Are You Badly Warped? Seek THE Weaver

The three handwoven pieces in this post were woven by me when I first began to weave. They were homework assignments from the teacher of my weekly beginning weaving class. Although they look pretty good to me when I just glance at them, any beginning weaver and anyone who does not weave can quickly spot the flaws in these little weavings. There is so much to weaving fabric and tapestries that all depends on simply threading ( warping ) the loom. One misplaced, or missed thread and the WHOLE weaving is off. Sure , there are ways to mend the broken warp thread , and ways to weave around the flaw or disguise it, cover it up. Sometimes the flaw is just too annoying for me when I know I will have to put up with it for yards of warp and hours of weaving it. I just can't bear to see that dang mistake facing me every time I sit down at the loom to weave. Another factor in having a mistake in the warp and weaving it all anyway is that the finished product will bear this flaw. This is one of the reasons there are often whole bolts of apparently good quality woven fabric in a fabric store selling for a price that seems too low. If you look carefully you might spot a flaw in the warp of the bolt and it runs through the entire yardage woven with that warp. Remember, a warp is what the loom is threaded with. The 'weft' is the side to side, back and forth weaving of yarns and thread through the warp. You can see, the warp of a fabric on the loom is very important and how the warp is threaded onto the loom affects EVERY aspect of the final product. When one factors in tension, remembering to measure when needed, keeping count, even with all the weaver's helps, you realize that like building a house, or making a special recipe, accurate measurements for some things really DO matter in the final outcome. When I am weaving, my mind often wanders to the spiritual, more precisely, God and the Son He gave to shed His blood for me. Because of God's undeserved mercy toward me in the gift of His Son who's blood has cleansed me from my sins, I need not fear that the bad 'warp' and broken threads in the tapestry of my life have ruined me, or made me fit only for the rag bag or scrap heap. He has allowed the flaws in the weaving of my life to strengthen me through Him. I can look back at the misplaced or badly woven fabric and YES, see it , and still know the fabric will hold up because of my Heavenly Father, THE Master Weaver.

"My life is but a weaving,between my Lord and me; I cannot choose the colors, He worketh steadily. Oft times He weaveth sorrow, And I , in foolish pride' Forget He sees the upper, And I the underside/ Not til the loom is silent, and the shuttles cease to fly, Shall God unroll the canvas, and explain the reason why. The dark threads are as needful In the Weaver's skillful hand, As the threads of gold and silver In the pattern He has planned. He knows, He loves, He cares,Nothing this truth can dim. He gives His very best to those who leave the choice with Him. Benjamin M. Franklin~ THE WEAVER

The video below is short and kind of sweet, though I take exception to labeling the weaver "different" because she and I share a lot of similarities......she seems very thankful and blessed to be able to weave her wool doesn't she?