I am sometimes surprised by the fear that can exist in newer weavers (and often not-so-new weavers as well). The fear that you’ll get stuck and not know what to do. The fear that the project won’t turn out the way it’s supposed to. The fear that you’re not smart enough to learn how to use your loom. The fear that you’ll waste yarn if you make a mistake. I could go on!
I know fledgling weavers who have abandoned a new loom into a corner, a spare room, or – dare I say it – a dusty garage. The fear is too great to make a start, and they feel they’ve failed before they’ve even begun.
I say I’m surprised, but I really shouldn’t be. All it takes is a few moments of thinking back to when I was a new weaver myself. I was so excited by this beautiful piece of equipment, but silently terrified. What a privilege, but what a responsibility!
Is that fear still with me? Not really – although I’ll admit I still feel a flicker of apprehension when I’m trying something new with very expensive yarn. I don’t think that ever fully goes away, and honestly, I’ve made peace with that. A little respect for your materials isn’t the same thing as fear holding you back.
Today we’re going to talk about overcoming the fear of weaving so that you can approach your loom with excitement and confidence.
Where the fear actually comes from
If you look closely, loom-fear is rarely actually about the loom. It’s about the unknown. It’s not knowing what a mistake looks like yet, so every choice feels risky. It’s not having made enough cloth yet to trust that most things can be fixed, unwoven or re-jigged.
This shows up in different ways depending on where you are in your weaving. For newer weavers it’s often the blank warp itself – that first moment of “what if I get this wrong before I’ve even started weaving.” I wrote a warping guide to help you get past that particular flavour of fear over on this warping page if that’s where you’re stuck.
For others, it’s less about technique and more about what weaving means to them emotionally – using the loom as a place of comfort or steadiness through a hard season, and feeling nervous about whether they’re “allowed” to lean on it that way. If that resonates, I wrote more on that in Weaving for Healing: When the Loom Becomes More Than a Hobby.
And it’s not just weavers. Researchers have found that fear of failure is a major reason people avoid starting things at all – a study out of Nyenrode Business University and IE University found that around half of people believe they’d perform better if they weren’t so worried about getting it wrong.
That fear doesn’t just slow us down once we’ve started, it stops us from starting in the first place. Other research links this same fear directly to procrastination, showing that what looks like putting something off is very often fear in disguise. So if you’ve been avoiding your loom, please know it’s not a personal failing – it’s a very human, well documented response. And it doesn’t have to be that way.
How to actually rid yourself of the fear
It’s more simple than it feels in the moment. You arm yourself with the knowledge you need, and you practice.
Read books. Find resources. Take courses. Find other weavers and network with them. And then practice, practice, practice. Start simple and work your way up.
Think of how an athlete trains. That’s you, at your loom. Training, practicing, learning from your mistakes, building your knowledge, one project at a time. If you do this, the magic starts to happen. That magic is confidence. And with confidence, the sky really is the limit.
If you’re at that frozen with fear stage
A few places to start:
- If you’re brand new and don’t even know where to begin, my New to rigid heddle weaving? Start here page shares resources to get you started.
- My YouTube channel has a huge library of free videos to help you get going.
- My Online Weaving School is a warm, structured place to build real confidence at your own pace.
- My Facebook Group is a friendly, welcoming spot to ask questions without feeling silly for asking.
- And if you’d like more of my day-to-day thoughts on the making life, including the fears and challenges that come with it – I share those regularly over on the Kindred Creatives Space.
A quick, practical note too: a lot of early fear can come down to fighting your tools or not having the right tools, rather than the technique itself. If your shuttle feels clumsy in your hand or your yarn keeps tangling and testing your patience before you’ve even started weaving, that’s worth solving early.
I have a list of my personal essential weaving tools that are in constant rotation in my studio right here. You can also Shop My Studio here.
I hope this post inspires you to go out there and weave something beautiful – fear and all. That’s really the secret nobody tells you: you don’t have to wait for the fear to leave before you start.
Start anyway, the confidence will catch up 😉
Until Next Time…
Happy Weaving!
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