Tien Chiu

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Sand your shuttles!

Shortly after I switched over to the 140/2 weft, I started having trouble with warp threads snapping.  After I had fixed the tenth one in two inches (grumbling with frustration all the while), it dawned on me that perhaps there was something wrong with my setup.  Mike came in, I explained the situation to him, and he said, “Could something be catching on the threads?”

So I looked at my shuttle, and saw that it had acquired some dings from smacking into the wood of the beater.  I smoothed out the dings with 150 grit sandpaper, followed by 220 grit sandpaper, followed by a polish of steel wool.  And promptly wove a flawless 2″ of fabric.

Men have hung on less evidence.

I’m still breaking the occasional warp thread, but I now have 10″ woven, and am having WAY less trouble than before!

So remember, boys and girls…sand your shuttles!  Keep them smooth!

Weavolution is cranking along…we have less than a week until launch and a lot of things are happening very fast.  The help system was just delivered, and the volunteer team (six or seven strong) is starting to make entries.  We are turning our eyes from basic site functionality to putting on the polish…making sure the site is as user-friendly as possible before our launch next Monday.  There are still quite a few critical bugs to be fixed, though, and I am prioritizing them for our development company to make sure the crucial ones are resolved in time.

This is, of course, taking up virtually all of my time outside of work.  I’m starting to get a little stir-crazy sitting in front of the computer for 15 hours a day, but it’s only a week to launch, and maybe one or two crazy weeks after that as things get started and we smooth out any kinks in the process.  And I am getting some weaving done, albeit slowly.

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1056 threads, but who's counting?

Me!  I am exactly 1056 threads into the threading for the dress fabric, with 11″ threaded and 13″ more to go.  AND I am caught up on Weavolution – which shocks and astonishes me, since I have been running like the proverbial hamster for the last week, trying to keep up.

All in all, a good day.

Other than that, not a whole lot to report – just a lot of threading, heddle by heddle, and a nice relaxing day.

One thing I did want to mention – Weavolution is expanding its alpha, so if you’re interested in participating, drop me a line at tienchiu AT gmail DOT com and I’ll set you up with the sneak preview.  We’ve still got bugs, and are still tweaking some things around, but the site is looking better and better every day!  We’d love your input, too.

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At the eye of the storm

We are now ~2 weeks from launching Weavolution, and things are REALLY busy.  In addition to my day job, I’ve been spending 4-6 hours a day working on Weavolution – reviewing the site, filing/triaging bugs, addressing issues brought up by the alpha testers, coordinating with our development contractor, etcetera.  LOTS of etc.

I have to confess, if I’d realized how impossibly much work this was going to be, how many people would be required, and how complex the juggling act would become, I might not have started this project.  Fortunately, I had no idea how difficult it would be; and, as with many other things, you can do lots of things that are impossible if you just don’t know it’s impossible.  This is one  of those cases.

Regardless, I am enjoying the process; it’s fun playing with the site, and the alpha tester feedback, while overwhelming at the start, is tapering off as people finish playing with the system.  So now it’s time to get down to work.

For example, the help system needs to be written.  Actually, it needs to be designed.  I’m doing that today, and will send it out to the help volunteers to review.  After that it goes out to our development contractor to implement.  And then we can have the help volunteers write the help.  I need to make sure that all the topics get written, are accurate, and write any that didn’t find owners.

A big chunk of the website is being delivered today.  As soon as it is, I will need to test it, verify that everything promised has  been delivered, and that it functions correctly.  The volunteers will test it as well, but I’m the one responsible, in the end, for making sure everything works.

Advertising needs to be set up.  The basic system is there but it needs a lot of tweaking before I can turn it loose with advertiser accounts.

Legal stuff needs to be implemented.  Can’t forget the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy!

Lots of minor changes…spelling corrections, UI problems, etc.  Small details but they have a big effect on people’s impression of the website…important to fix!

That’s just the tip of the iceberg…there are a thousand details that need checking, and it’s a little overwhelming.  Fortunately we have an excellent team of dedicated and energetic volunteers, without whom this would be simply impossible.  But at the center of the maelstrom, it is definitely not quiet.

Which makes it all the more surprising that I’ve made significant progress on the weaving.  I have now beamed on just over 1/2 the warp, and expect to finish beaming on today, in between Weavolution, a two-hour bike ride, and some house cleaning.  I haven’t been on a bike in over a month and need to start getting back in shape!  But I think I can get the warp beamed this weekend, and maybe 1/4 of the threading done?

Only time will tell…

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Something Weavolutionary this way comes

Well, today is Saturday, and Weavolution is supposed to go into alpha tomorrow.  As you can guess, it’s been pretty busy; I’ve been up since 5am and have been working on the site more or less continuously for close to 9 hours now (since 5am, in fact) – testing the site, logging bugs, verifying closed bugs, and entering project information so the site doesn’t look too bare when the alpha testers arrive.

The site looks good!  We’ve got lots of cosmetic bugs and some of the functionality is still shaky (tags, for example, don’t display correctly, and something weird is going on with search), but overall I’d say it’s in about 85-90% shape.  Not too bad for an early alpha.

Anyway, it’s incredibly exciting to be this close to release!  I can’t wait for the day we unveil it to the public.

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Satins and study groups

The satins continue to be interesting.  I re-sleyed at 108 epi, wove samples in 8 and 12 shaft satin with a 60/2 silk weft, and then (just for kicks) tried an 8-shaft satin with a 140/2 silk as weft.

Results: the 8-shaft satin came out very nearly balanced at 108 epi, but still shinier on the weft side.  The 12-shaft, as expected, was still more lustrous on the weft side.  Both fabrics were WAY too dense to use in anything but a jacket or upholstery.  The fabric is almost twice as heavy as my jeans! but it is gorgeous.  I am tempted to weave myself a satin coat in pinstripes.

Speaking of which, I did indeed weave the pinstripe satin sample, and it is beautiful.  Narrow lines (about 1/8″ wide) of warp-dominant satin against slightly wider lines (1/4″ or so) of lustrous weft-dominant sateen.  I tried taking a photo but really couldn’t catch the play of light in it.  I think it’s almost prettier than a plain satin – it actually looks more lustrous because the contrast of textures accents the shine.

The 140/2 silk weft behaved more or less like I expected.  It is not as dense as the 60/2 silk weft (duh), has somewhat similar luster, and is more supple when bent parallel to the warp than when bent against it.  This is not rocket science, but it was good to have a sample to confirm my theories.  I feel like I have a better visceral understanding of it now.

I have also packaged up all 39 samples for the Complex Weavers Fine Threads Study Group and all 19 samples for the Complex Weavers Garment Study group.  I’d join more study groups but then I’d have to weave even MORE samples! so this will have to do for now.  I’m looking forward to getting the sample exchanges back in the mail.

And, finally, I have been running around like a maniac coordinating things with the Weavolution volunteers.  We are now up to 6-10 people working on Weavolution at any given time – and that doesn’t even count the Web development company doing the coding!  I won’t say exactly where we are in the grand scheme of things, but let’s just say that we will be announcing a launch date very soon….!  It’s very exciting, but also quite exhausting as I try to stay on top of our Web development schedule, triage bugs, plan new features, arrange for all the data to get in that needs to be there, get the help written, etc.  LOTS of etc.  Don’t try this at home, kids!  I’m a trained professional (why yes, I am a Web project manager 🙂 ) and it’s still a challenge.

But it is going well.  I am happy.