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This and that

First, the cool news: Syne Mitchell interviewed me, Claudia, and Alison (my two partners in Weavolution) a few weeks ago, and the interview is now up in the latest Weavecast!  Syne did a fantastic job of editing the interview, so if you want to hear all about Weavolution, go to the latest episode and listen to it.  Way cool!

The poppies turned out to be a washout; the flowers had nearly all faded by the time we  arrived on Saturday morning.  That’s wildflowers for you: ephemeral!  But we did see some beautiful slopes outside the Poppy Reserve that were literally orange with poppies (and gold with the tiny goldflowers), so I don’t feel entirely cheated.

I also got to see a Mojave Green rattlesnake up close and personal! while we were out hiking, so I’m pretty excited about that.  I only got to see the tail end as the front end was buried in some brush, but it was still really nifty to see the sagebrush-green body with bleached markings, and the very distinctive rattle.  I was going to take a photo of it, but decided that would probably be unwise, so after watching it for awhile (from a respectful distance) I went on.

(The Mojave Green rattlesnake, incidentally, is one of the three rattlesnakes that are actually capable of killing a healthy adult human.  The two others are the Eastern and Western Diamondback rattlesnakes, which are just bloody darn huge, and so produce a lot of venom.  The Mojave Green is small, relatively speaking, but is unique (to my knowledge) among rattlesnakes in that it produces a neurotoxic venom, attacking the nervous system rather than the flesh, and hence can kill an adult human.  So while I was really excited about seeing it, I was just as happy not to be seeing the business end.  The tail was quite enough.)

I did, however, get one good shot of a patch of late poppies:

poppy-reserve-poppies-smaller

Not as impressive as a shot of an entire field of them, but still, there’s something about California poppies that just makes one happy, isn’t there?  They’re so beautiful, so cheerful, so ephemeral.  A gift from nature.

And, finally, on the way home I finished padstitching the collar:

padstitched-collar

If you look at the larger view, you can see the tiny stitches.  They go perpendicular  to the roll line in the section below the roll line (the basted line where the collar curves), and parallel to the roll line above the roll line.  These stitches hold the collar stand (the part that sticks up) straight up and holds the fabric in a permanent soft crease so the collar will fall naturally around the neck, later.  (You’ll notice that, even though I’ve flattened it out somewhat for the photo, the stitches are holding a soft fold at the roll line.)

This is all pretty time-consuming, so I’m getting a pretty good understanding of why people went to fusible interfacing once they had the opportunity to do so.   Still, I’m enjoying the process.

Next on my to-do list:

  • Read up on the coat assembly process, apply interfacing where needed, and start basting together the pieces for a final fitting.  Read up on how to manage the facing and the lining.
  • Dye a few more sample colors for the putative wedding dress, in preparation for CNCH in two weeks.
  • Start thinking about what to create for the Complex Weavers Fine Threads study group exchange – mine is due in early May, oy vey!  I am thinking I will use some of the CNCH samples for this but haven’t really decided yet.

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Weavolution excitement!

The company we contracted with to build Weavolution has delivered the first prototype of the site!  It’s still very much in development (sorry, no links yet) but visually it looks right, and you can add drafts, projects, etc., search by tags, and do a lot of other really cool stuff.  The volunteer team is currently evaluating the site and offering comments/finding bugs, and we expect to be in alpha by the beginning of May and into beta and/or release in early June!  It’s so incredibly close I can’t believe it.

And there are a couple of REALLY cool features that we had our contractor build in.  For example, thanks to the generosity of Kris Bruland (owner/programmer of Handweaving.net), we can display images of .wif files.  So you can upload a .wif file and instantly see a .jpg preview of the draft.  Every draft has a set of tags, and you can search by tag to find everything else tagged “overshot” or “straight draw” or whatever other tags have been used.  We will have an advanced search function to help narrow things down, too.

It’s really amazing seeing this take shape so quickly, after so much planning time.  I remember back in August, when Syne introduced me and Claudia, and we envisioned a very small project, me doing the programming on the Drupal open-source content management platform, and Claudia doing the administration.  We got together a team of volunteers to help build the site, and the vision expanded.  We started fundraising, and the generosity of the handweaving community was amazing.  Soon we realized that we really could build the site we were dreaming of, and faster than we thought!  So we changed the focus of the volunteers to helping us spec out the site (much wireframing, much debate over usability and feature design), and started looking for a company to do the programming.  We found Pulse Solutions in January, and they started working on the site.

Since then they’ve been sending us mockups on a regular basis, and we’ve been sending back corrections, but this is the first chance we’ve gotten to see an actual working prototype!  It’s unbelievably exciting to be able to push the buttons myself, upload drafts, enter projects, and see it display in living color.  I’ve already started entering some of my projects, even though I know it’s only dummy data and will get blown away later when we go to the “real” site.  It’s that cool.

Anyway, I need to get back to playing with evaluating the site, as we’re having our weekly development meeting tomorrow and I need to walk through more of the functionality so we can start sending bug reports back to Pulse.  But it’s our first working prototype!  Now how cool is THAT???

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Introducing Sophie

I’ve been debating over the last several months over what I should name my AVL Workshop Dobby Loom.  Leaving it unnamed is simply not an option; I’m the sort who names anything that seems significant, especially if it’s complex enough that I’m likely to be negotiating, arguing, shouting at, etc. it.  (Though I rarely shout at my equipment; I believe it’s rude to shout at anything, even if it’s nominally inanimate, and besides, it startles the cats.)

At any rate, I’ve decided to christen her Sophie, as a tribute to the famous female mathematicians Sophie Germain and Sofia Kovalevskaya.  Both contributed significantly to mathematics and/or physics, and both managed to succeed despite overwhelming odds in a male-dominated (and very sexist) world.

Sophie Germain may also have saved the life of Karl Friederich Gauss, one of the most illustrious names in number theory.  Wikipedia has this to say about the story:

In 1804 she began corresponding with Carl Friedrich Gauss, again using her pseudonym, after reading his famous Disquisitiones Arithmeticae (1801). He eventually learned her true identity in 1806, when Napoleon Bonaparte was invading Prussia and Gauss’s birthplace, Brunswick. Fearful that Gauss would meet a fate like that of Archimedes, Germain requested that General Pernety, a friend of hers, personally ensure Gauss’s safety. The general explained to Gauss that Germain had asked that he be protected, which confused Gauss since he had never heard of her. She then wrote to him admitting she was female, to which he responded:

But how to describe to you my admiration and astonishment at seeing my esteemed correspondent Monsieur Le Blanc metamorphose himself into this illustrious personage who gives such a brilliant example of what I would find it difficult to believe. A taste for the abstract sciences in general and above all the mysteries of numbers is excessively rare: one is not astonished at it: the enchanting charms of this sublime science reveal only to those who have the courage to go deeply into it. But when a person of the sex which, according to our customs and prejudices, must encounter infinitely more difficulties than men to familiarize herself with these thorny researches, succeeds nevertheless in surmounting these obstacles and penetrating the most obscure parts of them, then without doubt she must have the noblest courage, quite extraordinary talents and superior genius. Indeed nothing could prove to me in so flattering and less equivocal manner that the attractions of this science, which has enriched my life with so many joys, are not chimerical, [than] the predilection with which you have honored it.

I almost named her Ada, after the famous Ada Byron, the daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron and writer of what is generally considered the first computer program (predating computers by over 100 years, of course, but using the same algorithmic methods as a computer program).  An early programming language, ADA, was named in her honor.  It would have been highly appropriate for a compudobby loom, but I come out of mathematics, not computer science, so I wanted to recognize a female mathematician.  It was hard enough being a female mathematician in the late 80’s, when I went to college; heaven only knows how difficult it must have been in the 1800’s!

The difficulty (if you will pardon the digression) of being a top female mathematics student was the sheer isolation of being the only woman in the metaphoric room, of having to represent one’s gender and prove oneself all the time.  At Stanford, I was the only woman among 30-odd people taking the Putnam exam (the most prestigious college math competition in the United States) my freshman year.  I was one of very few women in mathematics at Caltech (which was itself only 13% female).  And I think I was the only woman to have been on a winning/honorable mention team on the Putnam exam, my senior year.  (I made Caltech’s team – making me one of Caltech’s top three scorers – my senior year, and we placed in the top 10. )  One of the reasons I dropped out of mathematics, aside from my major bout with bipolar disorder at the end of my first year of graduate school, was that I simply couldn’t take the isolation much longer.  I needed to know that I was not the only one of my kind in the room.

Which is one of the reasons I am building Weavolution.  Weavers as a whole are an isolated bunch, partly because there are so relatively few of us compared to, say, knitters – but also because floor looms are not portable; it’s not possible to have gatherings where weavers get together with their looms and chat while weaving.  By its very nature, it’s a solitary profession, and I think that makes it harder to be a weaver.

It also makes it more difficult to find mentors.  I am lucky to live in an area with a number of active guilds, but Weavolution has received dozens – possibly hundreds – of emails from weavers who say they are the only weaver in their area, and there is no one else with whom they can socialize, discuss weaving, etc.  There is no one they can go to for inspiration – except for a few mailing lists – and they are hungry for that kind of social interaction, to meet others, to know that they are not the only ones of their kind.  We’ve got over 200 members on our mailing list already, and most of them say that’s why they’re joining.

So that is my contribution to the world of women and learning.  I hope other weavers find more support and camaraderie in Weavolution than I did in the world of mathematics, and hopefully it will inspire them to be more ambitious and far-reaching.

Meanwhile, here is a photo of the newly christened Sophie!

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Saffron and software

I got up in the wee hours of the morning today (which means around 4:30am; I’m still not adjusted to the time change!) and started slogging my way through software.  I’m working on iteration 3 of Weavolution, which is all about advertising.  Which is of course essential since that’s how we’re going to bring in enough money to keep the site going, develop new features, etc.  Of course, someone has to design that system, and right now that person is me.  So I spent three hours before the Weavolution business meeting playing with Drupal’s Advertisement module.  I think I understand more or less how it works now.  So now I can write requirements and then start developing the actual functionality.

I am actually quite pleased with how Weavolution is going.  We raised over $1100 with my chocolates offer (okay, now I have to make another 22 boxes of chocolates, but what the heck – 100 lbs of chocolate, 120 lbs of chocolate, who’ll notice the difference? 🙂 ).  The auction is going well and I’m guessing it will raise another $1500-2000.  Add that to the large chunk that Alison, Claudia, and I are all personally sinking into the project, and we’ll have enough money to pay for (offshore) development and graphic design if we absolutely need to.  We also have 150+ people on the Weavolution notification list, which shows there is serious interest in the site.  And we have four companies that have already expressed interest in advertising, once we’re up and running.

In short, there has been a great swell of support for, and interest in, the site.  I used to stay up late at night wondering whether we were going to build this glorious site that nobody would visit.  Now I stay up late at night worrying about whether we’re going to finish development in time for our launch date.  I am confident that people will come.  We just have to have the site ready.  It’s a hell of a job.

Meanwhile, after taking care of laundry, cooking, a 20-mile bike ride, and other regular Sunday events, I found myself with a little bit of free time.  So what did I do?  Chocolate, of course!  In addition to the 23 flavors of fig, guava, and Scotch that I put together yesterday, I made five different flavor variations of saffron-infused dark chocolate ganache, and white/milk/dark chocolate Oregon black truffle ganaches.  Tomorrow I will do a full tasting on all 30-odd flavors, once they’ve had a chance to mature.

However, I did sneak a taste of the saffron blends, and WOW!  I had been warned that using too much saffron produced an unpleasantly mediciny, astringent undertone, especially with low-grade saffron – so I ordered some Mogra saffron (the best quality available) from Penzey’s Spices, and used 50 strands to 200g cream and steeped it for about 5 minutes.  Mixed the result with dark chocolate and was blown away by how cleanly, fragrantly, WONDERFUL it tasted.  (I guess using expensive saffron pays!)

I tried blending it with honey, cardamom, Vietnamese cassia cinnamon, and rosewater.  (By the way, if you think all cinnamons are alike, well, order a selection from Penzeys and taste for yourself.  They have very different characters depending on where they come from – Ceylon cinnamon, for example, tastes nothing like cassia.  I think I have four different varieties of cinnamon in my spice cabinet, though I admit I’m probably overdoing it.)

I’m also trialing a smoked Roma tomato blend (don’t know if enough smoke flavor will come out to do a good test), just because I think saffron and smoked tomato MIGHT work.  It’s a little bizarre, but then, aren’t we all?  🙂

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Got my work cut out for me

We had a Weavolution dev team meeting today, the gist of which is that we’re behind schedule.  We figured out how to parcel out the work so we don’t all trip over each other, so I’m going to roll up my sleeves and get to work on implementation.  With an additional person I think we’ll make much faster progress.

So I’m going to be researching, defining, and building the advertising component of the website.  Fortunately there is a Drupal module that does most of the stuff for me; but of course you have to learn how to use, configure, etc. it, not to mention document it so others can use it simply and easily.

So that will be a good chunk of work.

Fortunately cycling training season is mostly over – Mike and I went for a short, 28-mile ride today (about two hours and fifteen minutes on the bike) and I’ll probably continue doing 20 and 30 milers on the weekends, but that will free up a lot of time for chocolates and Weavolution.

This afternoon I plan to do two things: (1) work on figuring out some Weavolution stuff, and (2) start trialing chocolate flavors.  I went to a fine wines-and-spirits store in Menlo Park (Beltramo’s) today and spent, um, way too much money on two fine Armagnacs and two fine Cognacs.  (If you’re wondering about the difference between Armagnac and Cognac, they are both brandies, but cognacs are grown in the Cognac region in France and are double-distilled; Armagnacs are grown in the Armagnac region and are single distilled and usually aged in oak.  At least that’s my understanding.)  Also got some small bottles of Chambord (which is divine in truffles) and Frangelico (for the gianduja (hazelnut) chocolates).

I have also, with my usual over-ambitious curiosity, added a few more flavors to the list of Things I Must Try: quince, guava, and tamarind.  I plan to make 1-2 steeped flavors per day, mix them with the added flavors, and taste-test them after a day or so of aging at room temperature.  I hate to toss them out afterwards but there’s not much choice, unless I want to down a pint of ganache per day.  Maybe I can find some hapless friends to foist the results of my testing on.

In liquors, I now have four Armagnacs and two Cognacs to taste-test.  I also am getting seven or eight Scotches courtesy of a friend who collects Scotch.  This should keep me busy for a few days.  I also bought some fresh (!) lavender which I am going to trial with (1) honey and (2) bergamot syrup.  I will probably strip off some of the flowers and freeze them for use in November.

Anyway, it’s off for a shower (we just got home from the bike ride) and then it’s time to launch into CHOCOLATE!!