On Focus and Knowing When to Take a Break
As I dress the loom, I know that I must be in the present. I have no time for distracted thinking. If I am tired, anxious or ill, I will make mistakes. It doesn't matter how skilled I am because the lack of focus will override expertise. These two pictures are a great example. In order to produce the zig-zag path effect I want, I need to alternate my colors both in the warp and weft. When I was threading the reed on the left, I got tired and later discovered that I repeated the same color about 3/4 the way through. When I discovered the mistake, I became frustrated, so I quit early--an excellent decision. Yesterday I faced the mistake again with a focus and calmness. Rethreading the reed never went so smoothly. If I had left things as they were, the result would have been to break the pattern unsatisfactorily. Imagine, if you can, those green and yellow zig-zag paths in the picture on the right reversing themselves part of the way across the blanket. (This picture is a
