Tien Chiu

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Whew. A cold + jet lag is the pits.

…but I have gradually returned to the world of the living.  Thus far I have:

  • sent out eight or nine resumes
  • filled out misc forms related to being unemployed (COBRA, etc.)
  • sewn two slopers (and probably a third one coming) in the course of checking measurements for my pattern drafting software
  • figured out how to use PatternMaster:Celebrations and designed some custom patterns
  • finished weaving the first set of placemats (in the washer now)
  • made a big batch of cream of tomato soup (my favorite)
  • scheduled my first appointment with the personal trainer I paid for back when I was still employed

Not bad considering I’ve been half dead most of the time.

At any rate, I’m just about back to the living (though still sleeping 11+ hours/day),
so in the next day or so I’ll put up the rest of my China photos.  I need to do it soon, or else I’ll forget about it.

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Laid off!

Right before my vacation, too.  Bummer.  Oh well.  The economy is buzzing along here, and people are hiring, so I’m not too worried – it took me only three weeks to find a new job the last time I looked (which was only four months ago), and I’m hoping my current unemployment will be equally short.  Whatever.  There’s not much I can do about it right now, since I’m heading off to China in four days, so I’ll deal once I get back.  I have a nice cash cushion that, with unemployment, should be enough to take me through six or seven months of unemployment, and I doubt it’ll last that long.

Which comes to the next question: what to do with a month of free time?  I am in an enviable position – I have loads and loads of yarn stashed away, so I don’t need to buy anything, and now I’ll have the time to play with it.  I rather think I will start by (a) finishing my dye samples and (b) doing (of course) more weaving!  I have been reading up on network twills and they sound exciting, plus there are of course the placemats and napkins to finish.  I have a handpainted rayon chenille warp to put on, and another silk one.

I also want to do some sewing.  After we get back, I’m going to get B. to measure me (so I can put the numbers into Patternmaster: Celebrations) and then I’m going to try designing my own outfit using their patterns.  The champagne silk and red velvet are just dying for attention, and I may dye some of that white fabric for use in outfits.  I may design and weave some yardage for outfits, too.  Fortunately it doesn’t take much fabric to lay out an off-the-shoulder top, so I won’t have to weave too many yards.

It will also be a good opportunity to get back into the saddle after a month or two off the bike.  I imagine it will take some time to get the endurance back, but I have time to devote to it.

I would be lying if I said I were happy about being laid off, but my goodness! there’s so much to do.  I think my time will be really productive.

Knitted the first part of my first sock last night (couldn’t sleep very well due to stress – sort of predictable under the circumstances) and am moderately pleased at how it’s coming out.  I think I’d have preferred a color-change yarn with longer stretches of color, but it’s what I’ve got right now.  We’ll see how it turns out.

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Pattern drafting looks like fun!

Been paging through my books on pattern drafting (it turns out I have three).  Looks like lots of fun – the primary elements of fitting appear to be adding ease (extra fabric so you can move in the finished garment) and changing the location and appearance of darts.

Darts basically take what would be a flat sheet and turn it into a slightly conical section (if you cut a “v” out of a piece of paper and connect the cut edges, you’ll see what I mean). The (female) human form has a couple cones in it, the most obvious being the breasts, but there’s also a cone form at the waist (from the waist up and the waist down), and slight cones at the shoulderblades.  So there have to be a couple of “V”s cut into the fabric to compensate.  Where those “V”s are placed (and whether they’re simply translated into multiple pattern pieces, as in a princess cut) appears to be the first, most basic part of dressmaking.

Of course, then there’s designing collars, necklines, etc., but that comes later.

I tried pattern drafting before, but gave up relatively early on because it required miles and miles of paper to draft even a preliminary design, not to mention a lot of tedious (manual) redrawing.  I have the feeling that Patternmaster: Celebrations will be a godsend for this, as it will allow me to draft patterns electronically rather than having to do it all by hand.  It also has a lot of “prefab” patterns that I can then modify to my tastes, saving me a lot of time.

I’m excited at the prospect.  Now, if I could just have some time to DO it!

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New toys

Two cool toys arrived in the mail for me today: Wild Ginger’s PatternMaster Celebrations, a (sewing) pattern-making software with a set of predesigned patterns targeted at bridal and evening wear (read: AIDS Lifecycle tutus!), and Alice Schlein‘s Network Drafting: An Introduction.  I’m thrilled by the arrival of both.  PatternMaster will allow me to design my own AIDS Lifecycle costumes, and also allows for pattern drafting/alteration (or so it promises).  I know a little bit about pattern drafting, and have several books on the subject – looking forward to being able to do more.  Network Drafting will allow me to understand, well, network drafting – which allows you to make gently patterned curves in weaving patterns, which is hard to do with conventional methods.  It also apparently allows for shading, not just black-and-white.
At the moment my plans for AIDS Lifecycle costuming are fairly vague.  I think I want to do something like the warp-dyed striped shawl I wove earlier and make that into an outfit somehow.  I also think I want to do something with this champagne silk I bought awhile ago:

champagnesilk.jpg

I have some rich red silk velvet that I think would make a beautiful wraparound collar for this outfit – with red velvet piping on the bottom, over a metallic gold organza tutu, I think it would be a tutu fit for a queen.

Oh, and I have decided on the pattern: I’m going to knit an abbreviated version of Sharon Miller’s Unst Stole in white Jaggerspun Zephyr 2/18.  It’s a lovely 50% silk 50% wool yarn that has the slight halo of wool and a nice sheen from the silk.  I’m knitting up a test swatch now.