Truths and a Lesson

After 30 some years of weaving you think I’d know better. This is what I DO know.

Your mother was right, “Haste makes waste”.

Shortcuts almost always get you in trouble.

The six ‘P’s (Prior Preparation Prevents Pretty Poor Performance--I’ve often inserted another word here for “pretty”, you can guess what it might be) help insure good results.

So, what you ask, was my “crime”? Not testing the color fastness of a yarn I used to weave a sampler for my upcoming rigid heddle pattern book. The reason I’m so disgusted with myself is that I should know better. What would have been a perfectly wonderful piece, ended up with splotches from yarn that ran. Because I was in a hurry, eager to get weaving, I didn’t take the five minutes (max!) to boil up some water, pour it into a white cup, and drop in a length of the offending yarn to see if the water stayed clear or turned a lovely (yuk!) shade of pink.

Here again, I come back to my mantra, “sample, sample, sample.” Oh, it gets you out of so much trouble. And take it from me, if you don’t know the yarn, if it’s red, purple, a dark color, or of uncertain origin, just take a moment to test it in some hot water—and make a cup of hot tea while you’re at it.