Flaws

 "flawless" doesn't mean "no errors were made at any point in the creation of this thing" it means "no errors are readily apparent upon inspection or use of this thing", the mistakes no one knows you made that don't effect the final outcome literally DO NOT MATTER

Someone on Twitter did a thread on flaws/mistakes and the above was just one of the tweets she wrote about being 'not perfect'. Her twitter handle is Anna Phylaxis and her thread summed up pretty much everything I think about when I think about 'perfection'.

The current warp on the loom is a perfect example of something that is filled with flaws/errors of judgement/mistakes, but to all intents and purposes, the resulting scarves are just fine.

So first big mistake on my part: in the process of using up my stash, purposefully NOT buying more yarn, I am combining tubes of yarn that have different amounts of yarn on them on the spool rack for sectional beaming.

The heavier tubes provide more drag, therefore more tension, than the ones that are nearer to empty. The end result is that those ends are tighter than the rest of the warp.

However, I'm getting a clear enough shed, and nothing has broken as a result of the different degrees of tension/length on those ends. And, once the scarves are cut off the loom and cut apart, the tension difference is minimal. I fully expect that wet finishing will take care of the little bit of difference there is. And if not, it should not be particularly noticeable - and, if noticeable, not detrimental to 99.9% of the people who will pick up these scarves and try them on.

Next? One of the ends broke as I was beaming the 3rd section (of 12). I could not determine which one had broken and rather than waste time and effort looking for it, decided I would simply adjust the width of the selvedge threading. Which I did before I began threading when I realized that my senses had not been deceiving me, a thread really had broken. Instead of 30 ends in the bout, there were 29. So, yes, quick edit to the threading, correct the first inch and off I went.

When I cut the first 3 scarves off the loom, the difference in tension could be easily felt and in some cases seen in the loom, but cutting and re-lashing evened out some of the issues, enough that I felt confident enough to carry on, in spite of the fact that 10 of the 12 sections are missing a green end in the colour combination of green, navy, brighter blue, two shades of a light lavender.

Weaving the first scarf I mis-fired the shuttle and broke an end. Instead of fussing about it, I simply tied a length to the original thread, got it through the correct heddle and pinned it to the cloth. I will fix it now that it is off the loom - as in needle weave the broken end into the cloth and ignore the knot. Because the weft is textured and I very much doubt anyone will be aware of the knot in the scarf.

Am I going to throw these scarves away? Mark them down as 'seconds'? 'Flawed'? No. No, I am not. I have accommodated the errors and fixed the ones that could be fixed. None of them will affect the function of the textile.

Mastery does NOT mean 'no mistakes'. It means you know how to fix or disguise them so that they don't matter. You know how far to push your materials or equipment. You know how to bend the rules properly - so that you can achieve things such that anything NOT ideal, doesn't matter.