The Loom Looms

In order to weave a tartan, I must first learn to weave. As I said in my last post, I have done a wee bit of weaving, but I need to be good to weave a tartan. Really, really good! In order to get good, I'll need practice. Lots and lots of practice. In order to practice, I'll need a working loom.

One day in November 2007, Ginger called me up and said, 'I've found a loom for you. How much room do you have in your house?' And with that, Willamina followed me home. She is a counterbalance loom, made by the Allen Folding Loom Company, and used by students at "WU", probably in the 1970's. She's not pretty, but she's tough.

Ginger and I cleaned her up back in November, and recently Chris helped me put some pretty strings on her. We also gave her some well deserved new jewelry (Before pics on the left, after pics on the right). Future upgrades include new aprons and a new reed. I could probably clean up the existing reed, but it would be a ton of work. I'd rather just lay down the ~$100 for a new one. Besides, I can always get the new one in a smaller dent size in case I feel like rejuvenating the old one later. Anyhoo, as long as the brake works, we'll be ready to weave after those two additions!