I think that having a photo that the artist is proud of at the end of a project - something beautiful to them - serves as great inspiration, but I love going through the process photos, especially if there were hardships along the way. So yes to beautiful photos, but also yes to progress photos: happy, sad, frustrated, or anywhere in between. One of the beautiful things about the fiber arts community is everyone's willingness to help each other out, and sharing our mistakes certainly helps future artists make decisions. Thank you as always for sharing your thoughts and your work!
I think seeing beautiful things makes the craft appealing! But seeing mistakes, frustration, and the messy process makes it approachable. It takes both imo Thank you for the video❤
True story, my sister took up knitting several years before me, and jumped right into the deep end when she did. She saw a lace knitting book, liked the project on the cover, and with absolutely no knitting experience whatsoever (our mother tried and failed to teach us how to crochet, that was it!) taught herself to knit, using one of the most difficult designs in the book because it was pretty. and she succeeded, as a complete beginner! I saw her success and decided about three or four years later to learn how to knit as well. My sister has knitted some beautiful lace shawls and cardigans and afghans. I started slower, learning more simple patterns, and realized I prefer to spin as well as knit, so we have gone different ways with our knitting. Personally I think pretty pictures are very inspiring.
I am working on my first pair of socks. I am thinking of putting up a you tube video to show off the ugly increases and not perfect knitting stitches. Also, I knit oddly due to shoulder problems. It is easier for me but probably awkward feeling and less efficient for you. However, if I put up the video and it encourages some one who wants to make socks and fears that they can nkt make socks, then I will be glad to put my mistakes and first efforts under the spotlight.
Showing and discussing mistakes is an important part of the learning process. I am invited by beautiful photos of fiber work, but discussing what went right and what went wrong really captures my thoughts and makes me go to the loom, the needles, or the wheel to try it myself. Thank you!
Yes! Thank you! I think we all learn more from the review and discussion of what's going on in the photo, rather than just the photo itself. Thank you for watching!!
Mary, thank you for describing so well the importance of showing and discussing mistakes. Seeing perfection gives a momentary "wow" response, but discussing what went right and wrong really does light up my imagination too.
I am equally inspired by beautiful photos and hearing about mistakes. Last week I was working on a piece and I'd made a mistake and I was so discouraged. I watched one of your videos where you talked about making a mistake and it completely inspired me to pick my work back up.
It is important to make the mistakes, admit to them, and show them. We are human, and it shows we are human. It also shows others they don't need to be perfect to try, which is so important!
I am always inspired by seeing beautiful photographs. I like to hear about others mistakes because we can all learn from them. When someone that we look up to talks about their mistakes, it takes them off the "pedestal" and makes them more human. No one is perfect and mistakes are okay!
I love hearing about the mistakes and then seeing the beautiful end result... I think all too often people think others have it easy or that things happen smoothly and naturally but seeing the convoluted path makes it easier to keep going. Thank you!
This is very timely for me. I have a large table loom that I warped incorrectly months ago. I have been trying to get motivated to “fix” my mistakes. I have had my loom for years and took a few classes at one time but am encouraged to hear that even the experienced make mistakes. This was very good for me to hear. Thank you.
I love to see both the beauty and the mistakes. When I look at beautifully composed pictures of WIPs, I'm always inspired to think about what I could try my hand at next. Sometimes pictures of WIPs can be even more inspiring than pictures of FOs! If I'm discouraged by anything, it's my inability to take such beautiful photos of my own WIPs & FOs! I also find it really useful and encouraging to hear about (and sometimes see) all the mistakes along the way. I think a lot of fiber art crafters can have a tendency towards trying to be too perfect. So many times, I've noticed a mistake many inches back and had an irresistible urge to frog back to fix it, along with a sense of discouragement at all the progress lost. In many cases, those mistakes are so small that no one but me would notice. Once I started watching youtube videos where other expert knitters, with so much more experience and skill than me, pointed out their own mistakes, I started giving myself permission to let a few of those mistakes go. And when I do decide to frog back, I'm now able to see that as a normal part of the creative process, instead of being a step backward.
I think discussing mistakes and how to work around them is very helpful. It's taken years for me to be able to just add a stitch or decrease a stitch if my count is off vs frogging back and starting over. Beautiful pictures are inspiring but it's nice to hear about the struggles behind the finished project.
I appreciate makers who show their mistakes, or even what they would do differently next time. I find it both educational and humbling. In the last year I have started to take more pictures of when things went wrong. Frogging a sweater yoke pattern, or dye spills, or knitting errors. I try to take picture of how I fixed it, and have follow up pictures and advice for others. I do love a beautiful Finished Object photo, or in progress shot. It can make me want to try the craft. All these weaving videos are giving me the urge to set up my loom for the first time. Thanks for the inspiration. I worry less about being seen as perfect as I age, and worry more about being my 'true self'
What I find inspiring are beautiful photographs and amazing creators who own that they aren't perfect. What's unappealing is when people feign perfection.
Beautiful pictures of beautiful creations are important. But so is admitting there are flaws. An item can be beautiful and still have flaws. The most encouraging thing for me is looking at something someone has made and then learning that it is not perfect. If someone else can make something so lovely, even though it has tiny little flaws, then I can too.
I just watched your serger mishap video before catching this one. I love that you are being so generous to share your mistakes with all of us. It's very encouraging to know that the experts are not completely 100% mistake-free perfect. I love seeing beautiful photos of completed projects with the descriptions of how they were made (handspun/homeknit/etc) because it shows just how nice things can be made without machines in a factory. It's a goal to aspire to, and it isn't discouraging at all.
Both, Felicia. I love learning new things, but I don't learn much from seeing a lovely finished object. I can stare at, and hope to better understand, when there's a photo of a process, or a wip, but once it is done, the mystery of how it came to be is hidden more. A beautiful finished object is nice, but it doesn't invite my particular thought process in.
Hello, I find it inspiring as well as humbling when I see beautiful photos of hand crafted knitting and other fiber objects that are hand crafted. It makes me want to improve the quality of my work so that someday it will be as skilled and beautiful as what I see in photos. I also really appreciate it when others share their Ups & Downs with their crafts, and mistakes. It helps me to see that it's normal to make mistakes and that I will experience them. It's a learning experience and teaches me how to problem solve my own work. Thanks mucho for sharing. Stephanie Garza
I think showing mistakes is critical! When all we see is the highlights on social media, it really can make someone think that they aren't good at a thing. But if we also see the mistakes and the fixes, then we know we can overcome it as well. Personally, I LOVE to see both - I love to see a pretty picture but also a picture of the hot mess before it was fixed. It's why I really enjoy pre-blocked vs. blocked photos. I like that transformation.
I love the photography of in-process work as well as finished work. It inspires me to think about what else I can do. I felt that way early in my crafting career, and I feel that way now. I think it is so interesting to hear that some people feel discouraged from creating when viewing high quality photos of hand-crafts. What about hand-crafts inspires that kind of response? People don't feel that way when looking at a high quality photo of food. They don't say, well that dish looks amazing I can never cook. They might worry about their ability to recreate the specific dish, but not whether or not they can cook at all.
I think u can learn by mistakes an help others. Like how u explain things. I look at things I try them some I can do an not do. Sometimes those I have trouble with I go back an try again. I take out lot of mistake or don't look right to me. I appreciate what u do in teaching, no matter how much a person know ur still learning, I'm one of them. Ty
I love the whole discussion of how things are made / created. The mistakes are all a part of how we learn and I think sharing them is a great learning tool. When I look at perfectly created objects if it’s something I love and want to make I’m encouraged that others have learned and perfected their learning to make something beautiful. So yes in both ways I’d love to hear more about mistakes and the process to fix them but also want to see the perfect finished object because that’s also what I strive for.
I love seeing beautiful photos of yarn crafts, but it’s always good to know every now and then that others make mistakes too. It was great hearing about some of the different patterns that the loom can make, thank you
I love to see people's process. Mistakes and all. The whole thing is beautiful even if it is a tangled mess. Seeing people either overcome and fix these mistakes or just to realize that they are done and that the project is not what they envisioned and either starting over or completely frogging it (or the equivalent word for weaving) is inspiring. Weaving is a little more intimidating to me just because there is so much more set steps. But I love seeing it done.
i really enjoy seeing beautiful photos of fiberwork, most of the time because if it really captures me ill end up wanting to knit it so i can have it for myself (LOL). but i think what i like the most is when there are beautiful photos of a project i /know/ has been a rough journey in terms of mistakes and having to rework. it proves to me that even if you mess up it doesnt ruin the project
Beautiful photos are often what make me want to try a pattern or a yarn. Learning how to identify, fix, decide what to do with mistakes is a different concept. I've never spun but I've seen so many folks doing beautiful spinning that I'm right on the edge of getting a spinning wheel, I don't expect to be great at it, or even good at it but I'm into learning from what the more experienced spinners are doing.
I appreciate peoples snapshots as much as beautiful professional photos. Both inspire me and show different aspects of a handmade project. But what i find most enjoyable is the progress photos so you can see construction and that its lumpy before its blocked or the edges are rough before its finished or how the pattern develops along the way. That way even with the super perfect photos you can tell its a handmade item and a real person made it and you could maybe make it too.
Hi Felicia. As a maker I look to beautiful finished object photos to get inspiration. However, also as a maker I'm always looking to improve my skills so seeing 'less than perfect' images and hearing about mistakes and how they were fixed/not fixed is also inspiring and encouraging. Your weaving is beautiful and a skill I would love to learn - but right now I can't accommodate another craft hobby! Thank you for your channel. Your content is always interesting.
I find all photos inspiring and t the same time appreciate the not so perfect photos and disclosures ... we learn from mistakes whether we make them or someone else has. Always such valuable info and advice, thanks Felicia!
I love seeing beautiful things, but I also love hearing about the mistakes you make! It makes me feel like it's okay to experiment, and gets me to try more new things. I don't think I would have had nearly as much confidence to learn new things without seeing the mistakes you've made. Beautiful things, while quite beautiful, can be really intimidating if you don't know about the struggles behind them!
I use the beautiful photos on Instagram as eye candy. To get away from the bleakness other internet or media tends to promote. Beautiful photos inspire me to add to the beauty of the world. Mistakes are good! It shows we’re human, that it’s ok and that things are still lovely, even with mistakes. Share them to help us learn.
Great question! For me the answer includes AND. I enjoy seeing beautiful handmade objects AND I really love to hear about someone’s process to get to the finished object, especially if they had to do some problem solving or adjusting along the way. I think a lot of what some call mistakes is actually just the learning process in action and maybe if we collectively call it such, it makes challenging projects less intimidating.
For me, I love beautiful photos and get inspired by them but I have to say I love process photos and tutorials more because they usually show an honest angle on things. That's probably tied up in personality too. What I don't like is when someone says something is "easy" when its subjective. I remember being told that knitting was "easy" and crochet was "easy" when in actuality its been a labor of love for me and most people I know.
I love that you've shown us your mistakes and foibles. It's great to see beautiful pieces photographed. It usually feels unattainable, even though I've created some truly beautiful pieces. More so I feel guilty about owning a loomI don't use right now. I bought a Bergman Counter Marche loom from my school. I didn't research or do anything, I simply bought an inexpensive small room that fit in my home. I thought I wouldn't have a problem getting the loom up and running, but I been so confused about the tie up, I've almost given up, but not yet. It's quite the quandary. Thanks for a little inspiration and information.
Beautiful pictures are inspiring. Talking about mistakes....design features...is important to the learning process. Sometimes mistakes are beautiful! I also love knowing that others have challenges, esp threading heedles! Understanding how to fix mistakes is empowering.
In general, I am inspired by beautiful pieces. We are human. We cannot be 100% perfect all the time. You will make yourself miserable. Learn from your mistakes and grow. Some gorgeous piece will inspire me to want to learn. Some I just recognize the intricacies and admire the beauty and hard work that went into producing the work but also tried but found that I have no affinity for that craft. I am a process learner. I like knowing how something is produced even if I can’t do it.
I want to see how good something can be, but I also need to see how "normal" stuff is too. I'm currently trying to learn to sew and seeing how good hand-sewn garments look is important. Also mistakes let people know why you do some of these practices. A home beer brewer I watch just had a contamination in his beer. I always hear clean clean clean. But here's why, if you let the wrong yeast in the beer, it can go down the vinegar path. Him sharing his mistakes really underscored why you need to be watchful and diligent about keeping stuff sanitized. Thank you for sharing!
I have found you recently and now know there is so much to learn about weaving. My problem is space as I have lots of crafts. I definitely have been put put off by seeing people’s perfect knitting. I can knit but it’s not perfect. 🥰
I weave and keep photos of all...they give me pleasure after the project has gone and inspiration to do it again. Of course, I don't photo any "mistakes", but usually I'm the only one who knows if there were any.
I like to see pretty photos! They always inspire me and make me want to do the same project. I also think sharing all aspects of your craft journey is great. We sometimes fail and sometimes succeed. We do this thing and we changed mind the next second. Remembering back that when you blogged which was recordings of your experiments and journey, you are just doing the same thing. Record and move on.
I totally relate to this podcast. I do not feel discouraged. I jump in and try. I have made several gamps; learned a lot doing so. I put my weaving projects in Ravelry and share the good the bad and the ugly to help others out.
This is a great topic! I feel inspired by beautiful photos, but discouraged to not be able to take good ones of what I make. I think it's encouraging to see the creative process too.
Seeing perfect items inspires me to want to make them while reminding me I am much too inept a human being to measure up to such. LOL. Showing mistakes keeps it real.
Sometimes I feel discouraged by beautiful photos of created items, but more often I think: 'Oh, I should I learn how to do that.' I think that others seeing mistakes might keep them from wanting to throw their craft supplies out the window!
Thank you! I really appreciate you sharing your mistakes. Many times, I see beautiful weaving or knitting and think, "Well, I will never be there." I know that is a"fixed mindset" (see work by Dr. Carol Dweck) and not open to growth - something I am working on in the area of crafts as well as other parts of my life. Still, knowing that others are not perfect is somehow reassuring that I should be kind to myself and accept my mistakes as learning.
It is reassuring to hear about the mistakes that are made. My teacher told me that you don't take up weaving unless you have OCD tendencies. I think that one of those tendencies is having to deal with perfectionism (in a bad way), so I don't want to have any mistakes. On the other hand, my ADD bogs me down and I have problems seeing projects through. The photos, for me are a disconnect...I see something and I want to try it.
Just found you and I really like what I saw. Yes, I do expect not to make mistakes and I am disappointed when I do. I mostly give my work away to friends; it would be great if it had no mistakes ; however, I try to adopt the Navajo belief that only a higher power can make something perfect.
Great video thank you 🙏. I think I definitely feel intimidated by perfect and beautiful work that I feel I will not be able to achieve! I like to hear about mistakes and how to correct them or difficulties and how to overcome them. I find this inspiring. Thank you for sharing your beautiful mistakes 🙏
Sometimes mistakes are more acceptable than at other times. Recently I warped my loom with yarns I had On hand to use them. Even though I threaded 2 ends in each heddle, one of the yarn choices was too fine and too weak. Therefore it broke throughout the weaving. That did not bother me because I know not to use that type of yarn again as warp. What does frustrate me is when I check for mistakes again and again, say in threading the heddles, and still make mistakes, even though I think I'm being so careful.
I recently posted a photo of my own mistakes on a knitted item I was making. It's now become a learning experience, and frogged to become something else. I used a silk cotton blend yarn and the increases look terrible, well maybe not terrible but I noticed them. I used M1 increases, and should have used front/back increases. Anyway, I posted to ask for advice and did get some fantastic advice. Having said that, yes, personally, those 'perfect' photos make me feel the hand knit and many of the perfect handmade items are beyond reach, especially for anyone who can't get perfect tension or whose hands don't quite work like they once did. It does make me wonder if those perfect photos have been 'retouched'.
i think we learn the most when mistakes are made and there is something to work on for the future. And if you show your mistakes and how you plan to correct them, we can learn from you. Thanks!
I love seeing the beautiful pictures and get inspired by what it can be. However it is so refreshing to see the mistakes as well! I am having the same problem you are with my weaving and am learning with and from you. I have wondered if by seeing all of the beautiful pictures does it make people more competitive with others and themselves or frustrated enough to not finish a project?
Maybe it's my life experience and my education, but I love photos of beautiful and complex Handwork as I find it inspiring, not discouraging. I am always interested in expanding my skills in various aspects of Handwork, so the challenge of seeing something that is outside of my usual comfort zone piques me to give it a try. Keep posting beautiful work, and balancing it, as you have here, with the moments when things didn't go exactly as planned. We all learn so much from seeing how we handle mistakes and the remedies for them in our work. There is an aspect of demystifying seemingly complex things when we figure out how to fix them, or simply have to redo them. It's all part of learning, and that's what keeps me happy and flexible in my thinking. Thanks for asking this question!
That's so good! I've been focused on this idea of "growth mindset" for a while now and being ok how messy learning process can be. I think, like you said, it's all part of learning and the challenges keep you flexible in your thinking. That's exactly it. Thanks for watching Nicole!
I agree that seeing mistakes are a learning lesson. I am good at knitting and can see mistakes from far away but I am new to weaving and know when something doesn’t look right but not always knowing the problem. So visual memory is good In fiber projects. You pointed out some weaving things that I had not heard or forgot. So knitting and or weaving swatches do help.
For me, seeing gorgeous photos of handmade items make me think "Oooh, I should try that!", but seeing those same people making mistakes too, makes me think "Ok, they messed up but here's how to fix it, so I can probably do that." Thanks so much for the videos!
I love beautiful photos! But I think it could be cool to have a second shot that shows a close up of an area you are working to improve. When I hand create something, I tend to fixate on the errors to the exclusion of the beauty. But I noticed, that I can buy a factory made item and not notice the mistakes for over a year! I think learning to see that the errors often don't negatively impact the beauty is important.
I like the concept of kintsugi - that imperfections can be part of the beauty and story of an item and where the maker works with an imperfection to make a different but still beautiful item. I like photos of the 'perfect' too but when I see them I feel that there are maker police out there in the world judging everyone's work. So I guess I fall into the camp that finds 'perfect' images make a craft feel unattainable.
No! I love beautiful photos of crafts! I don't think I'll ever be able to take pictures like some people can but I can make the thing if I try really hard. Or at least I'll get inspired to do something because of a well taken picture
I'm suuuper self-critical about anything I do and any mistakes I make, so I always try to remember a post I saw once about cake: you might look at the cake you made next to someone else's perfect cake and be like "dang my cake is nowhere near as good as theirs" but someone who wants to eat cake is going to come along and go "heck yeah, two cakes!!"
I love beautiful pictures but seeing mistakes that I make & get frustrated with because the only thing I can do is rip it out & pick up where I left off. I know there are better ways of correct those mistakes and in the long run that would be so much more beneficial!!
I wonder if the IG fueled photos that are meant to project a certain image and lifestyle are part of what discourages some people. What if we don't have that charmingly aged wooden bench where we can set our knitting down beside some artfully placed dried flowers? People who's lives do not and never will look like that are valid participants in this crafting world too, and their projects are just as beautiful and important. I think it helps to share reality, not just our mistakes but the everyday imperfections of our lives instead of a slew of perfectly curated images that don't reflect how most of us live.
I think both views are common. Someone having insecurity or such shouldn't prevent you from sharing beautiful examples of your work, but I do think sharing mistakes is a great thing. We are none of us perfect and sharing our progress and learning can I think really help people be more willing to try. I'm a "jack of all trades" type, almost immediately half decent at most things I put my hand to, but never truly excel at any one thing. It's been difficult for me to balance my own feelings of inadequacy and not doing well enough with how others tend to view me as so talented or gifted. I think part of that disparity is that I had began so many of these things I do so young that my learning phase where all my work looked like typical first projects were so long ago and I'm rather adept at taking skills from one craft to another, so it appears that I do things effortlessly. One way I've seen to counter this is occasionally showing early works in contrast to current ones to show that we didn't start this skilled and also showing the lessons we are currently learning.
I think you should show the pretty photos, AND show the photos of the mistakes, and then if it's a mistake you fixed, show a photo of how it was fixed, or something during the process of it. So not only does a person get inspiration from the pretty photo, but also encouragement or learning from the mistakes.
As a professional production weaver (42 years) I would suggest that you get a good night's sleep then check your threading on the portion you think has mistakes when your brain is fresh. You might even have another person with you who can can call out the pattern sequence to you as you move the heddles aside one by one. I have a strong suspicion that you do NOT have mistakes in it, or at least not as many as you fear.
It's beautiful, mistake and all! For me photos do both, sometimes they are inspiring or other times not. I am not sure as I am not a weaver by any means, ok, I weave but I don't consider myself a weaver, but I don't like using reeds that are not for the sett, I don't like double denting, I feel it changes the fabric somehow but as I say what do I know! I much prefer to have a matching reed for my sett. I have a project waiting to go on the loom but I am not happy about using a 10 dent for the 20 epi project, I wish I had a 20 dent reed. But I am sure it's just me.
Oh me too! I wish I didn't have to do these weird sleying sequences... but the sett here is 15 epi and I only have 6, 8, 10, and 12 dent reeds... lol. I wove this again at 14 epi and again, that's a weird sett too. Thanks for watching!! PS. I would say, if you like weaving and you weave, you're a weaver 💗
I understand where the person is coming from, but I very much disagree with them. You balance beautifully between inspiring and educating. Your pictures inspire, but you also go back and address your struggles. 💜
I don't think I'd be as inspired by a poorly taken, unlit photgraph as I am by the nice and more professional photos - but it has to be balanced out by a continuous honest discussion about flaws and difficulties to avoid feeling discouraged by one's own mistakes.
Hmmm, you pose an interesting question. I am inspired by beautiful pictures, however, I have not pursued weaving as my first few attempts looked like s#%&. Not at all like the pictures. I am a fairly accomplished knitter and I hate to hear people say, "I could never do that, that's beautiful." I always point out that it is simply about learning technique and practice. Almost always I also point out my mistakes or things I would do differently. Great photos help us to see what is possible. I think we need to see what it could or should look like to recognize when we are off track. If the photo is unattainable from where we are at, that can be a deterrent, as in my case. But why would one start learning if they don't have a goal to create what they see in that beautiful photo? I am not helping here. I don't think There is a good answer. I do think it is important for others to know that that beautiful item was actually the result of a mistake and it is still beautiful.
I love seeing beautiful things and gorgeous pictures. But I also like to see mistakes (photographed beautifully). We’re all human and we’re all learning. Poor quality photographs are a big turnoff of the content producer.
beautiful images are inspiring, but presenting that things are always perfect tends to turn me off. in fact teachers that make statements that imply the work should be without errors I will never take their class again.
I think that having a photo that the artist is proud of at the end of a project - something beautiful to them - serves as great inspiration, but I love going through the process photos, especially if there were hardships along the way. So yes to beautiful photos, but also yes to progress photos: happy, sad, frustrated, or anywhere in between. One of the beautiful things about the fiber arts community is everyone's willingness to help each other out, and sharing our mistakes certainly helps future artists make decisions. Thank you as always for sharing your thoughts and your work!
I think seeing beautiful things makes the craft appealing!
But seeing mistakes, frustration, and the messy process makes it approachable. It takes both imo
Thank you for the video❤
True story, my sister took up knitting several years before me, and jumped right into the deep end when she did. She saw a lace knitting book, liked the project on the cover, and with absolutely no knitting experience whatsoever (our mother tried and failed to teach us how to crochet, that was it!) taught herself to knit, using one of the most difficult designs in the book because it was pretty. and she succeeded, as a complete beginner! I saw her success and decided about three or four years later to learn how to knit as well. My sister has knitted some beautiful lace shawls and cardigans and afghans. I started slower, learning more simple patterns, and realized I prefer to spin as well as knit, so we have gone different ways with our knitting. Personally I think pretty pictures are very inspiring.
I am working on my first pair of socks. I am thinking of putting up a you tube video to show off the ugly increases and not perfect knitting stitches. Also, I knit oddly due to shoulder problems. It is easier for me but probably awkward feeling and less efficient for you. However, if I put up the video and it encourages some one who wants to make socks and fears that they can nkt make socks, then I will be glad to put my mistakes and first efforts under the spotlight.
Showing and discussing mistakes is an important part of the learning process. I am invited by beautiful photos of fiber work, but discussing what went right and what went wrong really captures my thoughts and makes me go to the loom, the needles, or the wheel to try it myself. Thank you!
Yes! Thank you! I think we all learn more from the review and discussion of what's going on in the photo, rather than just the photo itself. Thank you for watching!!
Hey I love the do not do it this way form of instruction or advice. If I were smarter, maybe I would not like it so much.
Mary, thank you for describing so well the importance of showing and discussing mistakes. Seeing perfection gives a momentary "wow" response, but discussing what went right and wrong really does light up my imagination too.
I like that you show your mistakes but also tell us that you have learned from it. It encourages me to create without stressing about the project.
I would appreciate seeing how various weaving mistakes can be addressed in your future UA-cams.
I am equally inspired by beautiful photos and hearing about mistakes. Last week I was working on a piece and I'd made a mistake and I was so discouraged. I watched one of your videos where you talked about making a mistake and it completely inspired me to pick my work back up.
The beautiful photos just inspire me, not discourage me. I always think, "I want to make that!"
It is important to make the mistakes, admit to them, and show them. We are human, and it shows we are human. It also shows others they don't need to be perfect to try, which is so important!
I am always inspired by seeing beautiful photographs. I like to hear about others mistakes because we can all learn from them. When someone that we look up to talks about their mistakes, it takes them off the "pedestal" and makes them more human. No one is perfect and mistakes are okay!
I love hearing about the mistakes and then seeing the beautiful end result... I think all too often people think others have it easy or that things happen smoothly and naturally but seeing the convoluted path makes it easier to keep going. Thank you!
This is very timely for me. I have a large table loom that I warped incorrectly months ago. I have been trying to get motivated to “fix” my mistakes. I have had my loom for years and took a few classes at one time but am encouraged to hear that even the experienced make mistakes. This was very good for me to hear. Thank you.
I love to see both the beauty and the mistakes. When I look at beautifully composed pictures of WIPs, I'm always inspired to think about what I could try my hand at next. Sometimes pictures of WIPs can be even more inspiring than pictures of FOs! If I'm discouraged by anything, it's my inability to take such beautiful photos of my own WIPs & FOs!
I also find it really useful and encouraging to hear about (and sometimes see) all the mistakes along the way. I think a lot of fiber art crafters can have a tendency towards trying to be too perfect. So many times, I've noticed a mistake many inches back and had an irresistible urge to frog back to fix it, along with a sense of discouragement at all the progress lost. In many cases, those mistakes are so small that no one but me would notice. Once I started watching youtube videos where other expert knitters, with so much more experience and skill than me, pointed out their own mistakes, I started giving myself permission to let a few of those mistakes go. And when I do decide to frog back, I'm now able to see that as a normal part of the creative process, instead of being a step backward.
I think discussing mistakes and how to work around them is very helpful. It's taken years for me to be able to just add a stitch or decrease a stitch if my count is off vs frogging back and starting over. Beautiful pictures are inspiring but it's nice to hear about the struggles behind the finished project.
I appreciate makers who show their mistakes, or even what they would do differently next time. I find it both educational and humbling. In the last year I have started to take more pictures of when things went wrong. Frogging a sweater yoke pattern, or dye spills, or knitting errors. I try to take picture of how I fixed it, and have follow up pictures and advice for others.
I do love a beautiful Finished Object photo, or in progress shot. It can make me want to try the craft. All these weaving videos are giving me the urge to set up my loom for the first time. Thanks for the inspiration.
I worry less about being seen as perfect as I age, and worry more about being my 'true self'
Mistakes create the avenue for perfecting! I love both, but mistakes are more interesting
What I find inspiring are beautiful photographs and amazing creators who own that they aren't perfect. What's unappealing is when people feign perfection.
I love to see mistakes so that I can learn from other people's mistakes, as well as my own!! It is refreshing for a change.
Beautiful pictures of beautiful creations are important. But so is admitting there are flaws. An item can be beautiful and still have flaws. The most encouraging thing for me is looking at something someone has made and then learning that it is not perfect. If someone else can make something so lovely, even though it has tiny little flaws, then I can too.
I just watched your serger mishap video before catching this one. I love that you are being so generous to share your mistakes with all of us. It's very encouraging to know that the experts are not completely 100% mistake-free perfect. I love seeing beautiful photos of completed projects with the descriptions of how they were made (handspun/homeknit/etc) because it shows just how nice things can be made without machines in a factory. It's a goal to aspire to, and it isn't discouraging at all.
Both, Felicia. I love learning new things, but I don't learn much from seeing a lovely finished object. I can stare at, and hope to better understand, when there's a photo of a process, or a wip, but once it is done, the mystery of how it came to be is hidden more. A beautiful finished object is nice, but it doesn't invite my particular thought process in.
Hello, I find it inspiring as well as humbling when I see beautiful photos of hand crafted knitting and other fiber objects that are hand crafted. It makes me want to improve the quality of my work so that someday it will be as skilled and beautiful as what I see in photos. I also really appreciate it when others share their Ups & Downs with their crafts, and mistakes. It helps me to see that it's normal to make mistakes and that I will experience them. It's a learning experience and teaches me how to problem solve my own work.
Thanks mucho for sharing.
Stephanie Garza
I think showing mistakes is critical! When all we see is the highlights on social media, it really can make someone think that they aren't good at a thing. But if we also see the mistakes and the fixes, then we know we can overcome it as well. Personally, I LOVE to see both - I love to see a pretty picture but also a picture of the hot mess before it was fixed. It's why I really enjoy pre-blocked vs. blocked photos. I like that transformation.
I love the photography of in-process work as well as finished work. It inspires me to think about what else I can do. I felt that way early in my crafting career, and I feel that way now. I think it is so interesting to hear that some people feel discouraged from creating when viewing high quality photos of hand-crafts. What about hand-crafts inspires that kind of response? People don't feel that way when looking at a high quality photo of food. They don't say, well that dish looks amazing I can never cook. They might worry about their ability to recreate the specific dish, but not whether or not they can cook at all.
I think u can learn by mistakes an help others. Like how u explain things.
I look at things I try them some I can do an not do. Sometimes those I have trouble with I go back an try again. I take out lot of mistake or don't look right to me. I appreciate what u do in teaching, no matter how much a person know ur still learning, I'm one of them. Ty
I love the whole discussion of how things are made / created. The mistakes are all a part of how we learn and I think sharing them is a great learning tool. When I look at perfectly created objects if it’s something I love and want to make I’m encouraged that others have learned and perfected their learning to make something beautiful. So yes in both ways I’d love to hear more about mistakes and the process to fix them but also want to see the perfect finished object because that’s also what I strive for.
I love seeing beautiful photos of yarn crafts, but it’s always good to know every now and then that others make mistakes too.
It was great hearing about some of the different patterns that the loom can make, thank you
I love to see people's process. Mistakes and all. The whole thing is beautiful even if it is a tangled mess. Seeing people either overcome and fix these mistakes or just to realize that they are done and that the project is not what they envisioned and either starting over or completely frogging it (or the equivalent word for weaving) is inspiring. Weaving is a little more intimidating to me just because there is so much more set steps. But I love seeing it done.
I actually feel inspired when I see handmade things. How to make things. though it is encouraging to see even experienced folks make mistakes.
i really enjoy seeing beautiful photos of fiberwork, most of the time because if it really captures me ill end up wanting to knit it so i can have it for myself (LOL). but i think what i like the most is when there are beautiful photos of a project i /know/ has been a rough journey in terms of mistakes and having to rework. it proves to me that even if you mess up it doesnt ruin the project
Beautiful photos are often what make me want to try a pattern or a yarn. Learning how to identify, fix, decide what to do with mistakes is a different concept. I've never spun but I've seen so many folks doing beautiful spinning that I'm right on the edge of getting a spinning wheel, I don't expect to be great at it, or even good at it but I'm into learning from what the more experienced spinners are doing.
I appreciate peoples snapshots as much as beautiful professional photos. Both inspire me and show different aspects of a handmade project. But what i find most enjoyable is the progress photos so you can see construction and that its lumpy before its blocked or the edges are rough before its finished or how the pattern develops along the way. That way even with the super perfect photos you can tell its a handmade item and a real person made it and you could maybe make it too.
Hi Felicia. As a maker I look to beautiful finished object photos to get inspiration. However, also as a maker I'm always looking to improve my skills so seeing 'less than perfect' images and hearing about mistakes and how they were fixed/not fixed is also inspiring and encouraging. Your weaving is beautiful and a skill I would love to learn - but right now I can't accommodate another craft hobby! Thank you for your channel. Your content is always interesting.
I find all photos inspiring and t the same time appreciate the not so perfect photos and disclosures ... we learn from mistakes whether we make them or someone else has.
Always such valuable info and advice, thanks Felicia!
I love seeing beautiful things, but I also love hearing about the mistakes you make! It makes me feel like it's okay to experiment, and gets me to try more new things. I don't think I would have had nearly as much confidence to learn new things without seeing the mistakes you've made. Beautiful things, while quite beautiful, can be really intimidating if you don't know about the struggles behind them!
I use the beautiful photos on Instagram as eye candy. To get away from the bleakness other internet or media tends to promote. Beautiful photos inspire me to add to the beauty of the world. Mistakes are good! It shows we’re human, that it’s ok and that things are still lovely, even with mistakes. Share them to help us learn.
Great question! For me the answer includes AND. I enjoy seeing beautiful handmade objects AND I really love to hear about someone’s process to get to the finished object, especially if they had to do some problem solving or adjusting along the way. I think a lot of what some call mistakes is actually just the learning process in action and maybe if we collectively call it such, it makes challenging projects less intimidating.
For me, I love beautiful photos and get inspired by them but I have to say I love process photos and tutorials more because they usually show an honest angle on things.
That's probably tied up in personality too.
What I don't like is when someone says something is "easy" when its subjective. I remember being told that knitting was "easy" and crochet was "easy" when in actuality its been a labor of love for me and most people I know.
I love that you've shown us your mistakes and foibles. It's great to see beautiful pieces photographed. It usually feels unattainable, even though I've created some truly beautiful pieces. More so I feel guilty about owning a loomI don't use right now. I bought a Bergman Counter Marche loom from my school. I didn't research or do anything, I simply bought an inexpensive small room that fit in my home. I thought I wouldn't have a problem getting the loom up and running, but I been so confused about the tie up, I've almost given up, but not yet. It's quite the quandary. Thanks for a little inspiration and information.
Beautiful pictures are inspiring. Talking about mistakes....design features...is important to the learning process. Sometimes mistakes are beautiful! I also love knowing that others have challenges, esp threading heedles! Understanding how to fix mistakes is empowering.
So pleased to have discovered your channel - Beautiful photos inspire not discourage, but it is great to evoke mistakes and ways to mend / avoid them
In general, I am inspired by beautiful pieces. We are human. We cannot be 100% perfect all the time. You will make yourself miserable. Learn from your mistakes and grow. Some gorgeous piece will inspire me to want to learn. Some I just recognize the intricacies and admire the beauty and hard work that went into producing the work but also tried but found that I have no affinity for that craft. I am a process learner. I like knowing how something is produced even if I can’t do it.
I am inspired by beautiful photos but I also love keeping it real.
I want to see how good something can be, but I also need to see how "normal" stuff is too. I'm currently trying to learn to sew and seeing how good hand-sewn garments look is important. Also mistakes let people know why you do some of these practices. A home beer brewer I watch just had a contamination in his beer. I always hear clean clean clean. But here's why, if you let the wrong yeast in the beer, it can go down the vinegar path. Him sharing his mistakes really underscored why you need to be watchful and diligent about keeping stuff sanitized. Thank you for sharing!
I like hearing about your mistakes and also seeing the beautiful things. The photographs of beautiful items definitely inspire me to make an item.
I have found you recently and now know there is so much to learn about weaving. My problem is space as I have lots of crafts. I definitely have been put put off by seeing people’s perfect knitting. I can knit but it’s not perfect. 🥰
I weave and keep photos of all...they give me pleasure after the project has gone and inspiration to do it again. Of course, I don't photo any "mistakes", but usually I'm the only one who knows if there were any.
Showing mistakes works for me. Makes me feel less intimidated!
I like to see pretty photos! They always inspire me and make me want to do the same project. I also think sharing all aspects of your craft journey is great. We sometimes fail and sometimes succeed. We do this thing and we changed mind the next second. Remembering back that when you blogged which was recordings of your experiments and journey, you are just doing the same thing. Record and move on.
I totally relate to this podcast. I do not feel discouraged. I jump in and try. I have made several gamps; learned a lot doing so. I put my weaving projects in Ravelry and share the good the bad and the ugly to help others out.
This is a great topic! I feel inspired by beautiful photos, but discouraged to not be able to take good ones of what I make. I think it's encouraging to see the creative process too.
Seeing perfect items inspires me to want to make them while reminding me I am much too inept a human being to measure up to such. LOL. Showing mistakes keeps it real.
It is good to see other mistakes so we don't beat ourselves up when we make then
I think beautiful photos are inspiring. I also love learning from mistakes-mine or others’.
Sometimes I feel discouraged by beautiful photos of created items, but more often I think: 'Oh, I should I learn how to do that.' I think that others seeing mistakes might keep them from wanting to throw their craft supplies out the window!
Thank you! I really appreciate you sharing your mistakes. Many times, I see beautiful weaving or knitting and think, "Well, I will never be there." I know that is a"fixed mindset" (see work by Dr. Carol Dweck) and not open to growth - something I am working on in the area of crafts as well as other parts of my life. Still, knowing that others are not perfect is somehow reassuring that I should be kind to myself and accept my mistakes as learning.
It is reassuring to hear about the mistakes that are made. My teacher told me that you don't take up weaving unless you have OCD tendencies. I think that one of those tendencies is having to deal with perfectionism (in a bad way), so I don't want to have any mistakes. On the other hand, my ADD bogs me down and I have problems seeing projects through. The photos, for me are a disconnect...I see something and I want to try it.
Just found you and I really like what I saw. Yes, I do expect not to make mistakes and I am disappointed when I do. I mostly give my work away to friends; it would be great if it had no mistakes ; however, I try to adopt the Navajo belief that only a higher power can make something perfect.
Great video thank you 🙏. I think I definitely feel intimidated by perfect and beautiful work that I feel I will not be able to achieve! I like to hear about mistakes and how to correct them or difficulties and how to overcome them. I find this inspiring. Thank you for sharing your beautiful mistakes 🙏
Sometimes mistakes are more acceptable than at other times. Recently I warped my loom with yarns I had On hand to use them. Even though I threaded 2 ends in each heddle, one of the yarn choices was too fine and too weak. Therefore it broke throughout the weaving. That did not bother me because I know not to use that type of yarn again as warp. What does frustrate me is when I check for mistakes again and again, say in threading the heddles, and still make mistakes, even though I think I'm being so careful.
I recently posted a photo of my own mistakes on a knitted item I was making. It's now become a learning experience, and frogged to become something else. I used a silk cotton blend yarn and the increases look terrible, well maybe not terrible but I noticed them. I used M1 increases, and should have used front/back increases. Anyway, I posted to ask for advice and did get some fantastic advice. Having said that, yes, personally, those 'perfect' photos make me feel the hand knit and many of the perfect handmade items are beyond reach, especially for anyone who can't get perfect tension or whose hands don't quite work like they once did. It does make me wonder if those perfect photos have been 'retouched'.
It's good to remember everyone can made mistakes no matter how experienced. It gives beginners a bit of slack.
i think we learn the most when mistakes are made and there is something to work on for the future. And if you show your mistakes and how you plan to correct them, we can learn from you. Thanks!
I love seeing the beautiful pictures and get inspired by what it can be. However it is so refreshing to see the mistakes as well! I am having the same problem you are with my weaving and am learning with and from you. I have wondered if by seeing all of the beautiful pictures does it make people more competitive with others and themselves or frustrated enough to not finish a project?
I have been in the fiber arts since I was very young and I love trying new things. The more complex the more the challenge for myself.
Maybe it's my life experience and my education, but I love photos of beautiful and complex Handwork as I find it inspiring, not discouraging. I am always interested in expanding my skills in various aspects of Handwork, so the challenge of seeing something that is outside of my usual comfort zone piques me to give it a try. Keep posting beautiful work, and balancing it, as you have here, with the moments when things didn't go exactly as planned. We all learn so much from seeing how we handle mistakes and the remedies for them in our work. There is an aspect of demystifying seemingly complex things when we figure out how to fix them, or simply have to redo them. It's all part of learning, and that's what keeps me happy and flexible in my thinking. Thanks for asking this question!
That's so good! I've been focused on this idea of "growth mindset" for a while now and being ok how messy learning process can be. I think, like you said, it's all part of learning and the challenges keep you flexible in your thinking. That's exactly it. Thanks for watching Nicole!
I agree that seeing mistakes are a learning lesson. I am good at knitting and can see mistakes from far away but I am new to weaving and know when something doesn’t look right but not always knowing the problem. So visual memory is good In fiber projects. You pointed out some weaving things that I had not heard or forgot. So knitting and or weaving swatches do help.
For me, seeing gorgeous photos of handmade items make me think "Oooh, I should try that!", but seeing those same people making mistakes too, makes me think "Ok, they messed up but here's how to fix it, so I can probably do that." Thanks so much for the videos!
Your amazing 👏how can a brilliant person makes mistakes!!
I love beautiful photos! But I think it could be cool to have a second shot that shows a close up of an area you are working to improve. When I hand create something, I tend to fixate on the errors to the exclusion of the beauty. But I noticed, that I can buy a factory made item and not notice the mistakes for over a year! I think learning to see that the errors often don't negatively impact the beauty is important.
I like the concept of kintsugi - that imperfections can be part of the beauty and story of an item and where the maker works with an imperfection to make a different but still beautiful item.
I like photos of the 'perfect' too but when I see them I feel that there are maker police out there in the world judging everyone's work. So I guess I fall into the camp that finds 'perfect' images make a craft feel unattainable.
to me, it is gorgeous and inspiring! thank you!
If I see a beautiful photo of a fiber art (I knit), I will either admire it and /or decide that I can do that also, and try it.
No! I love beautiful photos of crafts! I don't think I'll ever be able to take pictures like some people can but I can make the thing if I try really hard. Or at least I'll get inspired to do something because of a well taken picture
Interesting, thanks for that video. I have learnt much of my mistakes and espessially of the reparation.
I'm suuuper self-critical about anything I do and any mistakes I make, so I always try to remember a post I saw once about cake: you might look at the cake you made next to someone else's perfect cake and be like "dang my cake is nowhere near as good as theirs" but someone who wants to eat cake is going to come along and go "heck yeah, two cakes!!"
🤣 yes!!! Two cakes is a great way to look at everything
I love beautiful pictures but seeing mistakes that I make & get frustrated with because the only thing I can do is rip it out & pick up where I left off. I know there are better ways of correct those mistakes and in the long run that would be so much more beneficial!!
Mistakes is how we learn so I’m okay with mistakes
I wonder if the IG fueled photos that are meant to project a certain image and lifestyle are part of what discourages some people. What if we don't have that charmingly aged wooden bench where we can set our knitting down beside some artfully placed dried flowers? People who's lives do not and never will look like that are valid participants in this crafting world too, and their projects are just as beautiful and important. I think it helps to share reality, not just our mistakes but the everyday imperfections of our lives instead of a slew of perfectly curated images that don't reflect how most of us live.
I think both views are common. Someone having insecurity or such shouldn't prevent you from sharing beautiful examples of your work, but I do think sharing mistakes is a great thing. We are none of us perfect and sharing our progress and learning can I think really help people be more willing to try.
I'm a "jack of all trades" type, almost immediately half decent at most things I put my hand to, but never truly excel at any one thing. It's been difficult for me to balance my own feelings of inadequacy and not doing well enough with how others tend to view me as so talented or gifted. I think part of that disparity is that I had began so many of these things I do so young that my learning phase where all my work looked like typical first projects were so long ago and I'm rather adept at taking skills from one craft to another, so it appears that I do things effortlessly.
One way I've seen to counter this is occasionally showing early works in contrast to current ones to show that we didn't start this skilled and also showing the lessons we are currently learning.
I think you should show the pretty photos, AND show the photos of the mistakes, and then if it's a mistake you fixed, show a photo of how it was fixed, or something during the process of it. So not only does a person get inspiration from the pretty photo, but also encouragement or learning from the mistakes.
I feel like i never manage to successfully thread my heddles and reed without a mistake or 10. Even simple stuff.
As a professional production weaver (42 years) I would suggest that you get a good night's sleep then check your threading on the portion you think has mistakes when your brain is fresh. You might even have another person with you who can can call out the pattern sequence to you as you move the heddles aside one by one. I have a strong suspicion that you do NOT have mistakes in it, or at least not as many as you fear.
It's beautiful, mistake and all! For me photos do both, sometimes they are inspiring or other times not. I am not sure as I am not a weaver by any means, ok, I weave but I don't consider myself a weaver, but I don't like using reeds that are not for the sett, I don't like double denting, I feel it changes the fabric somehow but as I say what do I know! I much prefer to have a matching reed for my sett. I have a project waiting to go on the loom but I am not happy about using a 10 dent for the 20 epi project, I wish I had a 20 dent reed. But I am sure it's just me.
Oh me too! I wish I didn't have to do these weird sleying sequences... but the sett here is 15 epi and I only have 6, 8, 10, and 12 dent reeds... lol. I wove this again at 14 epi and again, that's a weird sett too. Thanks for watching!! PS. I would say, if you like weaving and you weave, you're a weaver 💗
What are you wearing? I'm always interested in the patterns people knit.
I understand where the person is coming from, but I very much disagree with them. You balance beautifully between inspiring and educating. Your pictures inspire, but you also go back and address your struggles. 💜
I don't think I'd be as inspired by a poorly taken, unlit photgraph as I am by the nice and more professional photos - but it has to be balanced out by a continuous honest discussion about flaws and difficulties to avoid feeling discouraged by one's own mistakes.
Hmmm, you pose an interesting question. I am inspired by beautiful pictures, however, I have not pursued weaving as my first few attempts looked like s#%&. Not at all like the pictures. I am a fairly accomplished knitter and I hate to hear people say, "I could never do that, that's beautiful." I always point out that it is simply about learning technique and practice. Almost always I also point out my mistakes or things I would do differently. Great photos help us to see what is possible. I think we need to see what it could or should look like to recognize when we are off track. If the photo is unattainable from where we are at, that can be a deterrent, as in my case. But why would one start learning if they don't have a goal to create what they see in that beautiful photo? I am not helping here. I don't think There is a good answer. I do think it is important for others to know that that beautiful item was actually the result of a mistake and it is still beautiful.
I learn more from my disasters than my successes
That's not a mistake. It's a design Element.
😆
I love seeing beautiful things and gorgeous pictures. But I also like to see mistakes (photographed beautifully). We’re all human and we’re all learning.
Poor quality photographs are a big turnoff of the content producer.
beautiful images are inspiring, but presenting that things are always perfect tends to turn me off.
in fact teachers that make statements that imply the work should be without errors I will never take their class again.
what I get from this video is we all make mistakes and the thing is to not stop keep trying you learn and move on 👍🙂