Problem Solving

Much ado about problems.

I came to the craft with two ‘advantages’ – I had a pretty well rounded background in textiles and I was, by nature, a problem solver. The former gave me some (not nearly enough) knowledge about textiles in general, and the latter gave me the attitude to examine issues as they arose and the willingness to dig until I found a solution. I won’t say ‘the’ solution because mostly I was just trying things that seemed reasonable, then assessing the outcomes.

But because I enjoyed puzzles and solving problems, I wasn’t off put by the times that things went ‘wrong’.

I won’t say that’s the best way to do it, but it worked for me.

Also, since I knew that human beings had been working with fibre and thread since the dawn of our species, I knew there had to be solutions. I respected our distant ancestors too much to believe that they wouldn’t keep working until they had discovered solutions to the issues.

I was aided by the fact that my instructor was barely a few pages ahead of us in the books and told us to go find answers when we encountered a problem that she knew nothing about. (I’m not telling a tale – she told us herself.) Again, because I was familiar with doing research and parsing things out, I did not find that off putting but accepted it as a challenge.

I was also acting as another ‘teaching assistant’ by the end of the year, which, I think, annoyed the actual teaching assistant. But if the other students chose to come to me, I tried to help.

Carrying that forward, I started teaching pretty quickly, long before I knew very much. But I also realized that I knew enough to get people started. And lots of people were wanting to do just that.

The more, the merrier, right?

Fast forward to now, and there appears to be a ‘resurgence’ in interest in learning how to weave. Mostly it seems to be centered on rigid heddle weaving. Using a rigid heddle type loom has certain restrictions in terms of ‘efficiency’ and some people begin to realize that what they want to do can be done more easily on a ‘standard’ shaft loom. They begin to transition to a shaft loom (table or floor) and begin to run into issues because it is not a seamless journey.

There are additional tools to use, and some additional steps, but mostly, there is an increase in complexity and scale. Frequently moving from a rigid heddle loom to a shaft loom will encourage using finer threads. Upscaling from thick threads to thin will expose differences between the two in terms of behaviour and finding appropriate density for the threads, which immediately changes when the weave structure changes from plain weave to a different weave structure. And so on.

So, when people say they want to learn to weave, it’s hard to know how to answer them. Yes, there is the vocabulary. There are the tools. Then the processes. There is the quality of cloth they want to make. Most don’t really know, but they want to produce ‘perfect’ results from the get go.

I try to explain that I have only touched the hem of ‘perfect’ on very few occasions, and that they might want to work on their physical skills and learning how the loom works, the relationship of yarn to weave structure before they begin expecting anything very satisfactory.

Now, *some* people do seem to be ‘naturals’. But the vast majority of new weavers are…in need of some mindful practice.

With less than a week to go before the seminars begin, I have been thinking a lot about what I hope to convey during the seminars. I hope to pique the curiosity of weavers, and encourage them to go deeper, look beyond the obvious, try to find out the underlying principle involved.

The first seminar will talk about fibre and yarn characteristics. Because in order to use your materials appropriately, having at least a rudimentary level on knowledge will assist the weaver making ‘good’ choices when it comes to yarn.

Understanding your materials is, imho, the first step and understanding what it going on, or trying to find out what is going ‘wrong’, when it does. The series will cover a number of topics, hopefully explain some things to some people, but mostly? I hope to encourage weavers to look at what they are doing. And perhaps make their experience more helpful.