Puttering around

I spent most of yesterday suffering weaver’s block – the condition where you aren’t quite sure what to do, so you wind up doing nothing.  Well, not quite nothing – I did resolve most of my questions – but basically sit around and let things ferment.  I’m not sure what exactly I did for most of the day, but at least part of it consisted of playing mindless computer games while waiting for the phone to ring (that job situation, right?).

Meanwhile, I have found solutions to most of my problems, or at least the right tack.  For yarns, I gave up on the darker orange for the networked twill shawls and dyed a new batch in screaming orange.  At the moment it doesn’t look like anything you’d want to get near clothing, but I’m betting that some dark, contrasting warps will tone it down significantly, and I want something reasonably bright for shawls.  Before putting it on the loom, though, I plan to needleweave some samples so I get an idea of how well the colors mix.  I may well wind up using the darker orange.  Today I will dye the wefts and test out the color combos with the light orange warp.  I may wind up making bookmarks as samples/Xmas presents.

I have also decided that (at least for now) I prefer Sabracron F, which is a fiber-reactive dye, to Lanaset (acid dye) for use on silk.  It’s easier to get level colors that way, and you don’t have to fiddle with skein ties in silk soaked with 160 degree water.

For the cocoon jacket, I tried grafting on a five-inch strip of muslin to the bottom to add some length, and that seems to work well.  Not well enough to give me a full-length sleeve, but enough to get a 3/4 length sleeve.  It will have to do.  Fortunately I have enough yardage to do that, and probably even enough yardage to do that and keep my black shawl.  I will do more experiments today.

On the remaining warp for the cocoon jacket (I put on 13 yards) I am currently weaving a shawl in red, orange, gold, and yellow weft.  It should be both incandescent and iridescent, both of which appeal to me.  (What can I say, I like bright colors).  If I have additional space I’ll also weave myself another black shawl.  I’m hoping to weave this off as quickly as possible, so I can get started on the network drafted shawls.

Network drafting-wise, I have a tutoring session with Bonnie today and will spend a couple hours prepping for it by rereading her book today.  I really cannot say enough good things about her book (Exploring Multishaft Design) – every time I come back to it, I get a bunch more great ideas.  Anyway, I hope that will straighten out my understanding of network drafting.

So, not a super-productive day, but at least I resolved most of my issues.

No word yet on the job front, but hopefully tomorrow.  This is their busiest time of year, so I’m not surprised they’re slow on responding.  If this keeps up much longer, I’ll reactivate the rest of my search.  I’m not very good at waiting by the phone.