weaving – Page 2

September 15, 2025 by Tien Chiu Leave a Comment

Crossing the Threshold

I haven’t written much the last few weeks because the chaos has been insane.

However, the house is sold, and we’ve packed and moved all our stuff – a heroic effort. We’re both pack rats and we’d been there for 13 years!

Between the two of us we packed just under 200 moving boxes, gave away 30+ more boxes to Goodwill (the neighbors got plenty too!), and got rid of two BIG dumpsters’ worth of rubbish.

It is said that one learns a lot about oneself while moving, and this is true.

For example, I discovered that I have 28 boxes of yarn, weighing approximately 20 lbs apiece. That’s 560 lbs of yarn! And that’s AFTER selling or giving away another 80-100 lbs. That’s thoroughly embarrassing.

However, I must say….

I also discovered that I own 33 pairs of scissors (!). (Like tribbles, they appear to be born pregnant.)

Here are some of them:

The ones at top left are my favorites. They’re not great for cutting, but they are fascinating – a gift from a Tibetan lama friend, hand-forged in a small town in India.

Below is a better picture of those scissors. You can still see the grinder marks on the handles. Talk about “hand of the maker”!

I also found some “blast from the past” memorabilia. This, for example, comes from my trip to Southeast Asia in 2003. It’s from an adventure I had in Bangkok, where the best body painter in Bangkok agreed to paint me up as a barbarian warrior princess (and I wound up on the front cover of a travel magazine!). We had a photo shoot with various props. I’d completely forgotten about this one!

I also found wedding dress #1. I made this one myself, in 1994. It’s not bad, especially considering how inexperienced I was at the time. The beads have tarnished, but 30 years ago they were bright gold.

Doesn’t hold a candle to wedding dress #2 – but then, neither did the marriage. 😉

On the morning after we cleared out the old house, I returned before dawn for one last round through the house. To my amazement, the sky above the house was glowing a beautiful (and eerie) magenta, even though it was still quite dark. I have never seen anything like that before. Here is a picture – exactly as shot, and completely unenhanced.

This is inspiring a new series that I think I am going to call Pilgrimage. As I’ve currently conceived it (and this will likely change at least 30 times before I finish it, if it even gets finished), it’s a series of four pieces:

Threshold – leaving the everyday normal and launching into the unfamiliar
Wandering – exploring the new world (and maybe getting a bit lost!)
Cocoon – musings on what I’ve learned
The Way Home – settling into a new home and a new “normal”

So far I’m only thinking about the first two pieces. I am really struggling on the format and media – obviously I won’t have the jacquard loom, and probably won’t until the end of my journey, so weaving them on the jacquard loom is probably not viable. And I can’t fit too much equipment into my suitcase.

I’m thinking that the best format is probably tapestry, but I have not done tapestry weaving except for a brief one-month trial, and I wasn’t particularly fond of the process. That was twenty years ago and I might like it better now, so I am planning to put together a simple loom and maybe experiment a bit before leaving.

I have a vague idea that Threshold will start with that picture of the glowing sky over our old house (it really did seem like an omen!) and that the unifying theme across all the pieces will be a glowing magenta thread or path to represent the spiritual journey. The magenta glow will, of course, be handspun with a drop spindle on my morning walks, and will probably incorporate some sparkly stuff.

I haven’t had a chance to think it through any further yet – things have been way too crazy. This past weekend was the first breath of free time I had for over a month – and I spent most of it just catching up on sleep!

I am (hopefully) leaving for Mexico in exactly three weeks, so I don’t have much time to think things through. I think the most important thing to figure out is what tools and materials I should bring with me, and “wing it” later, within the limits of the things I’ve brought along. This is completely unlike my usual working style, so I’m feeling very rushed – and, frankly, pretty uncomfortable with the whole thing.

And that’s GREAT. The whole purpose of this trip is to explore new ways of thinking, doing, and being. This may not produce my best work, but it’ll engage me in a dialogue about my style, process, and beliefs – which is exactly what I am looking for, right now.

July 31, 2025 by Tien Chiu Leave a Comment

San Miguel de Allende (and the finished phoenix scarf!)

Hello from Mexico!

I’m in San Miguel de Allende, a small city known for its architecture, arts scene, and wonderful weather. Not to mention the fantastic views! Here’s a picture of the city from the roof of a local restaurant:

View from Quince Rooftop, in San Miguel de Allende

I love the way the light changes throughout the day. I’ve spent quite a bit of time on the rooftop patio, which has a 270 degree view of the city. Here’s a picture in the early morning:

View from our AirBNB house in San Miguel de Allende

And here’s a picture taken at sunset:

Sunset view from our AirBNB house in San Miguel de Allende

Location-wise, San Miguel de Allende is at the southern end of Mexico’s central plateau, smack dab in the center of Mexico. Here’s a map that shows its approximate location (the little blue dot is San Miguel).

Map showing location of San Miguel de Allende

Despite its southern location, it’s not hot at all. That’s because it’s at an elevation of about 6000 feet, which tempers the heat and makes for nearly perfect weather – about 50-80 F all year round. A lot of foreigners retire here because of the weather; even more “snowbird” here, enjoying the warmer weather in winter and then returning home in the spring.

(As a Bay Area partisan, I think their weather isn’t quite as good as ours, which is similar but with less humidity – but it’s hard to complain about weather this nice.)

The architecture is beautiful, and so are the cobblestone streets:

I’m not sure whether the rainbow flags signify anything, but San Miguel de Allende has a reputation for being LGBTQ friendly, which makes me happy!

I’ve decided to do a retreat here towards the end of the year, and possibly move here permanently. The plan is to spend August packing up the house, September tying up loose ends in the Bay Area, and then spend October through December in San Miguel before deciding whether to live there long-term or go back to the U.S.

Towards that, I did a relocation tour of San Miguel last week, driving through the entire city and getting the skinny on each neighborhood. Then I walked around the city a bit to get a feel for the more interesting neighborhoods. Finally, I picked my two favorites and reserved AirBNBs in both areas.

I’ll be spending October and most of November in a place I’ve nicknamed “Casa Gigante”. It’s a house in the Villa de Los Frailes district, in the far southwest of the city, and it’s just gorgeous. It’s also HUGE: four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a kitchen and a kitchenette, and two dining rooms.

Here’s a pic of the living room:

Pix of “Casa Gigante” in San Miguel de Allende

I love the arched brick ceiling. I have seen this in a few homes to date, so I’m guessing it’s pretty common here.

Here’s a better picture of the ceiling:

(As a Californian accustomed to earthquakes, brick ceilings make me nervous, but I’m told earthquakes are uncommon here, so it’s unlikely that the ceiling will land on me like, well, a ton of bricks.)

Check out all the photos of Casa Gigante in the AirBNB listing here.

I don’t know what I’ll do with all that space in Casa Gigante, but I will definitely enjoy it! And I have already invited any interested friends to come visit.

After that I’ll go to Casa Luiguy, which is right next door to Los Frailes, in the La Lejona district. It’s a lovely 2-bedroom house in blues and yellows (you can see all the photos here).

Pic of Casa Luiguy in San Miguel de Allende

Pic of bedroom in Casa Luiguy in San Miguel de Allende

Casa Luiguy is just down the street from La Comer and City Market, the two big supermarkets/megastores in town. City Market is Whole Foods on steroids, full of imported gringo foods as well as the usual supermarket stuff. While I plan on doing most of my shopping in local shops, it’s nice to know there’s a place in town with an entire wall of gourmet olive oils, my favorite U.S. brands of yogurt, and so forth. They also sell appliances, clothes, and other household items.

I’m considering a house in the Azteca district as well, which is close to the heart of the city. It is less suburban than Los Frailes or La Lejona, but it’s also right next door to the gym I plan to use for my powerlifting training. Condicion Sana has squat and deadlift platforms and a bench press setup, which excites me no end! Powerlifting is not terribly popular in Mexico, so finding a gym with the right equipment is not easy. I had been expecting to have to set up a home gym, but this is far better.

I picked San Miguel de Allende because it has great weather and a lot of English speakers. (Roughly 8% of the town is either expat or immigrants, mostly from the U.S. and Canada, and there are even more English-speaking tourists).

Because I don’t speak more than a few words of Spanish, it’s really helpful that many of the locals speak English and/or are accustomed to dealing with people who don’t speak Spanish. (I plan to learn Spanish, but until then it’ll be helpful to be able to supplement with English to get around.)

After a week of bureaucratic delays, C. and I have our temporary resident cards, which is exciting – means we can stay in Mexico for up to a year, open a bank account, etc. In a year I can renew the resident card for three years, and then after the fourth year I can ask for permanent residency. Super cool.

I don’t know yet if I want to move here permanently. My main reason for doing a retreat/trial run here in the fall is to do a life “reset” – to give myself time to cocoon and figure out what the next phase of my life will be like. If I stayed in San Jose, I’d have to battle the temptation just to keep on exactly as before. Here, though, the difference in surroundings and new location will help me shake things up a bit. I may yet return to California, but if I do, it will be a conscious choice and not just the default option.

I brought the phoenix scarf along and finished the beaded fringe on the trip! Here are pictures of the scarf and of the fringe. I really like it.

What’s next, creatively speaking? As with virtually everything else in my life, I don’t know. I do know one thing: like everything else, it’ll be an adventure.

July 22, 2025 by Tien Chiu Leave a Comment

The phoenix scarf is off the loom!

I finished weaving the phoenix scarf, and wet-finished it yesterday. It is gorgeous.

It’s nothing like my usual work. Most of my projects take months, and are planned with precision, developed using a systematic series of samples, and technically near-perfect. This scarf is much more about process than product – rather than being a show piece, it was an opportunity to integrate craft into an expression of rebirth and a celebration of major life changes.

My usual process would involve spinning samples of yarn and weaving sample swatches, then experimenting with sett, structure, and other weaving parameters until I was happy with the cloth.

Then, based on all these samples, I would finalize the design of the project and calculate exactly how much yarn I’d need. From there, I would calculate how much fiber to dye. I’d hand dye the silk roving, using a ruler to measure the length of each color as I painted the dye onto the silk, so the gradients matched precisely on each side of the scarf.

Then I’d spin the yarn, checking it against a reference sample periodically for consistency, so I wound up with the precisely correct amount of uniformly spun yarn.

And then I’d be ready to weave.

There’s nothing wrong with this approach – it’s garnered me many prizes at shows, and led to my work being featured in magazines, collected by museums, etc. I’m happy with the results it produces.

But this scarf was different. I elected to make it more about process, and internal meaning, rather than focusing on external perfection. It was an opportunity to create something that mattered first and foremost to me – not composed for anyone else, but a symbol of my metamorphosis and life changes.

So I jettisoned tight control over materials and methods. Instead of spinning the yarn to precise standards, I simply spun whatever felt right as I did my daily walking contemplation. Instead of weaving a bazillion samples, I wove just enough to get some idea where I was going. I leaned into uncertainty, trusting my ability to redesign on the fly if necessary.

Of course I ran into problems. But I simply improvised solutions and kept going.

The resulting project feels rawer and has some significant technical flaws. But I love the flaws! They make the piece much more interesting. The handspun yarn isn’t the smooth, uniform color gradient I was envisioning. Instead, it has lots of minor variations in color and size. That creates striations that are far more visually compelling than a smooth gradient would have been. Instead of glassy perfection, I got rough, striated sandstone – and I love it!

Here’s the reverse side of the scarf, which shows the color variations better:

Reverse side of handspun, handwoven phoenix scarf

More importantly, this approach produced a work that was helpful for me personally, and more meaningful to me than my usual project. I spun the yarn on long, introspective walks. The spinning helped me relax and let subconscious ideas surface – a form of walking meditation. This helped me work through my feelings about change, and process the day’s results. And the resulting piece brings back fond memories. Unlike many of my other projects, this scarf feels anchored in time and place.

I’ve decided that this slow, process-first way of working is something I want to explore further, even though it’s extremely uncomfortable for my technically precise mind. I don’t expect to do all my work this way, but I do want to explore it further, especially in this time of major life changes.

Craft has always been a major part of my life. Normally I shape my craft. This time, it’s a chance for craft to shape me.

I’m now headed off to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico to explore whether living there will be part of my future transformation. I’m bringing the scarf with me, and will finish it on the trip with a beaded fringe. I’ve been auditioning different possibilities, which you can see below. Left to right, they are: specks of fire, pure night, and tongues of fire.

Needless to say, the moment I finished arranging the scarf and pulled out the camera, a cat appeared to help. Here’s Fritz, peacefully keeping me company.

Fritz on phoenix scarf, keeping me company

I’ve chosen the “fiery trails” sample on the right for the fringe, and hope to finish the fringe while I’m on the trip. More pictures once I’m done!

(Ironically, while this project was specifically intended not to be a show piece, I’ve had a few conversations, and it seems likely to be both published and exhibited. Stay tuned…)

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!

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:

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.
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:

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.
Break the California state record for deadlift, at 155 kg/341.7 lbs. This is a bigger stretch, but not impossible.
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!