network drafted jacket/shawl project

March 25, 2008 by Tien Chiu

Finished, beaded garnet shawl

I took a few quick shots before preparing to launch it into the Great Unknown of CNCH:

The first shows most of the shawl, the second shows the beaded fringe.

I’m very pleased with it – the gold foil sets off the tan/gold warp and the overall effect is of antique gold and rubies. The big garnet beads match perfectly, and the amber accent beads are nice as well. I really should have photographed it against something light-colored so the beads would show up more distinctly, but Mike is in the bed right now and I don’t have any other horizontal surface that isn’t covered in stuff! So this will have to do for now.

This and the brown/tan jacket are both going off to the Black Sheep Guild’s exhibit booth on computer-assisted weaving. I hope it will inspire some people to see computer-assisted weaving as an art form and not as “cheating” (which some people apparently do. beats me why.).

I am debating entering the tiger eye shawl in one of the judged galleries – haven’t decided yet. If I do, it will have to be re-hemmed, as the hem is sloppily machine-hemmed. I was too impatient to get started. 🙂

Meanwhile, I have inspected the painted warp. It looks glorious except for one thing – where I tied the choke ties, the warp is still white. I knew that was going to happen when I painted it – unfortunately I had already soaked the yarns when I realized the error of tying tight choke ties – but it is still distressing. It will definitely not be the “perfect project” I’ve been seeking, but, well – let’s see how it looks on the loom. I think it will be OK for casual wear, but I could just weep at the white spots in an otherwise beautifully colored warp. Next time I will tie loose ties instead of tight choke ties.

Oh well. It will still look fine from five feet away, I guess. It’s just that I’m seeking perfection.

March 16, 2008 by Tien Chiu

Hot off the loom

Weaving like a madwoman, I finished, cut off, and wet-finished, pressed, etc. the garnet-weft shawl tonight:

(do take a closer look; the pattern is beautiful.)

It’s not fully dry yet, so I expect the colors to be somewhat lighter/glossier once it’s fully dry. It is lovely, though. And I was right – the garnet red/gold leaf beads are going to be gorgeous with it. I plan to stop by a bead shop over the weekend to see if I can find matching beads to fringe it with.

It does have some annoying skips in it, though. The problem is partly just that they’re there – this time the tension was even and well-done, so I can only attribute the skips to my own errors in weaving. The other problem is that I have no idea how to repair skips in a complex pattern in fine threads. With a pattern repeat of 600 threads, there’s no easy way to know what the correct pattern should be. I’m not even sure how to weave the yarns through without splitting threads.

Oh well. Questions for the morning. For tonight I’m content just to admire it. It’s a lovely thing.

Further pix once I get it hemmed, and the beaded fringe sewn on.

March 11, 2008 by Tien Chiu

Garnet beads

I had forgotten that I had some garnet-glass-with-gold-leaf beads sitting in my stash! I had bought them in a burst of enthusiasm after seeing some in a bead store (along with some green ones that I have yet to use). They will go perfectly, I think:

(Sorry about the blurriness; I didn’t like the effect of the flash and it wasn’t quite light enough to get a good photo without it.)

Can’t wait to weave it up!

March 10, 2008 by Tien Chiu

Stolen time

In a moment (okay, more like forty-five minutes) of desperation, I managed to get away from all the other stuff I was supposed to be doing today for long enough to weave a two-stick header and get the goldenrod shawl off the loom:

It’s not bad, though I think the pattern looks a little like upholstery. I am also not happy about the skips, although I think I will cut out the worst of them once I wet-finish it. Tomorrow I take up fringe-twisting again. I’ll take a more “official” photo once it’s fringed and wet-finished.

I have further examined the yarn from the thrift shop and am now 100% convinced it’s cashmere. It’s as soft as cashmere, it’s an animal fiber, it has little crimp, short fibers, and it halos like cashmere. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck…

Of course, this means that I got five pounds of nice cashmere for $5.94. Or just about 1% of its actual worth. I am smug.

Tomorrow it’s back to the grind; in fact, tomorrow morning I’ll have to get up early and do the site review that I was supposed to be doing tonight. But dammit, it was worth it.

Next up is the garnet weft. I am not certain I have enough warp to do a full shawl plus fringe, so I think I will finish this one with a hem and beads. Hopefully it won’t take me another four months to find the right beads for this one.

I plan to use the same pattern that I did for the goldenrod weft – I suspect it will look quite different, and I want to see how it does in garnet red.

February 18, 2008 by Tien Chiu

Jacket photo

After spending the first four hours of my morning in urgent care, getting the ankle and the bronchitis seen to, I got in some quality sewing time. The end result can be seen here:

I’m very pleased with it – it came out exactly as I wanted, a light, casual jacket meant to be worn open. It’s casual enough that I can wear it to work or about town, but is significantly nicer than the T-shirts I usually wear. The stripes are slimming, and they actually match! (the result of considerable fiddling this afternoon). The jacket is comfortable and almost sensuous to wear, on account of the cashmere/silk. I think it will quickly become my favorite jacket.

It’s not quite done yet – considerable hand-stitching remains. Cuffs, and tacking down the lining at the armholes – I’m going to leave that for next weekend as I may be having a get-together with some other stitchers, and if so, it’ll be nice to have some handwork to take along with me. (Weaving on a 16-shaft loom is a wonderful art, but it’s not very portable.) Of course, I may also get impatient and finish it early. You never know.

Nonetheless, it is now about 90% done, and I am very happy with it. Much happier than I was back when it was simply yardage.