Wet finishing will 'change' your textiles. Sometimes a lot; sometimes not so much.
Since I wet finished the last warp while there was still some of the warp left to weave, I have an example of the same textile in loom state and after wet finishing.
The weave structure is over 8 shafts with a 1:3:3:1 tie up, and woven as drawn in (threaded). The thing I noticed in the loom (because I'm using the things I'm weaving now, mostly, as examples for articles) I was paying more attention to how the weave was developing in the loom, and then how it changed after wet finishing.
With the tie up as it is, given the threading, some of the sheds have more warp than weft and vice versa in some parts than in others, and as the shafts move through in their 'dance' I noticed that some areas looked less beaten in than others. It made it look like my beating was uneven, when it was the structure of the weave that was building up differently due to the resistance (more or less) as the treadles moved the threads through to create the motif.
In the above photo, the loom state is on the left, wet finished on the right.
One of the things I noticed as I set up the samples to be photographed, is that the colour shifted. Those two pieces of weaving were woven identically so the shift in colour is in the way the light hits the warp and weft, not a change in colours in the yarn itself.
The loom state looks more 3D as the warp emphasis and weft emphasis threads show up differently once they have been wet finished and compressed.
The selvedges have a slight waviness to them, depending on where the warp and weft change places - some areas are drawn in a bit more than others. I do not (generally) use a floating selvedge, and while I've never done the experiment, I don't know if a floating selvedge would adjust the selvedge to make it 'ruler straight'.
The weave structure has areas of 7 ends of float, warp and weft, and the selvedges are fine (imho) so I don't fuss about them. After wet finishing the 'floats' at the selvedge contract and come together. You may be able to biggify the photo if you click on it, so you can see the selvedge more closely.
Talking to a friend (who is also a weaver) I told them I wasn't nearly as concerned about being 'perfect' anymore. So there are times when I will ignore a 'mistake', especially when it is something I didn't see until I had wet finished the cloth. Mostly these days I weave tea towels - and even a tea towel with a threading error that is nearly invisible will still dry dishes.
I'm old now. My vision has gotten 'worse', and my physical...well...it's gotten 'worse', too. Frankly, these days I'm just glad I *can* weave. Even if it means I 'miss' mistakes at times.
So, yes, there will be times I will just carry on and not worry about the 'mistakes'. Time/energy now is limited, and there are SO many other things I want to explore, to learn, and share. 'Perfect' is always desired, but I don't always have the spoons to achieve it.
But that's the thing. We each get to choose what we want to do, and how much effort we can afford to put into getting it done. I feel like I've met and exceeded expectations for years. Now I'm 'retired' (for certain values of) and if I can't be a good example now in my dotterage, guess I will be a 'bad' example.
Keep learning. Keep trying. Keep weaving.
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