Tugging at the Thread

 

Recently a 'new' weaver asked about teaching others in an 'informal' setting.

I thought about that for a while and decided that, with an 'informal' setting, it doesn't really matter where you begin.

The craft is so huge, the complexity vast, the 'it depends' questions never ending - you just need to jump in and start tugging at the threads.

The big thing is a willing student and a willing teacher.  Each needs to be willing to participate in the exercise of the transfer of knowledge and to 'see' where they might be going 'wrong' and to adjust their course(s). Inevitably, the 'teacher' will learn as much - maybe more - than the 'student'.

I wove the above scarf for a class for School of Sweet Georgia.  As far as 'perfection' goes, it isn't.  But it is *typical* based on the behaviour of threads.  In the lace areas, you can see the difference in the take up of the yarns within the change of the weave structures.  In the plain weave areas, there is a hint of tracking, where the purple crosses the pink and the distribution of the yarns is not equal.  (Tracking will always look more extreme when the warp/weft are in high contrast - colour or value.)

But the tracking was 'even' and in the end lent the cloth a richness of colour/texture as the two hues mixed or concentrated across the cloth.

One of the things about writing articles for WEFT is that I am getting the chance to re-visit my 'knowledge' and dig deeper, and do it in a concentrated way.  I am having ah-ha moments, but also moments of satisfaction when my long held assumptions are proven to be accurate (within what I am trying to do).  

I could weave for the rest of my life just choosing topics to dig deeper into.  But I am also exploring now, more.  My brain seems to be recovering somewhat, although the surgeon warned me I might never recover what I had before I fell.  OTOH, I'm turning 75 soon - nothing about this body is functioning quite  the way it used to do.  Oh, well.  

Bottom line?  I'm still here.  I *can* still weave.  I seem to be thinking a bit more clearly (and my friend hasn't yet gotten fed up with raking through my word salads) and I can still log onto the internet and post things like this. 

So I guess I'm not 'done' yet?  

Time to go tug on a few threads....