Cutting Losses

beam with one section 'short' of yarn

through the washer/dryer, ready to be pressed, then hemmed and pressed again

I beam warps onto the Megado sectionally and sometimes, things go 'wrong'.  So it was with this warp.  One end was giving me grief and the section 4 in from the selvedge wound up needing me to stop beaming, deal with a broken end several times.  Eventually I replaced the errant tube of yarn after which things progressed perfectly well.

But apparently at some point I lost count of the turns of the beam and so it was that I discovered that it was shy several wraps of warp. 

By this point I had woven 16 towels on the 20 (approx.) yard warp. 

When I posted a photo to Facebook yesterday several friends commiserated with me about the loss of the yarn.  One suggested cutting the warp narrower to make something other than tea towels.

But the design is such that it could not easily be cut narrower and it would have taken hours to re-thread.  For two more towels? 

Nope.

There might be $2 worth of yarn left on the beam.  Certainly less than $5.  I am not going to spend hours and hours of my time trying to salvage that dollar value.  Not when I give my thrums to a friend to use in her hand spun yarns.  The yarn won't be wasted, just given over to a different use.

But each of us has to make such a decision for themselves.  If I was new to the craft, if I didn't have a gigantic yarn stash, if I hadn't already woven 16 towels?  My decision might have been different.

Over the past few days I have made other decisions about cutting things out of my life.  This stay-at-home opportunity has brought many things into sharp focus.  Things that get shoved to the side because Life is demanding our attention on this and that and the other thing and sometimes the really important questions get shoved out of sight.

Marie Kondo had a lot of grief thrown at her for her down sizing suggestions.   However, I find the basic principle sound - does it bring you joy?  Keep it.  If not, get rid of it.

I am slowly looking around and seeing things that do not bring me joy.  And without guilt, I am letting them go.

Survive y'all!