Weave Experiments || My Most Challenging Weave

If you already have seen my post on how to fix a weave that is wavy once you cut it off the loom, then you have seen this weave before and you understand that it was a challenging weave for me. But the waviness after taking my weave off the loom, is only half the story.

When I first started this weave, I had a very specific idea in my head and I worked towards creating that idea. My thought was mainly focused around colors. I felt that it would look really cool to have a bright pink with some dark blue in it surrounded by neutrals. As I wove this I noticed that the pink parts were looking really flat, so I tried adding in some other colors like an orange and a red to go along with the pink. And that didn’t really work for me either. Really great tapestry artists know how to mix colors, and I’m not there yet, but how else do you get there then by trying and trying again. Well anyway, I made myself work on it until I completed this whole weave, which of course I don’t have a picture of. This is probably because by the time I got to the end of my weaving I really hated it. I tried to like it, but it was just so dang ugly and very far from what I had envisioned in my mind.

So what to do next? Well, I knew that I liked the dark blue part so that was staying, but what about all that pink. At first I thought maybe I could keep most of the pink and just add to it, so I pulled out some of the pink weft and then just randomly started adding shapes and colors that I felt looked nice. But as I went I kept pulling out more and more of the pink. I definitely wanted to add a neutral color to tone down the weave and give it some space. I wanted to add some colors that would contrast my pink in a nice way, so I added the neon blue and yellow. I also added a dark neutral variegated and light neutral variegated yarn in the mix to add some visual interest, but help tone down the neon colors at the same time.

This weave went from a definite picture in my head, to a I’m just going to make random shapes and colors until I’m happy. And oddly enough once I was finished, this weave turned out to be my favorite weave yet. I guess because I struggled with it so much and it worked out so well in the end is why this weave means a lot to me now.

I wanted to share this story with you because it brings up a really good lesson, sometimes you just have to trust your gut. I’ve made plenty of weaves that I didn’t quite like once I finished them, but after a little bit of time they grew on me and I ended up liking them a lot. This was not one of those times. Sometimes you might find, like I did, that you just don’t like your weave and that you just have to change it. And I think it’s important to give yourself permission to make mistakes and to let yourself make changes, even if you get ALL the way to the end like I did. Creating something that you don’t like or just isn’t working can feel so heavy and give you a creative block. The act of taking apart what you made can open up your imagination again and free you to try a different idea. Even if you take it all apart and just start completely fresh, it’s very liberating.

Have you ever made something you weren’t very happy with? Did you remake it or did you just scrap it completely and move on? I’d love to hear your stories.

Happy Weaving!

Kate

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