When Weaving Doesn't Go as Planned

You know how it is, right?  You have a grand plan,  for a weaving project, you spend time doing calculations, making adjustments, choosing the materials and the colors.  In your vision it is all perfect and everything works out like magic.
AND sometimes it really does!  The first time I made these log cabin towels (using the colors in the book of Black, unbleached, turquoise and burgundy) I had a warping disaster, chucked the entire mess and started over — Now THAT was a really bad day. This month when I tried it again, using my new Glimakra Standard loom, and all my own color choices, it worked like a dream, there wasn’t a single glitch — not one.

6 Log Cabin Variation towels — a perfect project!

I learned many things at Vavstuga for the 3 times I have been there.  One of the most important things I learned is that mistakes happen, find them, fix them and move on to happy weaving.  In each of these classes there were

• Winding errors — the curtains where 5 vertical stripes of 3 threads were missing (I really wanted those stripes)
• Threading errors — which is why I check and double check my threading — but still will get a crossed thread here and there
• Sleying errors — either skipped dents or dents with too many and then too few threads
• Edge issues while weaving — due to poor tension when beaming
• and the dreaded Broken Thread!

I wanted to make some bread towels — gifts for Christmas, a few for me and a few for the shop.  I have admired these towels for a while on Ravelry and finally obtained Design Collection 16 — which has the draft and weaving instructions.  

The Darker Towels used a yellow for weft, the one on the right has the same stripe colors as the white towels, the one on the left has alternate colors for the stripe sequence.

Like my husband (the cook) I always follow the “recipe” the first time through.  The most I do is add yardage so that I’ll have a few items left to put into the shop.  My warping mill (thank you, thank you Paul) made by a good friend does 3.5 yards and this project called for 5.5  to make 6 towels.  I decided to go for 2 complete turns of the mill and 2 extra towels.  Just so you know THAT part worked out perfectly — I had 8 towels and some left over for my sample bin.

Problems?

There were a few winding issues.  I like to hold 2 threads, but the warp stripes were 2, or 3 — hmmm.  Those threads were held as singles, with lots of ties on the weaver’s cross side.  I double knotted them in paranoid frenzy.  In my zeal to make sure I had the right number of threads for each stripe, that I had KNOTTED them well when changing, I MISSED that there was ALWAYS a section of 3 unbleached threads when changing colors.  I was following the warp order chart carefully, which I had recopied to be larger so I could see it, had a missing section of white around the central stripe of brown. ​

You can see the Broken Thread fix — look for the near the lease sticks, and the Missing Warp Thread Fix — the Film Canister.

RATS!  I discovered this error after beaming, and before threading,  so I had to use the hanging film cans stuffed with quarters solution.  I used more quarters than I thought I should to give the right amount of tension — which, I have to say worked out very well.  I wound all three missing threads onto the cans, and aside from untangling them periodically, it was pretty hassle-free
Threading seemed to be going well and was easier than expected.  I found a “pattern” that I could follow. HOWEVER,  I misread the threading instructions and started in on the textured part too soon — 18 threads too soon.  The lace section of the towel is surrounded by a plain weave border.  I discovered this AFTER I had completed the entire center section — so — ripped it all out and started again.  This gave me time to REMEMBER how I should hold the threads while threading.  I had forgotten my training!  Becky has us hold a larger group of threads wrapped through the fingers of the left hand (with tension) so that it is easier to pick out the thread you want. You also use your left thumb and forefinger to help stuff the thread in the heddle. I was dickering around with putting 2 threads between each finger  and working that way — very slow and inefficient.  Rethreading was a good opportunity to recall my Vavstuga training.
Sleying was quick — I forgot to double check that I had not missed any dents, because I was kinda on a tight schedule to get the loom dressed and towels woven — never a good excuse.  Checking saves time, because fixing TAKES time!  Yep, you guessed it, there were a few sleying errors.  There was a missed dent on the right side of the work, which I caught while tying on.  BUT there was a more subtle error on the left side — 3 in one dent, 2 in one dent and 1 in one dent.  It’s supposed to be 2 in every dent.  I did not catch this until I was weaving and noticed an area that looked like there was a missing thread. 
Once I figured out what was going on:  

• I use the temple to spread a tad more, finished that towel
• wove about an inch of scrap
• cut the towel off
• used warp sticks to make 2 sheds and tied the warp sticks to the cloth bar. 
• pulled the 3 threads and redistributed them to their rightful place 

ALL of that took more time than a double check while sleying.
At this point most of my troubles were over.  I was happily weaving away, trying to get my beat just right to make square towels when near the end of the 6th towel, I noticed a little snake in the warp above the fell line.  Hmm … that looks like a broken warp thread — RIGHT in the middle of the weaving.  It took a quick internet search to refresh my memory, but I put in the temporary warp thread, tied it at the back beam with the rest of the broken thread and moved on — this was the EASIEST and FASTEST fix so far!
I realize now that most of my troubles were preventable (of course!) but there were even clues that I ignored once the error had been made.  
The winding error was the easiest to detect while winding — the stripe sequence seemed different before the center section than after — STOP AND LOOK for the reason — because there is one!
The threading error was simple too — I was bundling in groups of 20 — count and see how it matches up with the threading diagram.
Of course the Sleying error was also simple — check check check.
BUT errors are not necessarily bad — I once heard a saying “we fail forward to success”  You can learn from errors and they make you better when you do.