Friday, October 10, 2008

Clinging to the good is important when the bad gets overwhelming.

My new (to me) loom. Except for the fact the one in the link has 6 treadles, and mine only has 4, due to it being...er...38 years old. I'm replacing the cables for the harnesses, as one has broken (old leather cording), and I might as well bring them all up to spec. The folks we bought the loom from were snazzy as hell, dropping $50 from the buy price due to the broken cable and the lack of a crank. Daven has Plans for it, and until such a time as he has time to implement said plans, the website has this to say:

For the older looms where the shafts taper to a four sided point we recommend using vice grips or replacing your beams. We are sorry but that handle company went out of business years ago and the handles are no longer available.

Not a problem. We have vice grips.

The woman who owned the loom before me bought it before she became a mother (her children are all grown and out of the house, and they're looking at retirement), and was describing to me how they were living in KY. She had taken a weaving and natural dyeing class, and was inspired by the whole earth-mother deal. I couldn't help but grin, as her dreams of old sound terribly familiar.

Aside from the aforementioned bits that are getting replaced, the loom is in great shape. Some things, I wouldn't want an older model, but for something like this...if it's made it 38 years, it probably has quite a few more in it. :)

She kindly threw in the warping board for free, as well. Score!

I'm so looking forward to playing with my new toy. Just need the new bits to arrive!

It came with some warping on it, so I can skip that process to begin with. Yay!

1 comment:

RattleFox said...

oh wow! How fantastic for you. Very nice brand. Now that I no longer am a weaver, I like to meet obsessed weavers who might be interested in weaving up handspun cloth if supplied with the warp chain, weft yarn, and some sort of bribe or trade. I feel like you'll be one of those one day... Speaking of bribes/trades, I have Deb Chandler's "Learning to Weave" book, one of the cornerstones of any weaver's library and would be happy to pass it along to you if you like.