The last muslin is complete (and yes, the stripes match PERFECTLY!), I’ve taken a day or two for R&R, and now it’s time to launch into the next thing. Any number of things I could do ““ quilt piecing, pattern drafting, fabric manipulation ““ the list goes on and on. But what I’ve decided to do is wind another warp. This one will also be painted, but in much more subtle tones ““ burnt oranges, golden yellow, rust, chocolate brown ““ all the colors of tiger-eye stone. It will have basically the same draft as the rainbow warp ““ which I need to do in order to test the sett using 30/2 silk instead of my custom-spun silk yarn ““ but will look radically different.
Here are two simulations of the possibilities:
I like the staggered stripes better ““ not that they will stay lined up neatly, anyway! In fact, with fewer colors, the odds are that the colors will “pool” at some point. I think that’s OK with me, though.
I haven’t yet decided what to do with this yardage, but I think another jacket may be in the works! Different pattern, of course. Or, I may gift it to Sharon as some small recompense for the help she’s given me. Mostly I just need to weave up another piece using the same draft and 30/2 silk, and I figure I might as well put a long warp on the loom and get a usable length of fabric out of it.
The plan is to wind the warp over the next few days, and then dye it over the weekend. I will probably use Lanaset (acid) dyes with citric acid, and batch it (let it sit at room temperature) for several days to “set” the colors. In this case I’m using acid dyes rather than fiber-reactives, because I will have to mix up some colors and my Lanaset sample set is much more extensive than my Cibacron F sample set. With a more extensive sample set, I can simply look up color combinations, rather than having to figure out the mixes from scratch.
That’s not all I’ll be working on, of course. I still need to develop test drafts to weave on my loom whilst at AVL, and I plan to study pattern drafting some more. I successfully drafted an armhole princess pattern yesterday, and plan to dive into armhole princess variations later this morning.
