'Like' is Good

 

Yesterday I spent some time at the desktop and messed around with another draft after I printed out the threading for the next warp.  Given I'm on the downhill end of the current warp, it's time to prepare for the next.  

While I had Fiberworks open, it seemed like a good time work on additional drafts.  I'm not 'in love' with this one, but for some reason it appeals to me, and - if I use warp and weft of similar values, I think it will look 'good' (enough, at any rate).

One of the things I've learned over the years is that I don't have to be over the moon in 'love' with a draft in order to weave it.

What I see on the monitor is only a facsimile of what it might look like once woven, given that the threads are going to shift and move.  And sometimes, once the web has been wet finished I like it a lot.

Sometimes, it's just 'good enough' and when I'm making tea towels, someone usually likes it enough to buy.  My taste is not the same as everyone else's and something I think is 'meh' might be someone else's 'fabulous'.

But that's the thing about weaving primarily for other people.  *My* likes/dislikes are less important than if I were only weaving for my own satisfaction.  I don't need to aim for 'perfection' in all things, but make textiles that will serve their purpose.  Since beauty is in the eye of the beholder (as is said), what I make doesn't have to be drop dead gorgeous (to me) every single time.

So, I try things.  Some things I like.  Some things I love.  Some things don't do much for me, but they are ok.  Usually I will reject drafts for reasons - they may have longer floats than I want in a textile for that purpose, or I think the design is 'too busy' - which this one nearly qualifies for - or I don't like the symmetry (or lack of it) and this one is both symmetrical *and* asymmetrical, something I've been playing with in this series. 

While this draft has been saved, it may go into the folder and never come out again - as have a number of other drafts that I've worked on since I started messing with this weave structure.

And that's perfectly ok.  

Computer software to create drafts did not reduce the time I spent designing, but allowed me to work through way more iterations until I found something I really liked.  The ones I only sort of like sit in my files and from time to time I might open them, then tweak them.  And sometimes after enough time has passed, I can see how to tweak the draft to make something I like more than what I did initially.

To learn is to change.  If we get mired in what we have always done, we may not change things.  If we are not thinking about what to change, we don't learn.  And so I go back and tinker with drafts, then think about what I want - and what I don't - and keep generating more drafts.  

Since I'm now in my 'senior' years, all the advice is to keep your brain active, to think.  To learn.  To be open to new ideas.  While the usual advice is to do crossword puzzles or other mental 'games', I continue to play the 'what happens when I change the draft this way?  That?' game.

And to be satisfied with 'good' and 'like' instead of being constantly disappointed that I did not, once again, arrive at 'perfection' and 'love'.

Some days, that's enough.