‘Tis the season

Ah, October, when fall begins to bite, and a young girl’s thoughts turn to….chocolate!!

Yes, it’s almost THAT time of year again.  This year I’m not going to do the extensive flavor trials that I did last year, because I want to keep up with my weaving, but I do want to try something new: ganache cutters!

These are used by well-known chef Jean-Pierre Wybauw, and the concept is simple: you make and pour your ganache (chocolate centers) into a frame, then use these cutters to cut them out.  Because they’re shaped like a cone, widening towards the bottom, the ganache doesn’t stick to the cutters.  At least, that’s the idea, but the reviews I’ve read of them have been positive so far.

This will enable me both to cut ganache centers efficiently without a confectionery guitar, and make more interesting shapes.  (Don’t get me wrong – I’d LOVE to have a confectionery guitar as well – but at about $3000 retail, well, I’d rather upgrade to a 40-shaft loom.  🙂 )  Throw in chocolate transfer sheets (to put images on the dipped chocolates), and things could get REALLY wild this year!  I’m really looking forward to it.

Weaving-wise, I need to get my butt back in gear; at the moment I’m at about 9.5 yards, or about a yard behind.  I hope to make up some of that tonight and tomorrow.

I’ve also realized that my turned double two-tie-unit weave won’t work, primarily because I don’t think the metallic thread is abrasion-resistant enough to serve as warp.  It’s strong, but the metal wrapping thread shifts around easily, so I don’t think it will weave well as warp.

So now I am back to the drawing board, and racking my brains trying to think of a way to enlarge a 20-thread draft to about 40-60 threads wide without thickening the fabric.  Advancing twill would render it too large, and two wefts would be too time-consuming, so tied weaves are out.  Any thoughts?  If I can’t come up with anything, I think I’m going to try weaving it up with 60/2 silk warp and see how the motifs looks at the smaller size.  Who knows, I might like it…

I also received some very special gold thread from Japan.  It’s supposed to contain real gold in the metallic wrapper – not 100% gold, obviously, but some gold content.  It’s beautiful stuff, although very very fine – about the weight of 140/2 silk.  I am tempted to double it up and use it as weft for the 60/2 silk.  It would be beautiful, much more beautiful (I think) than the thicker metallic.

Back to weaving!