Visit with a fellow weaver, huck lace shawl

So, it turns out that a fellow weaver lives in Silver Terrace! so I went to visit her yesterday.  She showed me some utterly gorgeous scarves woven in 8/2 tencel, using handpainted warps from Heritage Yarns.  I am a structural weaver myself (meaning I like to design complex weave structures), not a color/texture weaver, so I was in awe of them.  Woven in a simple 2/2 point twill (I think), they shimmered and showed subtle color gradations and were just gorgeous – now I want to weave some of them!

Kathy and I may be getting together to paint warps together…which would mean that I should do my dye samples quickly, so I have an idea of how the colors will mix.  The skeins of embroidery floss arrived a few days ago, so I might be able to do something next week…this weekend is shot since I’m riding the Sierra and Sequoia Centuries, and thus will be on a bike all day. Dammit, I wish there were more than 24 hours in a day…!

Meanwhile, I have gotten the huck lace shawl threaded, sleyed, and have woven a short header.  I have also corrected three or four mistakes in the threading (I *thought* I had gotten it right the first time, but apparently not).  It’s a relatively loose weave, and I can see right now that getting the beat consistent and right is going to be both crucial and very difficult – I’ll definitely have to work on it.  But I am fairly certain that the first shawl at least is going to be relatively irregular.  Life’s like that sometimes – if you don’t make mistakes, you don’t learn.

I have also bought myself another end-feed shuttle.  I had bought three used ones, but they turn out to be designed for use with a flyshuttle and are way too heavy for me to use comfortably.  So I bought a new one (they’re not cheap; it was $95 for a single shuttle!).  It definitely feels way different from throwing a boat shuttle; we’ll see if it helps my selvages.

I am also having trouble with reed marks in this piece.  I have it sleyed at 3 ends/dent in a 10 dent reed, and the metal teeth of the reed are leaving vertical marks in the shawl; I just hope it goes away once the shawl is wet-finished.

Technically this will be the most difficult shawl I’ve done – the others have been complex and “busy” enough that minor mistakes wouldn’t show.  This one will be a simple design, thus impossible to camouflage mistakes – like making a really good vanilla ice cream.  (Chocolate is a strong flavor, so you can disguise minor mistakes behind it; vanilla is delicate, and shows any “off” flavors immediately.)