Intense study

I’ve been having interesting correspondence with two people: Pat Stewart, a weaver who has done considerable research into doubleweave, and Jeane deCoster, a dyer who has studied much about dye chemistry.  I’ve learned quite a bit from chatting with them both, and it is helping to guide my studies.  Pat in particular has been very helpful, although she is so far ahead of me that I am having to do some intensive study in The Woven Pixel to catch up.  I don’t know a whole lot about doubleweave and practically nothing about working in the liftplan with doubleweave.  Pat explained it over the weekend, but I think I need a refresher, so I’m going back to The Woven Pixel to read up on doubleweave in the liftplan.  I don’t think it will be that complicated, I just need to read through it, think a bit, and play around with it in my weaving software.  I’ll eventually have to weave up samples, of course, to make sure I’ve got it right.  But some serious study is in order.

All of which is sidetracking me from my original goal of tackling the COE, but I’m not too worried about it: I’m picking up skills that will be useful to my primary goal, becoming a serious fiber artist.   And, by the time I finish studying doubleweave, I will at least be able to weave my doubleweave COE samples!  But I think I’d better not tackle tapestry until I’m done with either dyeing or doubleweave, probably in a month or so.  I like to focus on one or two things at a time.

And, finally, good news!  The wedding ensemble has officially been accepted into the Convergence Fashion Show.  I got the paperwork yesterday.  It wasn’t a huge surprise, but since you never know what a juror may be thinking, I’m glad to hear it.

Currently working on: studying doubleweave, winding 1 kg of 30/2 silk yarn onto cones so Jeane can wind 500 more dye sample skeins for me, and reading through Complex Color: Color Mixing for WashFast Acid Dyes by Susan Rex.  Can’t recommend that book enough: while it’s nominally written for WashFast Acid dyes (I use a different brand), it explains color theory and quite a bit about mixing dye colors, so will have a place of honor in my library.

Off to do some serious studying!