New Loom

Well the summer came and went all too soon and then there was the beginning of school year panic to overcome. Now that it is done hopefully I can get back to keeping my blog more up to date. In June our local guild was evicted from our home - although we can temporarily return once the building repairs are done we are hoping to find a permanent home. We have stored any equipment and tools we can live without, set up classes in a variety of spots, and moved study groups to guild member homes. We have a new location for our annual sale and our library will be housed at the Alberta Craft Council.

A little more than a year ago I decided I wanted to upgrade my Colonial to a dobby and found out this is no longer available. The next step was to look at computerized looms and since I am a structure person the thought of more shafts hooked me in. However, since I spend most of my day teaching computers and dealing with people, it is nice to come home and spend some time at my loom manually throwing the shuttle. I really enjoy my manual dobby AVL and decided whatever loom I choose it should be able to be converted from a manual dobby to a computerized loom should I ever desire to go that way. The manual dobby does restrict you to the number of bars you have to peg the pattern and if you should want to change the pattern you need to repeg. The computer is a problem for me not only because of my day job but also from the view of dependency on electricity.

Some of the weavers in my yahoo group suggested a list of pros and cons - something I regularly do - however because I realize how big a purchase this is for me I really needed to rehash and rehash my thoughts. Finally I decided the sticky beam and the take up beam of the AVL were things I really liked, going more than 24 would require a computer, and weaving width should be between 28 to 36 inches - even fitting this into the space that is left is tight and I do not tend to weave wide and if I did I have a 45 and 48 inch loom. My original thought was to sell the Colonial but have not had any offers and selling looms is always hard to do - like letting your children leave home.

I continually searched the Internet and scoured ads looking for new or used looms that fit my criteria and a few weeks ago I spotted a used 24 shaft Technical Dobby Loom on AVL's site. Again I went into analyize mode and decided this was it - it even has a sectional beam. Shipping date is December 13th and now I am like a little kid who cannot wait!

Anyway back to the real world - at present I am weaving pillowcases on my 16S AVL and will post pictures and info over the next few days.