dye study group

July 25, 2010 by Tien Chiu Leave a Comment

Weaving and dyeing and designing, oh my!

Not too surprisingly (except to me!), I spent nearly all day Saturday sleeping. 3 hours of naptime during the day followed by 10 hours of sleep last night seems to have brought me nearly back to my usual energy, though, and I got quite a bit done today.

First, I finished weaving the final shawl on the doubleweave warps. This one is woven using two solid colored wefts, one the rich deep orange-red of homemade tomato sauce, and one a royal purple. The wefts did not quite dye evenly so there is some intriguing color variation. I wove this with 1/3, 2/2, and 3/1 twill in the foreground, but a plain 1/3 twill background – I’d post photos, as it came out looking quite beautiful, but it’s a gift for a friend and I want to surprise her! And I managed to weave up nearly all of the shawl (72 of 80 inches) today, so I think I’m doing pretty well. I still need to hemstitch the loom end before I can take it off the loom, and plan to finish that tonight.

Second, I did my next two sets of dye samples. The first one nearly had me tearing my hair out with frustration, but after sulking for about half a day, I started a second sample, this time with a few changes in the recipe and much more stirring, and this one (finally!) seems to be coming out okay. I’m considering doing Cibacron F samples as well for this study group, but I think I will err on the side of less insanity and just do Lanasets.

Or maybe not. Who knows?

Third, I started designing tied weaves. Here are the two tied weaves I cooked up this morning:

quigley (four-tie) weave, but weaves equivalently to a double two-tie

In case you were wondering about the four ties, it’s because I wanted to be able to experiment with different patterns in the ties. I’m definitely getting a better understanding of how to generate these – now I want to try something really interesting, like using 12 shafts for the ties and doing a network drafted pattern in the ties as well as using pattern shafts to create the main pattern.

The advantage of a network drafted pattern in the ties is that I can do simpler patterns as well. On a 12-shaft network with a 4-end initial, I can weave anything that is weavable on a four-end straight draw, meaning I can weave the two examples above as well as more complicated patterns. This way I can start with a relatively simple pattern, see what that looks like, and then continue into more complex patterns, all on the same warp!

Of course, that assumes that I can figure out the general algorithm for combining an arbitrary pattern of ties with the “usual” pattern, but I don’t think it’s that complicated – give me a day or two and I’ll figure it out. With this, as with most things, Photoshop will be my friend.

Some of the things I’m planning to try out on this soon-to-be tied weave warp:

simple patterns in Summer and Winter or double two-tie unit weave
different wefts – rayon chenille, cashmere, feltable wool
complex patterns in the ties
complex patterns in the pattern threads (network drafting on 12 shafts and a 4-end initial, anyone?)

and various combinations of the above. I think I will refrain from working with gradient colors for this warp, partly because I’m out of color gradient yarn, but mostly because I think there will be enough going on already!

Still haven’t chosen a yarn for this warp. I’m thinking either 60/2 or 30/2 silk for the ground cloth, and am really really really trying to convince myself to use 30/2. Trouble is, I think 60/2 would be so much more FUN…especially with that 3450 ypp rayon chenille I’ve got somewhere…but, being practical, 30/2 silk would make it much easier to see what I’m doing.

Off to stir the dyepots!

July 9, 2010 by Tien Chiu 1 Comment

Starting to dye

I have now assembled nearly all the tools I need to start work on the Munsell color matching dye study group. So far all I’ve done is put together the Munsell Student Color Set ““ which asks you to arrange a bunch of chips by value, hue, and chroma ““ and document my methods. Unfortunately I needed quite a bit of equipment to really get started ““ pH meter, volumetric flasks, weighing boats, oh my! The last of it arrives today, so this weekend I will start work on my samples.

The first thing we are doing is working on our procedures and technique ““ dyeing one neutral color (because neutrals are combinations of multiple colors and thus the hardest to get right) three times in three separate dyebaths, to make sure we can reproduce the color reliably. First at 1% DOS (Depth of Shade is the ratio of dye to dyed goods ““ in this case, 1 gram of dye per 100 grams of yarn), which is a medium dark color, then (once that is repeatable) at .3% DOS, and finally at a very pale shade (.06% DOS if I recall correctly). That will be quite difficult and will involve a lot of tinkering with and/or hovering over dyepots ““ but is necessary. If you don’t have the process down pat, you won’t be able to reproduce colors precisely.

In my case I will also be testing out my buffer solution, which is currently citric acid buffered with soda ash. There are a number of reasons that Karren Brito (the master dyer who is leading the group) thinks it won’t work, so I will have to test it with a pH meter at various times during the dyeing to make sure it is holding the pH at precisely the right level.

Karren is having us work with great precision ““ measuring to +/- 2% accuracy in mixing up and dispensing dyes ““and using techniques and tools more common in chemistry labs than in home dyeing. But I appreciate this kind of rigor ““ so different from the slapdash methods that typically get taught. I figure it’s better to learn how to do things precisely and with rigor, and then slack off later (within the limits of what produces acceptable results) ““ that way if I need precision, I have it available, and if I just need to slap something together, I can easily do that as well.

I expect to complete the first set of samples for process testing this weekend. Stay tuned for pix!

July 1, 2010 by Tien Chiu Leave a Comment

Mulling colors

It’s been a busy and productive couple of days. I’ve completed about half of the Munsell Student Color Kit, which involves rearranging color chips by hue (color, as in red, orange, yellow, etc.), chroma (“pureness” of color – how much gray is mixed in), and value (dark/light). Some of the distinctions are fairly subtle, but I’ve had very little trouble with them, possibly because my eye is pretty well-trained already.

Here’s an example (with some yarn samples up against them to show the color matches):

example of Munsell student color kit page (completed)

Later in the week we’ll be working on optimizing and standardizing our dye procedures.

I’ve also been working on weft colors. I didn’t like the original “red” I was using – not intense enough and too orange – so I dyed up three others yesterday. Here they are, with the three reds crossing the gold warp on the left, the various second weft colors on right, and the warp on the top:

warp and weft colors for the doubleweave shawl

The colors aren’t quite right – the center red is more like brick red, the left-hand red a bit duller, but you get the idea.

I don’t much like any of the three reds – or rather, I think all three could work very nicely with the gold warp but am not sure how it will look in the context of the second warp/weft. So I am cooking up four more red sample skeins to see if I like any of those better. I’m hoping they will all be brighter reds – I took them out of Deb Menz’s Color in Spinning dye formulas, with some alterations and adaptations on my part.

Finally, B. was kind enough to rewire my compudobby fans yesterday, so I can get started threading again. The new fans are much more powerful, but they are also louder, so noise-canceling headphones are definitely in order.

But first, I need to re-boil the syrup for my candied cherries, and turn another 10 lbs of apricots into jam! Yep, it’s definitely going to be a busy couple of days.

June 22, 2010 by Tien Chiu 1 Comment

Back home, dye study group

I’ve spent the last few days doing get-back-from-vacation cleanup: laundry, picking up the accumulated mail, adoring the cats (who are making up for lost time by demanding LOTS of attention), and so on.� This will probably continue for a few days as we write thank you notes, restock the refrigerator, and clean up the amazing whirlwind of wedding debris.

This does not, however, mean I’ve been entirely idle.� I’ve redone the photo book to include wedding photos, and sent a copy winging off to New Mexico for the Convergence exhibit.� I’ve had a couple of long conversations with AVL about my compudobby “� apparently all my problems were the result of massive heat buildup in the dobby box.� So B. and I will be upgrading the fans and installing a thermometer in the box to make sure this isn’t an issue in the future.

I’ve also joined a dye study group!� This one is led by Karren Brito (author of the book Shibori: Creating Color and Texture on Silk) and will be about using the Munsell color system to mix up specific colors.� A description of the group is on Weavolution, if anyone is interested in joining.� This promises to be great fun.� More dye samples!

Plans for the next few days:

Dye a preliminary sample set for a red-to-yellow color gradient.� This will be 30 colors x 20g each on a pale gray 55/45 cashmere/silk yarn, but I’m doing my samples on white 30/2 silk so they’ll be more broadly applicable later.� I expect this to take me probably 2-3 days.
Wind more 30/2 silk onto cones so they can be skeined into 5g skeins for my dye study group.
Once my dobby box gets back, thread up the blue/gold warp.
Buy more powerful fans for the dobby box, and get B. to help me wire them up.

I can hardly wait to get weaving on this warp!� It will probably be a week at least before I’m ready to weave (in addition to threading, I need to sample and then dye 30 skeins of yarn for the red to yellow color gradient), but the simulations have been so exciting that I can’t wait to see the Real Thing!

Finally, I’ll leave you with one more wedding photo that I got from the photographer”�one of my favorites!