Finished the book proposal!

I finished revising the book proposal on Thursday. I hadn’t expected to have time for it, but since I get up three hours before anyone else (including my mom, who’s visiting), I turned out to have plenty of time. So now it’s off at the editor’s for a final look-through. I’ve also solicited feedback from a few friends. After that’s done, I’ll start approaching agents and publishers again.

I have decided to take down the book blog, by the way. I’ve changed the direction and target audience for the book, so the blog’s style and tone don’t match the book anymore (making it of less use when dealing with publishers). The writing in the book proposal is much more polished, too. So if you want to save any of the blog posts, now would be a great time to do so. I will leave the basic book site up, but the blog will disappear sometime in the next few days.

I’m so relieved to get the proposal done! It has been hanging over my head for the last few months. Now I can get back to the rest of my life…which is to say, weaving!

Despite some major mishaps, the warp is now beamed on. I put the light and dark warp onto separate beams so I can advance them separately if needed. Here’s a pic of the beamed-on warp:

I then realized I hadn’t created a draft for the shadow weave yet, so I made one. Here is the color simulation:

This particular draft is 800 threads wide by 800 picks long, which seems huge but is actually only a 10 x 10 swatch, since the warp will be sett at 80-90 epi.

Here is what the cloth should look like once it’s cut into flames on the bias:

I’m debating whether the patterning is too much. The flames are already fairly complex, visually speaking – do I want to compound this by adding more visual texture? But I really like the look of the “heat waves”. I guess there’s only one way to find out – give it a try! If I need to, I can always go back to plain weave.

The next thing to do is thread up the loom. There are 2800 threads in this cloth, so this is apt to take awhile. Unfortunately, I have a second arm surgery scheduled for the 15th, which means it may be September before I actually get to weaving. I hope it goes smoothly and heals up fast – I’m really excited about this warp, and want to get to weaving!