Back in the Studio

After coming back to the real world in Californa, I discovered I had gained 4 lbs. Mostly water, not that sublime handmade pasta, though, because within a week I was back to "normal." Spending 12 hours in the dry environment of a transatlantic flight will do that.

At home, an unhappy 24-shaft dobby loom awaited me. Two of the solenoids had begun to misfire intermittently before we left on our first holiday to Montana, and between that trip and the food-and-wine holiday in Italy, there wasn't time to do more than order some spares from AVL.

As it turned out, the repair job took far longer than it should have. The replacement solenoids were slightly different from the failed ones. After spending about 8 hours installing one solenoid, and testing it only to find that it still didn't work properly, and trying to improve the situation by realigning the dobby box in two dimensions, followed by further testing, DH phoned AVL. Only to be told that he should remove the washer and spring that constituted the difference between the new and the original versions, after which the loom performed perfectly.

So back to weaving...

Scarf #2 on the current warp of blue 20/2 rayon. The weft is red, and the threading and treadling is derived by using block substitution to convert a network twill threading to multishaft crackle. One example of a related drawdown is shown here (scroll down near the bottom of the linked post.)

From the driver's seat, the pattern is difficult to see. Now that I'm at the end of the piece, and can photograph the cloth as it travels back under the loom to the cloth storage beam, the pattern and irridescence are more evident.

The plain weave areas are irridescent (either blue or red or purple, depending on angle of light and/or view). Where the small floats are warpwise, they show as specks of blue, and where they are weftwise, they're red. Tomorrow, on to scarf #3.