The short story is – we have weaving!!! Beat wildly uneven, selvedges amusing, a little altercation with the software regarding forwards and backwards, rather too keen on winding on so the beater couldn’t reach… All irrelevant. It’s weaving!!!
There are two longer stories. The most important one is the one today starts – my weaving history with this loom. I’m am so looking forward to that story – the first bits where I’m hoping to improve fast (since I’m starting at such a low base I think improvement is pretty much guaranteed) and the later part, where I start refining and designing and finding my own weaving voice.
The second long story was putting on the warp. I wound, beamed, threaded, sleyed, tied on… and had no tension. Back to the photos which I had looked at so carefully the other day. Ohhh! the warp winds that way around the beam.
Strange as it may be, I didn’t really mind at all. I actually enjoyed the process of figuring out how to fix it. I was able to recreate the cross pretty much by lifting treadles and lots of ties. Moving the cross back along the warp had me stumped for a while because the wool yarn was getting very sticky and matted. I finally thought to use a … well, I’m not sure what it is, a dog comb? a fleece preparation thingy? … whatever, I was able to comb the warp so the ends separated and played nice and I could move the cross back. I re-beamed, the right way round. As I went I made little improvements to my first methods, weighting the warp, moving and supporting the lease sticks etc. Both times I used the threading method from Sandra’s Loom Blog, which I think is so clever. Everything was a little bit easier second time around.
The weaving itself I’m still finding my way through. You want to see? I’m happy to bring a smile to your day!
Fibres of Being 
i have heard that spraying your warp with hairspray or a cornstarch solution, or freezing the yarn itself before you wind your warp, can help with the wool sticking to itself. also: hurrah! weaving! may it go on for many years.