Yesterday it snowed... and snowed... and snowed. And this is the second snowstorm this week! Remember? On Wednesday, school was cancelled because of the snowstorm Tuesday night, and I had to bring the kids with me to pick up the new loom. So now, after two snowstorms in one week, we have lots and lots of snow here. Here's a picture of our mailbox this morning:



Here, Castanet and Got Milk dare to finally venture out of the barn to check things out:



And here's a picture of the bench on the deck. If you click on the picture, you'll be rewarded with a larger picture of the backyard (oh, how exciting!).




What to do during a snowstorm? Well, if you're new in the area you go out and buy about two weeks' worth of milk and bread before things get bad. The rest of us know that the grocery stores will be open and accessible the next day, and we find indoor games to play. In our case, we had a "Lost in Space" marathon, and I worked on warping the loom. This morning I actually started weaving!



It has been interesting. Not only is this a new-to-me loom, but I'm also new to 8-harness weaving. The loom has a few quirks, and we've been working at getting to know each other. Yesterday I installed the two new treadles and two replacement lamms; today I've been finding out what other quirks she has. When I started I was not getting nice even sheds, and I was having trouble with stiff treadling and sticking harnesses. I got all of that straightened out, and I think the only thing I'm still having problems with is the brake. At this point I'm not sure if the problem is with me or the loom. The issue is easy enough to work around until I get it figured out, anyway.

Even with just starting the weaving, though, I can see that my color choices are not going to result in the patterning I wanted. The solid purple is way too close in color to one of the colors in the variegated; and I think the variegation isn't going to show the patterning of the shadow weave. Oh, well; the purpose of this project was also to learn about the loom, and to learn to use tencel. Next time I'll try to make better color choices. (I'm also thinking I should have used a closer sett.) Patterning or no, however, they will be very pretty, very purple scarves!



At this point I have to mention that I have the world's best DH! This loom was purchased with my expected future tax return - despite the fact that I haven't even gotten all the paperwork to the accountant yet! And he always manages to be supportive and encouraging, no matter how much space I'm taking up, or how much muttering I'm doing as I try to figure things out (like treadling, uneven sheds, and how not to drop my shuttles all the time as I try to weave with two different ones!) Love you, sweetheart!