Tien Chiu

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You are here: Home / All blog posts / Halfway threaded!
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September 26, 2015 by Tien Chiu

Halfway threaded!

I’ve doubled my threading speed over the last few days, mostly by paying close attention to the threading process. I’m not going into the gory details, but the bottom line is that I’m now threading at 3.3 heddles/minute, exactly double the rate at which I started. I’m hoping to keep improving, too.

Here’s where I am after spending all day laboring in front of the loom:

my TC-2 jacquard loom, halfway threaded!

my TC-2 jacquard loom, exactly halfway threaded!

The other half of the warp is 880 threads – at 3.3 heddles/minute, that will take another 4.5 hours. So I should finish early next week.

I had been using a makeshift threading hook – not much more than a bent piece of wire – but Mike very generously volunteered to make me a real threading hook. So he made me this little beauty:

the threading hook Mike made me
the threading hook Mike made me

I included the pen for scale – that hook is tiny. It took Mike a few hours with a jeweler’s saw, some files, sandpaper, and a sheet of bronze to make it for me. It works infinitely better than my bent piece of wire – I’m very happy he made it for me. Thanks, Mike!

In other news, chocolate season is creeping closer and closer. The official opening of the test kitchen is in just three weeks! So it is looking like it will be a race between my weaving progress and the chocolate calendar. I’ve started putting together my annual chocolate order, and am wrestling between splitting the order into two parts (one for flavor trials and one for the production run) or just ordering everything at once. Prudence would suggest splitting the order, but a larger order might allow me to skip a second trip to the gourmet wholesaler – getting there is terribly inconvenient as they are an hour’s drive away and only open during business hours. And packing 132 pounds of chocolate into the car, all at once, would be fun!

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Filed Under: All blog posts, textiles, weaving

Previous post: Focusing on process, not end result
Next post: Developing a design vocabulary

Comments

  1. teresaruch says

    September 27, 2015 at 8:57 pm

    I want a picture of the chocolate in the car. My dream but it would need to be milk chocolate (Swiss, german or Belgium)
    Teresa

    • Tien Chiu says

      September 29, 2015 at 10:51 am

      Alas for you, only 6.6 pounds of that is milk chocolate. I rarely use milk chocolate, except in certain fillings. And it’s French chocolate, so a strike-out there, too. Still delicious, though!

  2. kherbaugh says

    September 28, 2015 at 5:39 am

    I’m so excited to discover what your finally choose for the chocolate flavors. That much chocolate in your car would definitely be worth the picture! Your warp looks great too. I never made it past warping one of those little table top looms so I’m really impressed.

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