When Things Go Wrong

sylvia's warp

They say that we learn from our mistakes and that experience is a great teacher.  What they don't say is that some of those mistakes lead to unpleasant experiences that are etched into our memories and that most of us would prefer to learn without the pain.
They also say that necessity is the mother of invention, that adversity builds charachter, and that the creative process should allow for serindipity.  They say a lot.
So, the subject of this blog is what to do when things go wrong.  If you are a knitter you might undo your knitting and start over.  If you are a weaver you might cut the yarn off the loom and trash it.  If your dye job doesn't work you can over dye the piece.  What follows are some "didn't quite work as I had planned it" stories.

back of loom

First look at the beautiful strip pattern in the warp above.  It consists of mix of cotton and linen yarns and was designed for a series of tea towels.  Now take a look at the second photo from the back of the loom.  The linen warp threads did not stretch but the cotton warp threads did.  The weaver was determined to create a set of tea towels no matter how many bottles of pennies that it took.  This is an example of true determination.

 Sylvia's cowl with button accent

Sometimes we end up with a shorter piece of weaving than we had planned on.  Maybe it was a miscalculation or possibly there was a problem with the weaving that meant we didn't have enough yarn.  So what do you do with a "short" scarf.  Well turn it into a fashionable cowl.  Add some buttons for accent and you'd never know it was planned that way from the start.

poncho from hand spun yarn

The poncho show on the left was knitted from hand spun wool.  It started as a gift of black fleece that was spin using a drop spindle.  The spinner, Jetty, soon realized that there would not be enough of the black yarn to make anything so she added coloured yarn from her stash and kept knitting until she had two long but narrow pieces.  To make it into a top she added the grey yarn as an accent and added ties to close the sides. 

back of vest

Linda's vest front

It is always traumatic when you cut into your hand woven yardage, especially when you have a limited amount.  Linda intended to use her woven yardage for the front of the vest but a cutting error forced her to improvise so we have this interesting blend of fabric on the front and an accent piece on the back.

rainbow wool rug

Gill was disappointed with the shape of this rug done in a soumak technique.  The weft material is hand dyed, hand spun wool that came with the counter balance loom she bought.
She changed her technique for the second rug.  If you look closely the rows resemble knitting.  The second rug is a perfect rectangle and makes a lovely floor covering.

Gill's rug