Unintentional Sampling

 I was cruising along with Johann D., getting in the groove of the pattern, marveling once again that I neglected to turn the threading upside down so I could see the weaving right side up.  I wove about four inches, then noticed how stiff the weaving was.  And a couple of threads broke.  And the stupid floating selvedges weren't exactly floating. In fact, they were giving me a lot of trouble.
  So, I cut it off.  Call it a sample!  Feel virtuous!  Because I don't normally sample, but I always admire people who do.  In my advanced years, I've begun knitting swatches before I start projects, so maybe someday, I'll start planning for weaving swatches.  Today is not the day, but since it happened serendipitously (great word, isn't it?), I thought I'd just go with it.
  I cut off what I'd woven so far and flipped it over.  Lovely!  Way too stiff, so I changed the reed from a 10 dent with 3 threads per to a 12 dent with 2 threads per.  I thought briefly about completely rethreading, but couldn't bear it, especially since the lease sticks were already out.  I just threaded the floating selvedges into the tabby selvedges so they wouldn't float anymore, even if they felt like it.  I noticed a wide float from where I backed up two sections of the pattern on the sides, and inserted an extra tie down thread to keep them apart.
 You can see I gained about 1 1/2" in width in the new version.  I wove about 2 more inches and then noticed that the left side was pulling in way too much.  Stood up and took a good look and saw 3 broken threads.  That was yesterday morning before work.  I got up, poured another cup of coffee and thought.  I went to work and intermittently thought some more.  I came home and wound two bobbins of thicker black bamboo to act as guard threads.  When I went to weave them in, I was overwhelmed at the effort after a long day in the bakery.  Went to bed and last night and wondered about the effort it was going to take to get 9 yards of breakable Tencel through heddles and reed.  Woke up this morning thinking about cutting it all off and winding that beautiful fragile warp into weft bobbins.
  And that's where it stands.  I have tomorrow off with tons to do before I go north to Virginia for a week, so this dilemma will be waiting for me when I return.  I hate that a warp and pattern that I loved so much proved unworthy!  But I have many more beautiful, much stronger warps waiting, with lots of promise for good weaving relationships.  I'll leave Johann D. and the beautiful warp on the loom for the week, and maybe by August, I'll know how to save it.  Or how to ditch it.  Life, and weaving, are full of possibilities!