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Kept the fireflies, but changed the swirly pattern on the top layer of the design. Also tried interleaving the brocade wefts in areas where the designs overlapped.
The desired effect was transparency, but it's not quite there. Perhaps different color choices would have worked better. The light blue fireflies stand out too strongly against the black background.
Back to the drawing board.
Switching back and forth between dobby and jacquard loom is a useful exercise when examining a new (new to me, that is) weave structure. I use the same Pattern Presets for both. A great deal of time is saved! For more info about Pattern Presets, refer to The Woven Pixel and The Liftplan Connection; see sidebar.
Here's today's brocade sample on the jacquard loom. The ground weave is plain weave (black warp and weft), and the two brocade wefts (red and orange) are based on an 8-end satin. That ensures the tie-down ends are distributed over repeats of 8 ends; all the warps take their turns at being tie-downs, not just some of them. No second warp beam required. Click to enlarge.
Karl has taken up fly fishing with a vengeance. The way he casts a line is a beautiful sight; I enjoy watching him practice in the back yard on a summer evening. The lazy curves of the line are part poetry, part athleticism.
During his summer vacation he has started tying his own flies. Here's what his workstation looks like.
The fun of breadmaking comes from recognizing that yeast is a living thing; it grows, flourishes, and dies. It's sensitive to conditions of temperature, humidity, altitude—just like you and me. Treat it with respect and it will serve you well—most of the time.
When Arachne, my muse, leaves the building, I turn to bread. Like today. Here is a modest loaf, just formed from once-risen dough.
And now here it is after its second rising. We turn to violence. I slash it repeatedly.
After half an hour in a very hot oven on a pizza stone, it looks like this:
The life cycle of yeast. Now if I were the usual bread blogger, I'd slice it open and show you a closeup of the interior of the loaf so that you could admire the crumb. But that will have to wait until dinnertime.
Four simple ingredients; add to this one granddaughter. It was our day for bread sculpture. Summer holidays will soon be over and we are making the most of our time together.
After considering various shaping possibilities, she settled on a bunch of grapes.
While waiting for the risings and bakings, we sat in companionable silence and read—she the fourth Harry Potter volume, and I Cynthia Ozick's Heir to the Glimmering World.
It took all afternoon to warp this little gremlin, but the actual weaving is quite mindless. 4 forward, 4 back. Repeat.
This would be a good project for watching baseball. Or the Olympics. Or a debate.