Shuttle Management

 I am finding that the snowman weave requires a lot of special shuttle management.  I am working with 4 shuttles total, but I have to only manipulate 3 at a time.  It works well if you get a system down.  Here is my system for an entire rotation (6 shots):

First set of 3 shots, which is 1 background and 2 weft floats:

 Second set of 3 shots, which is 1 background and 2 weft floats:

 

1. The background color blue is always balanced in that space between the trap and the weaving.  It wedges in there just perfectly!  

2. The color that is not being used sits at rest on the left side.  It never moves until you are ready to switch it out.  If you were doing towels, you could probably wrap it with the working colors to carry the tail up the side.  Since I am doing ornaments, I am not doing anything special with the sides of my weaving this time!

3.  The two working color shuttles are put in special spots. The first one is mostly kept towards the center of the trap because it makes it easy to grab.  You want to make sure to leave some of the shuttle popped out from underneath the 2nd color in order to grab the shuttle.  The 2nd color can rest on the very top on either the left or the right, depending on what part of the pattern you are working on.

So far my system of having the music stand with a magnetic cookie sheet to hold the pattern on it is working out great!  I just slide the magnet around to keep my place.  Also, the numbered treadles are just wonderful!  I feel like I am finally getting to the swing of things on this weave!  It's a bit slower than most, but I don't feel so uncoordinated anymore.  By the way, I have 11 rows woven!  That means 66 snowman are done!