Nextile.

So yesterday we finally had some free time to stay at home and putter.


Although I did find some time to sit stupefied in front of the Entertainment Box (watched some Netflix, and later Masterpiece Theatre), I spent about six hours winding (and winding and winding) silk thread from skeins onto kiwaku bobbins.  Lots and lots of indigo-dyed 60/2 spun silk (warp for the next textile "nextile") as well as an equal amount of creamy undyed 60/2 silk (parallel threading on this project).  I also devoted several hours to winding off some of the very precious hand-reeled, naturally-dyed Lao tram that friend Tien gave me.  That last item is a very precious thing; nothing is tanglier than silk tram after it's been dyed.  That said, this tram is slightly thicker, so it stands up a bit better to handling than other trams I've used.  That, plus a great deal of patience, resulted in an all-time record of 0% loss of the tram skein (outstandingly good!).  How I hate to waste thread; but doubly so if it is hand-made, and infinitely so since this is handmade, naturally-dyed, and was brought from a faraway place by a friend. 


The colors for the new project are the rich medium indigo color below; also the same silk only in its creamy undyed color, and the rich golden brown also below.  I've always wanted to use these three colors together in a textile.
The draft is an advancing twill, on eight shafts.  I will also be experimenting with wefts for the first several inches, of course, in case there are even better colors to introduce.  Also, since the thread is 60/2, finer by twice than any of the yarn I've yet used on my AVL, it's to be somewhat finer than the other things I've done on this loom.  This means that I can also use some of the finer-grist gold thread from John Marshall I got last year, since it is roughly the same size as the 60/2.