Bookmarks and jewelrymaking

So, I’ve definitely decided to make a run of bookmarks, to experiment both with network drafting and with color mixing.  For warp I’m going to use the orange silk (haven’t yet decided whether to use light orange or dark orange or both one after another), for weft I’m going to use two strands of cotton embroidery floss in a dizzying array of colors left over from my dye samples.  (I knew they were going to be useful somehow!)  I figure this should give me both an idea of how the network drafted patterns are going to look when woven up, and an idea of what exactly happens when you combine orange with all sorts of different colors.  Things like orange and green, which I would never dare essay in a full-size shawl (what if it didn’t work?) won’t look nearly so garish in a bookmark, I think.

It will also give me a chance to try a new method of warping that Joanne Hall of Glimakra suggested: weighting the warp as it’s wound onto the loom to keep tension on it and speed up the process.  If it works, it’ll change winding the warp onto the back beam from a tedious, several-hour process to just a few minutes, so I’m really eager to see how it works. If that fails, I’ll try another method that people have recommended, warping with a trapeze.

But first I have to finish weaving off the warp from the cocoon jacket, which I expect to take a couple more days, and do this jewelrymaking intensive course today and tomorrow.  I’m not quite sure what we’re learning in this followup class, but I imagine it’ll be way cool.