Tien Chiu

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Of chocolate and compudobbies

I’m going to a guildmate’s birthday party tonight, and I agreed to bring chocolates,  so I’ve mixed up a batch of cinnamon-honey truffles.  I’m curious how it will turn out, as I substituted honey for glucose in the recipe.  (Corn syrup would have been better, but I didn’t have any.)  The cinnamon  is from a wonderful cinnamon liqueur which I left at a friend’s place by accident, and subsequently got ignored for about 10 years!  Normally liqueurs don’t improve with time (after about a year of aging), but this one is different, perhaps because the flavors are spices that improve by steeping longer.

Anyway, the result is a rich, spicy cinnamon flavor – like cinnamon red-hots, only smoother and with subtle undertones from the other spices in the mix.  I should make more of it, now that I think of it!

Anyway, these are not like the yearly chocolate production run – very simple, and rolled in cocoa rather than dipped in tempered chocolate.  Nonetheless they should be yummy and I can’t wait to try one of the finished ones!  They have been piped into truffle shapes and are firming up; after that I’ll roll them into ball shapes and dip them in cocoa powder.  I may add a bit of cinnamon to the cocoa powder, if the native cinnamon flavor isn’t strong enough; haven’t decided yet.

And my compudobby is coming back today!  I had sent it back to AVL for repairs.  They discovered that my solenoid woes had been entirely due to heat buildup in the dobby box.  I suspect the small filter that I installed over the fans of having impeded enough airflow to fry the dobby components.  I put it there because the box was filling with lint, but apparently I should either have used a smaller air filter or replaced the fans with stronger fans.  I’m going to do both now, and Mike has offered to install a temperature monitor inside the box so we can monitor the temperature to prevent future frying.

Regardless, I’ll be glad to have my dobby box back, as it means I can resume threading.  My goal for this weekend is to get the warp threaded, wind the yarn for the dye study group from hanks to cones (so they can be re-wound into smaller skeins), and dye the first set of samples for the red to yellow gradient.  Next week I hope to finish sampling for the red to yellow gradient, and dye the skeins themselves!

Finally, our wedding photographer has put up a couple of our photos (with permission) on her blog.  Some of them are very nice, so check them out!

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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 Mike 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 Mike 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!

"The Kiss"
"The Kiss"

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And the winners are…

Tien walking the aisle
Walking the aisle, cropped and rotated

I decided to take Michelle’s advice and try cropping and rotating the walking-the-aisle shot.  And wow!  What a difference.  I had to fill in the bottom left part of the photo using the Clone stamp, but I don’t think it’s super-noticeable (please tell me if it is!) – and I like it much better than the photo with the harp now.  (Look at the larger version of the photo – the detail isn’t obvious in the small version.)  The harp photo is a bit over-exposed on the dress – the walking-the-aisle shot shows better detail and much more dynamic movement.  This is important since, at Convergence, people will have the dress in front of them, but they won’t be able to see how the outfit moves, except in the photo.

Here’s the harp again to compare:

tien with harp
me with harp

And, even after cropping, I didn’t like the photo of me and Mike standing as much as I did the photo of us seated, so I’ll be using the second photo:

tien and mike
Me and Mike

I may crop it a bit so it’s more vertical, though – I need to figure out how to fit them into a suitable display format, as one is vertical and the other is horizontal.

Our plane is about to board for the return flight to San Francisco, so I won’t try for more right now.  Soon we’ll be back home, where the cats will no doubt be overjoyed to see/sit on us.  Vancouver’s been great fun, but (clicks shoes together) there’s no place like home.

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Puzzling over photos

Our wedding photographer has been hard at work, reviewing and pulling the cream-of-the-crop photos out for our viewing.  It will still be a few weeks before she has the complete set together, but she gave us the proofs for review a day or two ago.  Because I’ll need a few photos for the Convergence exhibit, I asked her to send me a few in advance of the full batch.  Here they are:

Tien walking down the aisle
Me, walking down the aisle
Tien with harpist
me next to the harpist
Tien and Mike (formals)
Me and Mike (formals)
2nd shot of Tien and Mike (formals)
me and Mike again

I’m still debating which photo(s) to send to Convergence.  I figure I might be able to get one, two at most into the display (if any go in at all, which I don’t know yet).  There should really be one of me by myself (showing off the dress) and one of me and Mike (the happy couple).  So, one of the first two, and one of the last two.  But I really can’t decide.  The first photo is the most dramatic (walking down the aisle), the second photo is a better shot of the dress.  And I can’t pick between the second two at all.

Given that this would be an exhibit display for a major weaving conference (i.e. Convergence), which photo or photos would you pick?  I really haven’t a clue, so thoughts would be most appreciated.

Mike and I have been having fun in Vancouver, despite a twisted ankle that is keeping us from more strenuous activities.  But we’ve been to museums, the Vancouver aquarium, the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens, a salmon hatchery, and quite a few other places – plus had dinner and some wonderful conversation with some local weavers yesterday night.  We fly home tomorrow – and, true to form, our last stop is going to be a well-known chocolate shop.  🙂

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Wedding bells

I woke up well before dawn the morning of the wedding, and was too nervous to go back to sleep.  Instead, I got up, checked my pre-wedding checklist, loaded up the car, wrote six thank-you notes, printed out my wedding speech and our vows, got breakfast at the local bagel shop, and then walked around the block for twenty minutes, reading my vows and speech out loud, so I wouldn’t stumble over them at the wedding.

At seven-thirty, I went to the makeup artist, and spent two hours there, getting my face painted and my hair done up.  The process was far more complex than I’d expected ““ first a primer to make the makeup last longer, then concealer, foundation, and powder.  Then some slightly darker makeup to slim my face and make the cheekbones more prominent, and to darken the curve of the jaw.

After that, she applied blush, which looked too heavy to me, but she explained that the blush powder would fly away over time, so she needed to apply more to make it last.  Then on to the eyes ““ first a special primer, eye makeup foundation, powder, eyeshadow, eyeliner, and false lashes.  I watched, fascinated, as she transformed my face completely.  Truly, artistry!

The hair proved a little awkward.  The florist’s headpiece, a wonderful confection of gardenias and orchids, turned out to be way too large – we really needed a single flower, not an entire headband.  So we did the rest of the hair, drawn over to the left side of my head, pinned with the gold double-happiness pin, and cascading down in soft curls down the front, and agreed that I would stop by the supermarket on the way to the wedding and buy some flowers there.

Mike and I finally left at 9:30am.  We arrived at the ceremony site a little later than anticipated, and many guests were already there.  Thankfully, most of the wedding party had already arrived, and as soon as I arrived, they fanned out in all directions, setting things up and freeing me to focus on my own preparations.

I had planned to have my mother help me into the dress, but she was unfortunately ill with food poisoning, and (much to my disappointment) was unable to attend the wedding.  So instead I chose my dear friend Lena, who had moved to India some five years ago and had flown in for the wedding.  She helped me fix a few makeup smudges, fix a single gardenia bloom into my hair, and step into the dress.  I was terrified that I was going to rip the hem or something, but she settled me down and got me into the strapless bra, the shoes, and the dress.

Finally, Lena took down the coat, held it for me, and carefully fastened the three hooks and eyes in front.  She handed me my bouquet, a beautiful confection of white lilies and roses, accented with pale gold roses and feathery ferns, tied with a gorgeous gold ribbon ““ and turned me to the mirror.

I gasped.  As much and as hard as I’d worked on the outfit, I was totally unprepared for the vision in the mirror”¦the beautiful, regal bride in the mirror couldn’t possibly be me.  Could it?

I could have gazed in the mirror all day, unbelievingly, but the guests had taken their places, and my friend Herve, who was officiating, had started speaking.  I scurried over as the others started their procession.  First Mike’s parents, then Mike, then my father, brother, and mother’s husband, then”¦

“¦me.

Walking down the aisle was indescribable.  Momentous, glorious, and yes, triumphal.  A year’s labor for the wedding ensemble, now shown in all its glory, and a wonderful tribute to love and to Mike.  The harp played “Trumpet Voluntary” as I made my way slowly down the aisle and turned to face the man I love.

Friends and family spoke, but I hardly heard them, being too occupied gazing at the man I was about to marry.  My friend Lena, who is a Tibetan lama, blessed us with holy water.  And then it was time for us to read our speeches to each other, and exchange vows.

Mike’s words to me were beautiful, heartfelt, and romantic.  I started misting up as he said them to me.  Then I read my words for him ““ a free verse poem ““ and by the time I reached the end, I was crying tears of joy.  Then we exchanged vows, and rings.  Finally, our officiant read out the words that bound us, and we kissed for the first time as husband and wife.

After being presented to the guests, we departed down the aisle to the joyous strains of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”.  We had a lovely lunch ““  old friends and new, family meeting family for the first time.  The wine was wonderful ““ my brother, a vintner, had brewed four different wines for the occasion, and my sister-in-law, a graphic designer, had created beautiful custom wine labels for us.  We spent time at each table, receiving congratulations and visiting with the guests.

Too soon, it was time to leave the reception.  We stopped by the hospital to visit my mother ““  collecting stares as the newly wedded couple in full bridal regalia sailed through the hallways ““ bringing the wedding to her, since she wasn’t able to be at the wedding.  (Fortunately, she was feeling much better, and was discharged shortly thereafter.)

After a dinner with family and close friends, the day drew to a close.  We said farewell to friends and family, collected a few last well-wishes, and headed home to get some sleep before heading off on our honeymoon in Vancouver.  We were exhausted, triumphant ““ and married.