One of the joys of travelling to teach is meeting so many weavers in person. Some of them I know from the internet chat groups, but many I don’t.
I get to stay with one or two and see their work, tour their studios, and sometimes I help ‘train’ their looms. 😀
Susie had bought a well loved AVL home loom, but couldn’t figure out the sectional equipment or how to tie it up. So one morning while she went off to her writing class (allowing me to sleep in – heaven!) I wound a warp, dressed her loom and got it set up for a four shaft direct tie up so that she could finally weave on it.
When I got to the beaming part, I couldn’t hold the chain and roll it on at the same time, so I looked around the house and garage until I found something I could use for weight – a partially empty paint can worked a treat.
The warp was only 4 yards long so initially I just tied the chain to the handle of the paint can, then found some string, attached the string to the chain with a lark’s head, then tied the string to the can so I could wind on the last 18 inches. 🙂
By the time Susie got home at 1 pm, the loom was all tied up and ready to weave on.
In Columbus, Kathleen had a 16 shaft AVL Production Loom that was giving her fits. Again a well loved loom before she got it. We re-wound the apron so it was wound on the correct direction, ran the cord from the cloth take up back onto the drum at the rear of the loom, and lubricated both the front and back drums loosening them a bit so that they would rotate freely.
I also pointed out that the wooden bracket that held the cloth storage beam at the other end was broken – the wood had split along the grain – and needed to be replaced. A simple job for her wood handy husband to fix.
It feels great to leave behind two friendlier looms.