Experience

The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Each of the categories outlined in the above diagram may seem insignificant on their own, but taken together, represent how each of them affects and enhances the final cloth.

Experience is like that.  Experience is the sum of our life to this particular point in time.  We have made decisions and learned from them.  (Good decisions are just one way of discovering when we come closer to our goal - bad decisions lead to results we didn't desire!  Either way, you're learning and gaining experience...)

There is a meme on line that says that masters have made more mistakes than their students have even contemplated.

I tell my students that I am there to share all of my mistakes and let them know it is ok for them to make mistakes because that is how we fast track our learning.

As adults, people think they shouldn't make mistakes.  But one of my mentors always greeted me (and others) by asking what mistakes I had made since we last met.  That mistakes were how we learned.

So yes, even adults make mistakes.  What we need to do is not beat ourselves up because we made a mistake, but learn from it (them, because we will make many!)

Some people learn more quickly than others.  Some are timid about making a mistake so are reluctant to even try.  In order to help people be braver, I try to put it all into perspective - it's just string.  Some of it may be more expensive than other yarns, but it's still just string.  Whatever we may have spent on the yarn we are working with, we can always replace it, sometimes with something else because our first mistake may have been choosing a yarn that was inappropriate for our intended result.

Don't be afraid to make mistakes.  Sometimes the lesson is to not do that again.  Sometimes it is just data gathering, trying something to see if you are on the right track.  Sometimes it takes a few (quite a few) runs at it to get the desired results.

Some people don't like sampling because it is a 'waste of time'.  Then make functional samples.  A scarf can be a full sized sample.  So can a tea towel.

Make things.  Lots of things.  Learn from each warp.  Embrace the knowledge that comes with trying something new.  Trying something knew and 'failing'. 

Acquiring knowledge is not a waste of time.  Gaining experience comes with learning.  The more experience, the more easy it becomes to make decisions based on that foundation of knowledge. 

Yes, I do still sample.  Each new-to-me yarn will get sampled, one way or another. 

Mastery is not being 'perfect'.  Mastery is learning to recognize a mistake when you make it, know when to invest more time in fixing it, or cutting your losses and starting over.  Because sometimes it's better to just begin again, knowing what you did and what to avoid the next time.