Christmas!

As has become tradition, we held the Waterhouse Christmas a few days late.  Although Rachel, Ben, Jack, Andy, Jenn, the dogs, Natasha, and I all arrived in Grand Junction on the 26th, we insisted on waiting until the next morning to celebrate.  Christmas just isn't Christmas unless we're all bleary-eyed and in pajamas (well, most of us anyway).

We had a grand Christmas morning what with the snow outside and the presents inside.  We were all properly spoiled.  In a wonderful illustration of my modern and antiquated tastes, Santa brought me a both new iPhone and a loom!

Yes, a loom.  And I am very excited about it.

I did some test-weaving with scrap yarn to figure out the setup, then dove in with a kit for making chenille towels.  Here, as documented with my iPhone's camera, are my skills thus far:

First, I set the warp, which took a very long time.

This warping peg hold the strands in place during setup and shows the patter I created.

Because I'm going to weave 5 towels in sequence, I had to string 15 feet-long warp threads.
Thank goodness for access to a long living room!

Next I had to thread the holes in the heddle.

Rachel snapped this filtered picture of me mid-threading.

Then I tied off the ends of the warp to the cloth apron bar.

And then the weaving starts!  I did a few waste rows with the mercantile cotton
I used for the warp, then switched to the chenille.

And here's what I had after a few hours - about one towel length. 

I'm itching to try some of the patterns in the accompanying books I received, but I'll be good and finish this towel sequence to master the basics first.  I'm looking forward to getting faster, though, with visions of the women I've seen who shoot the shuttle back and forth in a blink.

I'm game for helpers, though.  Andy took a break from his gaming to try his hand at a few rows, and even Jack has helped me push the shuttle through the "tunnel." 

Yup. I'm a weaver now. Just one more skill to chalk up for my post-apocalyptic usefulness.