Learning to Speak Airedalian

I'm still here! Sorry to neglect you, its just that life has been rather busy. When a friend writes me to ask how things are going, then I know I'm overdue!  Now I'm going to tell you a secret: some bloggers have draft posts 'stored' and so are reporting events and stories that technically are a week or three old. It provides a buffer for when life happens and time is tight!  Right now, I have no 'stories in the can' and I'm having to weave to give you something! Trouble is, I'm supposed to be taking it easy on my back, so the weaving is slower. Add to that, my new chair base hasn't arrived and I'm perched up on a pile of pillows and you have a very comical picture. No, I'm not showing you... you'll have to take my word for it.  In the mean time, I'm two thirds of the way through scarf two out of three. I'm making good time all things considered.

I have a nice satisfying roll building on the cloth beam. Click on the picture to see more detail.

I'm using black 8/2 tencel as my weft for the first two scarves and I'll try black 20/2 silk on the third. It will most likely weave up finer and narrower so I'm doing that one last.  But I have a big problem; a 45 pound problem:

Calli loves to play with the cheap street hockey balls and the game is always on! Red balls under the treadles, jammed under the chair legs. What makes it so darn cute is that she doesn't get greedy about hanging onto the ball and will give it to you if you ask her for it. Smart dog! If you have the ball, then you'll throw it.... right?!
So when not throwing the ball, or a stick on our walks, I have been trying to throw a shuttle! In between walking her three to four times a day which is healthy for both of us but does cut into weaving time. (I need to be mobile more so this is a good thing!)

We had a very nasty winter wind storm roll through here yesterday with wind gusts tipping the scales at 162 kph. That's Category 1 hurricane force winds. We broke out candles, filled the bath tub with water to flush with (we're on a well with an electric pump), and battened down the windows. The storm rolled in about 9 am and by 10 am we were in the dark and we stayed that way until 7:30- 8 pm that night. So what to do? weave!
The big loom is right by the bright window and so I climbed up on the bench and got busy. This is all I got done:

 Even with soft pillows the edge of the bench pressed into the back of my right leg and in a very short period of time, say ten minutes, I could feel the sciatic nerve tingling! I stopped right away and went and lay down  for half an hour. So that was stupid  huh? I had no pain before I did that....   My Louet Spring was sitting down in the dark end of the studio and it was hard to see. I put TV trays next to it with candles burning and wove for a time.

When the wind finally died down, we got this instead:

That's a torrent of rain, snow, and hail altogether and you would not be able to take three steps without being totally soaked. But its dry indoors and always  playtime!

Calli is settling in very well and as you can see, recovering from her spaying quite well. From the first morning after surgery, you would never know she had had it done. Amazing recuperation! We are learning to live together and what the house rules are and she's actually doing very well. Her obedience training is terrific and with some calm but firm repetition she's picking things up quickly, which is not bad for 10 1/2 months old and just entering her adolescence. Now we need to learn Airedalian!  I'm catching episodes of the Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan and he makes sense! I've been trying his techniques and so far, they work. I need to pick up on the doggy clues faster.  {Connor at his old age of 13+ years knew us thoroughly and I swear most of our communication was almost unspoken. Yes, he has us that well trained!)

So that's all for now and I'm hoping to have some real show and tell for you soon! Now won't that be exciting?

I'll be trying to weave with all this going on!

The best one is the ball you can't reach..... 

Dad has the video camera out... new baby in the house! Don't ya just love it?    :)