Rising to the Challenge

here is the 2/20 merc. cotton warp all beamed and ready to be threaded

brown and green Fox Fibre yarn on cone and small sample soaked in heavy concentration of washing soda and detergent - wow! look at the green!

One of my weaving mentors always said that if we weren't making mistakes we weren't learning.  Her words struck a chord with me and I've never fussed too much about the mistakes I've made. 

Oh sure I get disappointed and exasperated at myself when I make stupid mistakes - those dumb mistakes that we all make when we just don't think through something or forget a lesson from the past.  You know what they say - if you don't learn from history you are doomed to repeat it.

I've done plenty of repeating and I get annoyed with myself when I do.

But I don't ever let the fear of failing keep me from trying something new.  The mistakes we make along the path simply let us know when we are straying from success and allow us to make changes that will bring us closer to the desired results.

And sometimes trying is the only way to find out if that direction is truly the way you want to go.

It was fun working on the baby wraps but what I discovered is that they take a lot more 'engineering' in terms of the sewing than I'm really happy about doing.  And so I think I will return from that interesting detour and go back to the more 'ordinary' things that I've done in the past - tea towels, scarves, shawls and so on.

I have also had to do a lot of thinking about the coming months.  The last two cycles are going to get yet more challenging from everything that I've been told and so it is going to be important to keep stress - good and bad - to a minimum.  Mom's surgery is going to be stressful for her and us as we do our best to help her through her recovery.  And of course there is the upcoming craft fair season to be dealt with.

Since I earn my income from weaving (doing it and teaching it) these shows are a critical part of my income for the year.  While Doug is willing to work the shows, there is still the weaving, wet finishing, tagging and pricing to be done.  I've tried to stay on top of that but a quick riffle through the storage area showed me that not everything is priced.  I will have to start packing things up early in October so that everything is ready for the show season. 

Weavolution, the weaver's social network, is doing something interesting this year.  Called Halloweave, a number of group leaders have issued challenges to people to stretch their wings and dare to try something different.  I'm not participating in any of the challenges (see above about stress) but I'm trying to be supportive of those people who are willing to participate.  You can find out more information on their website here

It doesn't cost anything to join.

Currently reading Home Improvement; undead edition edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner