Sunshine Tuesday

Sap buckets--sugaring has begun!

The sun is shining, the snow is melting, Jeff has set out 10 taps and the sap is flowing!  I am one happy person.  Nature can send whatever she likes now; it won't matter as I am starting seeds, having seen winter's grip broken.
The warp is hanging on the loom.  I won't finish threading and tie up until I get the weft spun.  There is too much temptation for one of the household cats to lay on a warp for me to leave it idle for too long.  Plus, I don't want to stretch it more than I have to.

A waiting warp

I've decided on a marled weft, as well.  Cotswold, plyed with the colors.  Since Cotswold is a fine wool, it should pair well with the alpaca.  At this point in time the idea floating around my brain is that it will be the same color pattern--purple, blue and on to the pink, in roughly the same widths, for a loose plaid effect.  Always subject to change.  Plain weave, so that the colors and pattern are the focus.  Loosely woven, also, to make a nice flowing material.

Saturday

Jesse, modeling for my Etsy shop

First off, I can't type anything without saying how distressed I am about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.  It is such a devastating event.  I cannot even comprehend the horror and helplessness.  Although prayer seems like a feeble thing to do in the face of such magnitude of loss, I know it is all I can do for the nation, and so I will keep the Japanese people in my thoughts and prayers.
Jesse did come through, and from far away in Madison was able to get my printer up and running.  I was so happy!  He is a wonderful son.

Warp, laying on table, in raddle

The warp is on the raddle, and now I am looking at it, wondering if I want to go through with this or not.  I knew I was short a great deal of yardage, but I went ahead and counted off what I had spun.  It is a 19" width right now, which should be adequate for a shawl.  But do I like the way the colors go?  I am thinking of the warp being either stripes of gray and cream, or stripes of the colors--any thoughts on the subject?   I really would love some input at this point!

Frustration

I have spent the last 2 hours hunched over the computer, trying to get my new printer to work.  Jesse, the computer son, has my drive divided into two parts, one running Linux and the other running Windows.  The printer is all hooked up in Windows, the problem is this particular driver is not in the Linux base, so I had to find and download one.  Which I did, but now I can not install if for some reason.  He has been helping me via email from Wisconsin, yet it is so hard (and I know from personal experience) to help a person with a computer problem when you don't know, really, what they did.  Jesse is very patient, though, and has only scolded me once for buying a printer without making sure it was Linux compatible.  I did read a review and the person was using it in Linux, they just didn't say anything about the driver for it!  I am sure it is just one small thing yet to do, only I don't know what it is.  Worst case scenario is that I can only use it on the evil Windows side until someone adds my model to the data base.  Nice thing about running Linux--all open source and no paying for every program or update that comes along.  We use it 95% of the time.
More frustration in the form of snow, turning to rain today.  When will it end?
I did manage to get my warp all spun, plyed and set.  Counting off on the warping board is my project for today.   Having second thoughts about some of the red colors which means they may get cut out of the project.  I will only know when I get it on the board.  If all goes well, I'll start loading the loom this afternoon.  We will see.