations into their plans.

One of the participants asked a very specific question and I had to explain that I could not give specific measurements. That they would have to run the experiments themselves, given their loom, their yarn, their weave structure. IOW, execute the experiment, observe, wet finish, analyze.

Because change one thing? And everything can change.

I should have the plans for the next seminar series ready by early December. I will offer an ‘early bird’ price again. Watch my ko-fi ‘shop’ or this blog for details.