Winding Warps and winterscapes

I had this wonderful vision of weaving a set of tea towels.   I thought pink, purple or turquoise and navy would be bright and cheerful.  My second choice would have been yellows, oranges and bright greens.  I looked through the stash I could find..  taupe, off white navy and a tiny bit of yellow.  When we packed away when we were clearing out the sewing room, ostensibly to see what was behind the icky 70's panelling but instead it turned into a makeshift  guest room.   I don't know where the box of yarn cones and tubes is hiding right now!  At least I know it's "safe", if that's really any consolation.

So I worked up a blue and white warp in 2/8 unmercerized cotton.  It's going to be a log cabin pattern.  Simple yes, but I'm starting into my homework for level 2 and want something on the warp I can play with, that will take little concentration and be fun.  Level one took so much energy that I didn't warp the loom up the whole time I was working on the homework.  This time, there will be a warp on the loom so I can weave when I need to feel like I'm doing something productive.   Believe me, a gazillion 10 yard sample skeins, even ones to certain specifications, does not feel productive at times.  Of course, by the time I get to towel 5, I'll probably be kicking myself for putting on such a long warp with no options for variation.

On Sunday we went out for a short hike and photoshoot.  It was short because not all of us were dressed for the weather!  I played around with shooting RAW for the first time.   Not sure if I want to use that much memory each and every time I take a photo though.  I really did like the processing though and I was just playing around without any idea what I was really doing.   I think I need more info on this before I jump in to it with abandon.

The trail was along the river and fairly sheltered.   The water is running still, so not frozen in this part of the river.  While it wasn't snowing, we had our normal winter grey sky.  I would so like to have some real sunshine with a blue sky!  

The chooks are still laying though not as heavily as before.  We're still getting 3-5 eggs a day, good, solid big eggs since they aren't all laying every day.  As the days get longer, they should increase production again.  I think in the spring, when we get our meaties, I'll look for some new replacement hens.  Not that we need them right away, but I've got this idea that maybe some Chanteclers would be nice or maybe a hardy hen that lays dark brown eggs.   Of course that would mean expanding the hen house a bit and making their room bigger.  There's lots of space though, it must means adding a bit and moving a wall.