Check Your Sources

 

Let me be clear - I loath LLM/AI.  Like, with a passion.  There are a number of reasons for that, but mostly?  I hate how LLM/AI is designed to be a 'lying machine'.  A person asks a question - in good faith - and expects a semblance of the truth to be delivered.  Instead they get a mish-mash of word salad. 

I try very hard to get facts.  Sometimes I don't have the complete picture, in which case I will go digging.  Unfortunately I can no longer rely on a search engine on the internet to provide me with facts.  I do everything I can to avoid clicking on any AI generated nonsense, but more and more?  I go back to my trusted *printed* resources.

My own books are a distillation of what I have found in my 50 years of weaving.  Some of my weaving library books are quite old, and some are out of date.  Over the years I've accumulated quite a few 'technical' books on weaving (and spinning, and wet finishing).  Sometimes having more than one source is good, because not all books can contain All The Information and I might need to consult some - or all - of my weaving library before I can come to a conclusion.  Sometimes, once I've collected as much information as I can, I need to 'prove' the concept by weaving the samples and, yes, wet finishing them.

So my promise to you is this:  I will never knowingly use LLM/AI.  If I share information with you, it will either come from my own personal experience (weaving, changing parameters, weaving some more, wet finishing the sample to confirm the results) or from trusted published resources.

I have, at this moment, 11+ technical textile science books.  They range from the early 1900s to more current.  I am, at this moment, waiting for another one to be published.  To be fair, I was asked if I would 'review' read the ms and give my opinion.  Which I completed mid October.  They are taking pre-publication orders now.  Michelle Boyd also has a book that I feel weavers should be aware of.  It's called Twist.  I got about halfway through this book and hit a personal brick wall with my brain not wanting to process detailed, subtle, information.  But I will get back to it soon.  The next 3 weeks are fraught with appointments and I am, quite frankly, struggling.  

But this is something I have known for years - there is nothing quite like a curated library when you are involved in a specific craft - develop your own personalized library so you have the information at your fingertips.  Quite literally.

For 50 years I have been asking questions, then answering them (to the best of my ability).  Now that job is even harder as people go to the internet to try and answer their own questions and getting fed lies and/or word salad.  It infuriates me that the last upgrade to my computer and ipad inserted more and more AI.  I annoyed Meta hugely by asking it one and only one question:  How do I turn you off.  If a 'computer' could sniff, it sniffed.  Now I steadily ignore every AI prompt, scroll below the AI 'summary' that it offers me on every internet search.  If I had more spoons I would try harder to switch off more of the Google and Windows AI 'insertions'.  In the meantime, I try really hard to ignore them.

It is with a degree of sadness that I see people on groups quoting AI searches/summaries.  I mean, they joined a group to learn more about A Thing - why are you quoting AI nonsense?  And I get that people are hungry for definitive answers, but when it comes to weaving?  That there are none.  The only correct short answer when it comes to weaving (and likely other crafts that have been around for 1000s of years), is...it depends.

So learn as much as you can.  Explore books and try to ignore AI Summaries.  If you want to ask someone who is knowledgeable?  There are still a bunch of us around.  I have this blog - started in 2008 - started for free, still remains for free.  I have my books, available in both pdf download and print.  Those are not free.  There are classes at School of Sweet Georgia - four of them by me, other shaft loom weaving by Felicia Lo.  And at Long Thread Media.  And I am now writing for WEFT - just agreed to do an article on Bronson Lace.  

So if you have a question?  Ask it.  Include photos if you can.  Explain what you have done to try to find the answer.  No point in spending the coin of my time giving advice only to have the answer be "I did that - it didn't work".  The more information you can provide, the more *others* will learn, along with you.  Weaving isn't always straight forward.  The problem you are having might have stemmed from something you did - or did not - do in a different part of the process than when it showed up.

Weaving is not always straightforward.  It can be sneaky, or hide until it comes forward in terms of poor results.  And not all 'rules' need to be followed - if you understand what happens when you do - or do not - follow them.  And then, if you change your yarn - or the weave structure, or loom.  The possibilities for doing things 'wrong' are almost limitless.  And please - try to be methodical.  Yes, yes, I *know* you want to jump straight into that double wide warp the full width of your loom, but maybe take a couple baby steps first.  

My father always cautioned my brother and me to be wary of anyone who makes doing something look  simple.  There is a good chance there is a great deal of skill involved so don't assume you can jump into the deep end and not stumble over some of those subtleties involved in weaving.

Weaving is a physical skill.  A golfer doesn't assume they can win the Grand Prize on their first attempt.  A race car driver doesn't assume they will drive to the finish line before others who are more experienced.  Etc.  And don't let 'perfect' kill 'good'.  Let the learning journey be just that - a journey.  

The life so short, the craft so long to learn.