weaving study group | Tien Chiu's Blog

August 3, 2008 by Tien Chiu

Preparing to dye

My warping wheel is arriving late this week (impatience, impatience), at which point I will start winding on the warp for the doubleweave chapter of Bonnie’s book, Exploring Multishaft Design. I’ve never attempted doubleweave before, so this will be quite interesting; it took me awhile to wrap my head around the basic patterns, but much to my relief I managed to get a simple pair of twills drafted so they work in separate layers. I even managed to figure out how to reverse the twills! It’s complicated to visualize (at least now, since I don’t understand it) but I do “get” the principle. Which is a fine thing.

Anyway, I’m planning to wind on a 9-yard warp in 4 colors (so I can do four layers of doubleweave once I get to that part), threaded up straight draw as Bonnie recommends. (Someday I’ll get around to network drafting in doubleweave, but first things first.) I’ve been musing over colors for awhile and think I will wind up using orange or red, fuchsia, blue, and purple (possibly turquoise instead of blue). I’m going to use the cotton I bought from the thrift shop as my yarn – that will help me clear out my stash – and dye it this weekend or next week, so I can start warping once I get the warping wheel (impatience, impatience!).

Well, actually, I need to finish weaving off this warp first, so perhaps there’s not that much of a hurry. I’m eight inches into the scarf – it’s progressing slowly due to other commitments (and needing to adjust the loom, etc.) but it is looking gorgeous.

Going off for a long ride (55 miles) with Mike today, so not sure what else will get done – got dehydrated yesterday (on a much shorter ride) so will have to be careful today.

But meanwhile, time for a dye bath. (Not for me, for the yarn!)

February 12, 2008 by Tien Chiu

Dyed warp chains, playing video games

The warp chains are dry! Here’s a photo:

In the right warp chain, I painted the maroon and indigo in alternating lengths of about 6″, in the left warp chain I painted it in lengths of 3″. You can see pretty clearly that the colors are clearer in the 6″ warp chain – the red is brighter and the indigo is bluer. In the 3″ chain section you get quite a bit of dull purple. I think I added too much dye, and it wound up puddling/running. Fortunately the result is still okay, and the brighter red alternating with the duller colors will liven it up a bit. Next time I may try paintbrushes or smaller foam brushes, and wipe out some of the dye before using.

I made one other mistake, which I hope doesn’t become too troublesome. I rinsed out the right warp chain a bit before chaining it, with the result that it tangled badly in the rinse water. I managed to get it straightened out, but there are some sections that look suspiciously like tangles. Hopefully I can get it straightened out as I beam on. Henceforth I will chain as soon as it comes out of the Saran wrap – BEFORE doing anything with it.

Nonetheless I am pleased. Tonight I will dye the weft to finish off the brown and tan warp – probably a nice gold and a garnet red cashmere/silk – and fiddle with the loom in hopes of reducing my skip issues.

Meanwhile, I have been playing video games. No, really. 🙂 I have an interview this morning with PlayFirst, a casual games publisher, who publish (among other things) Chocolatier! (Diner Dash is probably their most popular game.) So I have been familiarizing myself with their products. They’re good games – if you’re looking for a video game to while away the hours without getting too intense about it, these are very entertaining. They’re starting to introduce community gaming too – this is the exciting part. Web 2.0 and everything. 🙂 I like their products, hope the interview goes well.

Back to the video games!

February 10, 2008 by Tien Chiu

Warp wound and painted

I wound the warp for the study group samples this morning, and painted it this afternoon (in between doing my training ride for AIDS Lifecycle). It’s 10/2 cotton, in the colors I mentioned earlier (maroon and blue). It’s 13 yards long, which is probably overkill, but at least I know I won’t run out of warp while sampling! It’s now in the oven at 120 degrees, where it will stay until tomorrow morning, when I’ll rinse it out.

(I could in theory let it batch at room temperature, but Sabracron F requires a room temperature of at least 70 degrees, making it a little fussier than Procion MX, which will set at lower temperatures. It’s usually only 60-65 degrees in the apartment in winter, so I’m playing it safe and sticking it in the oven.)

I made one error when setting things up for warp painting – I mixed up yellow dye despite the fact that the warp has no yellow in it (it’s the weft color). No problem, I’ll just skein up the linen weft and dye it tomorrow. I’ll also dye the silk/cashmere weft for the warp still on the loom tomorrow.

All in all, between the cycling and the weaving prep, it’s been a productive day. Now off for dinner with friends! Tomorrow morning I will rinse out the warp and take some photos. Can’t wait to see how it turns out!

February 9, 2008 by Tien Chiu

Color palette

After playing around with Kuler and flipping through my dye samples, I’ve decided that I am indeed going to go with gold, maroon, and blue. Here’s a photo of the colors:

The gold will be weft, the warp will be predominantly maroon with some bits of the blue-purple. I think it will work out nicely.

If you are wondering about the writing on the bobbins, they detail how to reproduce the colors. The dye type (Sabracron F) and the dye number (F-14, F-33, F-GF) refer to the dyes. The names of the dyes are more descriptive because it’s easier to remember “Gold” than “F-14”. 2% refers to the “depth of shade (DOS)”, also known as “weight of goods (WOG)”. 2% means the dye weight is 2% of the weight of the fiber to be dyed.

On the bottom, the numbers indicate how much of each dye to put in. 10-0-0 means it’s 100% gold. “2-7-1” indicates 20% gold, 70% red, 10% intense blue, and so on.

I find that having all that information written on the bobbin (albeit in very small print) allows me to (a) know exactly how to reproduce the color and (b) put the bobbin back in the right place, should it happen to come out of the slide protector sheet I store them in.

February 2, 2008 by Tien Chiu

Pleased with plaits

After taking Bonnie’s suggestion to start out with one line and cross it with one other line, I think I understand plaited twills a bit better. It’s actually not unlike drawing Celtic knotwork – which I learned in the course of making my Celtic knotwork pysanka eggs. First you draw the ribbons in whatever color you’re making them, then you add outlines if necessary to indicate whether a ribbon is on top or bottom at an intersection point. Then you fill in the background.

Here’s a screenshot of tonight’s masterpiece:

What I did for this one was to create the plainweave lines first, then border them with black to make the crossings more evident, then fill in the sections in between.

Here’s a shot with the background blank:

Once I realized that the important part is the lines that are crossing, and that the rest is superfluous to the plait (and can be filled in however you find most decorative), it became a LOT easier.

I plan to play with plaits some more tomorrow, since it looks like it’s gonna rain.