Stops, Starts and Color Sampling

The wool warp is finally seeing some weaving time. Monday I got the reed sleyed, one and quarter times! I started out with a 12 dent reed but after sleying 7 inches I just knew it wasn't going to cut it. The heavy accent yarns were a very tight fit and I could see abrasion problems down the road. I un-sleyed the inches I had done and replaced the 12 with an 8 dent reed. It was much better and I was able to give those thicker yarns more room. I tried propping the reed up flat but that required putting the breast beam back on. I tried hanging it and finally went back to just sticking it in the beater and putting that back on the loom and leaving the breast beam off while I sleyed.

I also learned it's easier to just drop the treadles and start fresh with a new tie-up than to figure out what I can save from the last tie-up. Wasted a bit of time and had to go back down and correct a mistake.

I tied on and starting sampling some of the colors and had quite a lot of fun trying things out.

I also found I as getting a lot of draw in and had to adjust my end feed shuttle. I struggle with selvages. They are many times fairly even but the draw in is the bane of my weaving. The adjustment helped and I have started in with the color selected. More pictures to follow in a future post.

In other news around the farm, the horses indeed got their trims yesterday. Morgan arrived early before it really heated up and was done in under an hour.

Sadly, one of our resident fawns was hit and killed by a passing vehicle. The wild clean up crew of buzzards, big black crows,ravens, coyotes and fox ( a grey one was spied by Gene at driveways end carrying off a leg) have reduced the baby to bones already. We have many travelers passing through in the summer and most don't realize that the deer are active and wandering at any time during the day or night. They seem to always go in twos and threes. When we see a deer run across the road, we slow down waiting for the second or third one to follow. In summer, it's always time for deer hence always "deer-thirty"( a.m. or p.m. take your pick).

After 3 plus weeks of no sighting Puck has moved on to somewhere else. He stuck around longer than I would have ever expected for a tomcat. On going out to the barn this morning I did detect a possible reappearance of Bond the skunk. Time will tell.

Dennett, the resident grit sponge, who loves to roll and get as dusty as possible in the dirt, got a bath. He is so darn good about them too. You sit him in the big laundry sink and he stays put while you grab towels and rinse and such. As long as you talk (loudly) with him, he's happy to wait it out. He got a long ( for him) walk up the driveway and across the road onto the BLM road for a bit. It was hot and I wanted him to dry but at 16 I hate to push it too much considering he has been on heart meds for two years now. He was every bit the jaunty handsome terrier, taking his person out for a stroll and clean too!

I couldn't resist and slept our warm night on the enclosed porch. Gene passed as the heat doesn't bother him a bit and a double bed with 4 dogs on it is cramped compared to the king sized bed. Even with one person clinging to the edge! It was a beautiful clear night. Up here with no light pollution we are lucky to see the vast night sky in all it's glory. I spent a fair time awake star gazing, listening to frogs sing and the small creatures of the woods come out and rustle about. We were cool, comfortable and protected.