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July 11, 2025 by Tien Chiu Leave a Comment

Powerlifting party

Just flew back from Las Vegas following USPA Nationals. I’m still coming down from the fun I had there – three wonderful days hanging out with other serious powerlifters.

The only disappointment I had while there was my meet performance. I did not lift well – my total was actually about 15 pounds LESS than it was at Worlds, and I did not set any new records, personal or otherwise. My best lift was the deadlift, where I tied my previous record at Worlds – 330 pounds.

Oddly, I am not particularly upset about this. Life comes with natural fluctuations in performance – true in powerlifting as well as many other things. And my numbers have been all over the place for the last few months due to stress and a relatively recent injury. So I wasn’t sure what I’d be able to do on meet day.

But winning isn’t why I went to Nationals. Yes, it’s nice to set records – personal or state/local/national – but I could do that at local meets. The attraction of Nationals is the same as the attraction of weaving conferences – it’s the opportunity to spend several days hanging out with people who share my passion and celebrate the pursuit that we love. Local meets are great (and I love doing them!), but Nationals is HUGE, with 100 lifters a day for five days. It’s a nonstop celebration of powerlifting.

Powerlifting competitions aren’t really competitions. Yes, awards and medals are given out. But there are so many age and weight classes that in most cases, everyone gets a medal for their age/weight class. (I placed first in mine – there were only two people in it!) 

You could say that this renders the medal meaningless. From a competitive standpoint, that’s mostly true. But I see it differently. It’s recognition of the hard work that the recipient put into training, and of the courage it takes to attempt something they’re not at all sure they can do, and in most cases have never even tried before, in front of an audience. Whether you’re a seasoned competitor or a novice, that takes guts. Every time.

What I love about powerlifting meets is that everyone knows this. And so we support each other – if you need help, you get it. If you’re having a bad day, everyone says something encouraging and gives you a hug. 

During warmups, I noticed an older woman hanging back, clearly nervous. It was only her second meet, she said. I asked her if she’d warmed up yet, and she said, “No, I haven’t started yet. I’ll wait until you all are done.” I said, “No, you should work in with us. When are you on?”

She replied, “I’m first.”

I said “WHAT???” And I grabbed her and propelled her over to the platform, and told everyone to clear out and let her in next. I told her fiercely that even if she was a novice, she had every right to be on the platform and to warm up with the rest of us. She said, “Yes, but I’m only here because I’m not in a competitive age class,” and I told her no buts. She earned her place here, and she really needed to warm up RIGHT NOW because she was going on in just a few minutes.

Everyone stepped back and let her in.

I saw her later in the meet and asked her how she was doing. She beamed at me, ecstatic, and said, “I set a state record!” I gave her a big hug and congratulated her.

During deadlifts (the last lift), a woman approached me and said, “How’s it going?” 

I said, “So-so.” 

She looked me in the eye and said, “It doesn’t matter how you’re doing – you inspire me. You inspired me at that meet in Southern California and you inspire me now. You’re going to do fine. I’m going to cheer you on. Do you want me to go out to the platform with you? Do you want me to take a video of your final lift?”

I said, “I’d love that.”

So she stood behind me as I walked out to the platform, and took a video of my final deadlift. I got the lift, tying my previous record set at Worlds.

I’ve got the official, professional videos, but I want to share the one she shot for me (complete with cheering).

Filed Under: All blog posts, powerlifting

July 6, 2025 by Tien Chiu Leave a Comment

Phoenixes: even better than I’d hoped!

I finished the spinning for the phoenix a week or so ago – just over 1,000 yards of superfine silk, a bit thinner than sewing thread. So now it was time to finalize the design.

Designing the scarf was complicated – I had to juggle dozens of competing objectives. I had spun the yarn in two ~525 yard color gradients that would (hopefully) match to produce a symmetric scarf. I had also dyed 1,200 yards of 60/2 silk in a gradient from navy to royal blue, to use as a background color.

Here are the yarns for the first half:

Handspun and hand-dyed gradient yarns for handwoven phoenix scarf

The yarn changed color smoothly along its length. To retain that smooth, even gradient, I would need to use up all the yarn, leaving no jumps or gaps. So that was the first challenge: design a scarf that would require almost exactly 1,050 yards of the handspun gradient weft.

That meant juggling width, length, and picks (number of weft threads) per inch to get the numbers to line up precisely. Very precisely.

First I needed to estimate how many picks there would be per inch. I didn’t have any handspun to spare, so I wove a beautiful sample using 60/2 silk as a proxy for the handspun. When twisted together, they appeared about the same size, so I figured it would give me a good starting point.

Here’s my sample in 60/2 silk:

Samples for the handwoven phoenix scarf, woven with 60/2 silk

This sample came in at 72 ends per inch, which would be just perfect for a scarf 72” long and 14.5” wide.

So I worked up a design that suited perfectly. Here’s a picture of how it would look when worn (the white line divides the two sides):

Design for a 72” handwoven phoenix scarf

I made the final tweaks, added a short hem, and started weaving.

A few inches in, I discovered two VERY, um, exciting things. (Yikes!)

First, the handspun wove up very differently from the yarn I’d used for sampling. Instead of 72 picks per inch, I was getting 50! That meant that my perfectly reasonable 72-inch scarf was turning into an ultra-long “Dr. Who scarf” at 103 inches, with skinny, stretched-out phoenixes.

Second, I had less warp than expected. WAY less. I was using a previously painted warp that changed colors every 2-3 yards. I had thought this section was three yards long, giving me plenty of leeway. Nope. It was only 69-70” between color changes – not long enough even according to the original plan.

Back to the drawing board. I eliminated one phoenix on each side and re-spaced the design:

Revised, shorter handwoven phoenix scarf design

Now I had a design that would weave up to 66” long – which would let me squeak in with an inch or two to spare.

I wove up the first phoenix, then realized that I’d created a different problem! My original design called for 525 yards of handspun, perfect for the amount I had. My shortened design only required 325 yards. As a result, the colors were changing far too slowly along the length of the scarf. My first phoenix was almost entirely brown!

First section of handwoven phoenix scarf, with brown phoenixes

To speed up the color changes, I decided to throw away about half the handspun I’d just spent two months painstakingly creating. (Gulp.) I’d weave half an inch, then pull out and throw away four or five yards of yarn. Then I’d weave another half-inch, and pull out more yarn. That removed the yarn a little bit at a time, which mostly preserved my smooth flow of color.

The second phoenix came out beautifully – everything I’d hoped for.

Red, gold, and yellow phoenix in handwoven phoenix scarf

The photo doesn’t really do it justice. The handspun has small irregularities in the color and size that add wonderful texture to it. It’s much more interesting and, well, handmade than the original samples woven in machine-spun silk. Those were lovely too, but didn’t have the same liveliness and joy.

I’m definitely going to do more projects with handspun! I’m really excited by the possibilities.

I measured the remaining navy blue warp periodically as the scarf grew, and decided that I had just baaaaaarely enough for the rest of the scarf + hem. In a real pinch I could also overdye the white portions at the very end – though I hate dyeing on the loom.

I wove like a maniac (1,000 picks per hour!) and quickly reached the halfway point:

Yellow phoenix at the halfway point on the handwoven phoenix scarf

I’m now at about the 2/3 point, but I won’t make any more progress until Wednesday.

Why? Because I’m on a plane to LAS VEGAS, where I’ll be competing at the USPA Drug Tested National Championships in just two days!

My goal weights are:

  • Squat: 137.5 kg (303 lbs)
  • Bench press: 80 kg (178 lbs)
  • Deadlift: 152.5 kg (336 lbs)
  • Total: 370 kg (814 lbs)

If I hit all three of those target weights I will set new PRs (personal records) in all three lifts, break the California state record for bench press and meet total, and achieve my primary goal, which is totaling over 800 lbs.

I think I’ve got a decent shot at it. Fingers crossed!

Wish me luck!

Filed Under: All blog posts, powerlifting, textiles, weaving Tagged With: phoenix scarf

June 24, 2025 by Tien Chiu Leave a Comment

Two weeks and counting

It’s now exactly 2 weeks to USPA Drug Tested Nationals.

I’m doing my final training this week (next week will be a rest week). It’s tough! I’ve been coming back from the gym exhausted.

This week I’m practicing lifting heavy, and trying to figure out how much I can realistically lift in competition. So the weights are at 90-95% of my estimated maximum. That’s HEAVY.

As the weights get heavier, form becomes much more important. Being off by even half an inch can make a lift fail.

For example, here’s a video of me deadlifting 295 pounds last week, clean and sweet.

And here’s a video of me failing to deadlift 315 lbs:

If you look closely at the second video, you can see that, just as the lift starts, my shins hit the bar and it swings forward, away from me. Not much, well under an inch. But that teeny diversion is the difference between success and failure. (It’s not a strength issue; I’m perfectly capable of lifting 315 pounds.)

(I was going to write something about the precision and discipline that I’ve learned from powerlifting, because it’s a much more interesting sport than you might think, but honestly, I’m just too tired. Wait ’til after Nationals!)

My favorite lift right now is bench press. The weights are FLYING!

Here I am benching 165 pounds:

It took effort, but not significant struggle. Extrapolating, I should be able to lift 175 pounds in competition. That’s a HUGE improvement over last year, when my max lift was only 165.

I have two personal goals for Nationals:

  1. Lift a total of 800+ pounds across the three lifts. My total from my last competition was tantalizingly close – 793 lbs – but not quite there. Fingers crossed.
  2. Break the California state record for bench press, which is currently 77.5 kg, or 170.9 lbs. Fingers crossed.

I have three stretch goals:

  1. Break the California state record for squat, which is currently 140 kg/308.6 lbs. This is do-able on a good day, but my squat form has been a bit squiggly lately, so I’m not sure I can do it.
  2. Break the California state record for deadlift, at 155 kg/341.7 lbs. This is a bigger stretch, but not impossible.
  3. Break the California state record for meet total, which is currently 810.2 lbs.

With luck I’ll come back with at least one state record!

In fiber news, I’ve made considerable progress on the phoenix scarf. I’ve spun over 1000 yards of yarn on my drop spindle, and should be able to finish the last 300 yards within the next two weeks. I’ve started weaving samples on the jacquard loom using commercial yarn. Here’s a quick peek so far:

I’m weaving the sample in 60/2 silk, which is about 15,000 yards per pound. That’s about the same size as my handspun yarn, so it should give me a pretty good idea of how the math will work out. The warp in this sample is bright magenta, but the actual scarf will be woven on dark blue warp instead.

If I haven’t spun enough yarn by Nationals, my plan is to take my spindle with me to Las Vegas. Hey, if an Olympic diver can knit in the stands, I can spin at a powerlifting competition!

Filed Under: All blog posts, powerlifting, textiles, weaving

June 13, 2025 by Tien Chiu Leave a Comment

Delicious and bittersweet

Yesterday was our fifteenth (and last) wedding anniversary. We celebrated it by going to Tamarine, a wonderful Vietnamese fusion restaurant in Palo Alto.

The food was amazing, and as a craftsperson I was fascinated by this ice cube, frozen with their logo:

The company was wonderful too. Here we are, back home afterwards.

me and D

It’s hard to imagine that we’ve been married for 15 years, and together nearly 20 years. It doesn’t feel like it’s been that long, but it also feels like forever. We have shaped each other over the last two decades! It’s hard to imagine life as a single person again.

We are both sad to be parting ways, even though we know it’s the right thing and we’re both looking forward to our future lives.

I’ve been saying bittersweet goodbyes to other things as well. We’re moving and selling our house, which means giving up the garden. We planted eleven fruit trees when we bought the house. I remember when they were tiny saplings, and now they’re full-grown trees. (One of the avocado trees is over twenty feet high!) And they produce delicious fruit all year long.

Last month was blueberries, the first fruits of spring:

blueberry bushes

This month it’s apriums (apricot plum hybrid) and mulberries:

apriums and mulberries

Next month we’ll be bombarded with Santa Rosa plums, my very favorite plum variety – sweet, tart, and luscious. As one farmer told me, “If you don’t like Santa Rosas, you don’t like plums!”

The plums carry us into tomato season:

In early fall, it would have been Concord grapes, like these:

A 5-gallon bucket of Concord grapes

…but we just took out the grapes in favor of a passion fruit vine and a white guava tree. I am sad we’ll miss those!

In late fall, it’s Meyer lemons. These are a cross between a lemon and a mandarin – sweeter and fruitier than normal lemons, with a thin, incredibly fragrant skin.

We also get two kinds of persimmons – Fuyu (the flat ones) and Hachiya (the slurpy ones).

Then in the winter, the avocados, kumquat, yuzu, and bergamot provide for us.

And that brings us back to spring and blueberries!

Finally, we planted roses lining the entire front yard, all selected for fragrance as well as beauty. They are wonderful – when I pick a bouquet you can smell them all the way across the room. I’ve had complete strangers come up to me and thank us for planting the roses, because everyone enjoys them so much.

Here are the rosebushes along the driveway – there are lots more along the sidewalk.

rosebushes by the driveway

And lilacs, and irises….

yellow irises

It will be hard to leave all that behind. It’s not just a garden; it’s something we’ve tended lovingly for a long time, and which has rewarded us in return. Much like our relationship.

But all things come to an end. D doesn’t want to stay here and I can’t afford to buy her out, so we’re selling the house and moving.

There will be other gardens, and perhaps other relationships, in our future, of course. This is not really the end. But this entire summer is a delicious and bittersweet goodbye.

Filed Under: All blog posts, garden, musings

June 4, 2025 by Tien Chiu 2 Comments

Phoenixes, packing, and meet prep

I’m making slow progress on spinning the phoenix yarn. I started getting repetitive strain injury symptoms in my right hand, so I took a few days off and did some active recovery work (stretching, band flossing, etc.) before starting up again. And I’m going fairly slowly, about half an hour a day.

Here’s today’s skein. I’m getting out of the orange section and into some lovely golds!

orange to gold yarn on niddy noddy

And here is the full gradient so far:

gradient yarn (several skeins lined up)

To jog your memory, I’m spinning these braids of silk fiber:

Gold and yellow are yet to come!

Move-wise, I’ve finally started packing my stuff. The move is still two or three months away, but I hate last-minute panics, and I’m planning to sell some things, so better to start sooner. I found a phenomenal iOS app called Boxes that is teeeeeeerrific not just for packing but for anything that involves labeling and inventorying. You create “spaces” (categories) first, then put boxes into each space. For each box, you can do a list of items, and add photos of each item. Then you can add tags (“weaving supplies”, “yarn,” etc.) And then, you can print a label with all the box info on it AND a QR code so you can scan the box and instantly bring up all your notes, pictures, etc. on your smartphone or tablet.

I think this is phenomenal even if you aren’t moving. It would be perfect for inventorying things for homeowner’s insurance, for example, or just to know where the heck you put that widget 10 months ago.

So I am gleefully packing up and photographing yarn. I’m not going overboard on inventorying everything, but I am taking photos and putting in general descriptions.

I’ve packed five small moving boxes so far, mostly silk and metallic threads. I’m guessing another 10 boxes at least to contain everything. Maybe more. I have at 400+ pounds of yarn! Don’t ask where it all came from, please. (I suspect it of multiplying when I’m not looking.)

Powerlifting-wise, I’m now only five weeks out from Nationals (SQUEEEEEEEE!!!!!!). The final week is typically a rest week, so I have four training weeks left to go. So my coach is pivoting me from general strength training to meet prep. That means that instead of doing 3-5 reps in my first (heaviest) set, I’m doing one HEAVY single-rep set before backing down and doing more work at lighter weights.

Here’s what a typical exercise entry in my training spreadsheet looks like now:

Translating the shorthand, it says to do 1 rep at a weight heavy enough that I could only do two additional reps if I continued.

Once I input that weight into the Set 1 row, the program estimates the maximum weight I can lift, and puts that in the bottom row.

Then I multiply that max weight by 80% and lift that weight (rounded to the nearest five pounds) for four reps, doing a total of four sets of four reps each.

The practical difference is that now, instead of doing an initial set of 3-5 reps at 140 pounds in bench press, I’m now doing a single rep at 160 pounds. That is roughly a 15% increase in weight from my usual training, and puts me up around 90-95% of my max lift. That is HEAVY.

This shift from lighter weights/more reps to heavy singles is prepping my body and my central nervous system for an all-out effort. It’s also giving the opportunity to perfect my form at heavy weights. You can get away with less than perfect form when you have lighter weights, but as you near your max, you have to be much tighter and more focused on getting everything perfect, or the bar won’t come up.

(You won’t hurt yourself if you fail, though – the rack’s safety arms will catch the weight. Powerlifting, and weightlifting generally, actually has one of the lowest injury rates of any sport.)

Here’s what 160 lbs x 1 rep in bench press looks like right now. Significant effort, but not a real struggle. I am hoping to hit 172 lbs at USPA Nationals to break the California state record for my age/weight class.

Filed Under: All blog posts, powerlifting, textiles, weaving Tagged With: phoenix scarf

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