I must have been good in a past life.

I must be sending out good weaving vibes into the world! I mentioned in an earlier post that I was fortunate enough to receive a Ashford rigid heddle loom over the summer. Here it is hanging on my wall:

I've woven a bit more on the RH since this picture was taken. Not much more, but a bit.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!

Are you ready? I'm serious, this rules.

I got a loom! A real one! A great big real loom! Holla!

The person who gave it to me is one of the most wonderful people I have ever met and now I will never ever forget her. I never, never thought I would have a loom, not at least until I had excessive amounts of disposable income to spend on a large piece of equipment like this. So thank you and I'll love you forever.

This is a picture of it in my tiny bedroom. When my husband saw it he thought I was insane in the membrane. I was joking that we could throw our bed out to make more room for it.

It is a Gallinger loom, which was sold at The Mannings in East Berlin, PA, but it was sold there before it was called the Mannings. Back then it was Gallinger Creative Crafts, until the business was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Manning in the 1960s.

(Please excuse the fact that there is nothing on the walls in my bedroom, I had to move major pieces of furniture around to get the loom in, so I took everything down so I could get it in position and figure out where I want the warping board to go. I typically enjoy having more flair on display.)

Oh and in regards to my attempt to make a ghetto warping board out of nails in my wall-no dice. The nails just kept falling out of the wall and were all greasy and disgusting and would probably ruin any warp that touched them. So I'm over that. I'm sure I could have made one, but I don't really own any tools, so I'd have to buy everything besides a hammer. When taking into consideration the amount of time and materials it would take to make my own, I decided to buy this one off Ebay:

I found this one for $29.99 at The Knit Store, which is a great deal. It should be here early next week. However since I can't wait to start weaving on my new baby, I'm going to improvise tonight with an overturned table and a dowel clamped the appropriate distance away. We'll see how that goes. I'm only going to use about 200 warp ends for my first weaving since I want a chance to get used to the loom and learn how it works before I try a complicated pattern.

Now for some close-ups of the loom! Keep in mind this loom came out of a garage, so it's a bit dusty. I promise to clean it and oil it all up. So don't hold that against me. This is a close up of the treadles and tie ups. I know 4 harness looms typically have 6 treadles, but this one is a little different. Each extra wide harness is tied up individually, so you have to treadle accordingly.


While acquiring the loom is certainly most of the battle, I still had a bunch of stuff I need to buy before I could actually start making something. First, I needed a bench! The ones they sell online are between $200-$400, which is ridiculous. I found this thing that used to be a table, I think, at the thrift store for $12. Sure it was too tall and wobbly, but nothing my handy hubby can't fix with our trusty hammer. ( I told you we had no tools.) Actually that's a lie. Our truly handy friend Mike brought us a saw thing. It looked like a drill, but it was a saw. Then the handy hubby fixed the wobbles. And yes, that's dusty too. It's a work in progress.

You can see that the bench has a little space underneath, so I can keep warp there! LOVE IT! Freakin' adorable. And look-I bought warp!! I love new supplies!! I had to buy a new reed and heddle hook-which in retrospect I think I used the heddle hook for everything and not the reed hook. I guess I figured I got the big ticket item for free, so I could spend $100 or so on other shit that I need to go with it. I bought grey, black, pink and white warp, which should give me enough variety to get started. I also found that pink and brown ball of jersey material at an antique store. (It's on the far right.) That would be cute for a rug, but there isn't that much, so I don't know how big of a rug it would make.

So, there you have it. Needless to say, I'm beside myself. I cannot wait to get going! Yay weaving!