Snowflakes it is!

Spent another hour or two playing with advancing twills with direct reversals and reversals in the pattern line, and have decided to go with a relatively simple snowflake pattern:

I like this pattern; it reminds me of the kind of tie-dye where you fold the cloth into quarters, over and over again, then dye it and get a repeating pattern.  And this is a simple twill to make; it’s just a plaited satin.  Here’s what the tie-up looks like (it’s woven as-drawn-in):

I had been playing around with different satin shadings for this particular motif (a diagonal line running SW-NE across a NW-SE line, with a third color in the background).  I am thinking what I would like to try, in the long run, is a long line of a 4/1 satin in the liftplan, with 1/4, 2/3, and 3/2 satin in the background, with the advancing twill threading used above.  I know that sounds complicated, but I don’t really think it is – however, it will also take me a good long session with Photoshop and my weaving software to explore it further.

Which is time I don’t have.  It’s only seven and a half weeks left to the Ride, and I desperately need to be training, sewing, and weaving (if I’m to have a handwoven outfit).  I can’t afford to spend more time playing around with weaving software, so this snowflake, simple as it is, will have to do.  Because I decided I liked the direct reversal better, it’s going to have some 8-thread floats in it, but at a sett of 60 ends per inch, each float will only be about 1/8″ long – which should be just fine.

Laid down another row of feathers on my feathered outfit today.  It’s going distressingly slowly, but I am making progress.  I just hope I have time to finish them all before the AIDS Ride!  It’s so damn close.

I think the correct order of business is to sew on feathers, finish the other outfits, and then weave.  The handwoven outfit will take longer than anything else except possibly the peacock-feather outfit, so it makes sense to do it last – that way if I run out of time I can fall back on a “plain” tutu.  The peacock feathers are going to take forever, but as they are the piece de resistance of my wardrobe, it’s worth the time and effort.

Who would ever have thought that a simple 545-mile bike ride could take so much effort?