Posted by Isobeau on Wednesday, 5 March 2003, at 5:52 p.m.:
My story is quite bizarre, so I will keep it short. But I must warn you! This is a weaving lover, loom huggers nightmare!
This past summer I was passing by a house were the owner had most likely died and the family was disposing of Everything in the home. The former owner was probably a teacher of textile arts and the "garbage" that they were throwing out the door (litterly) was a gold mine for a former weaver like me. 3 looms, a 6 and 10 harness loom and an antique rug loom. MILES of warp, and various other string, warping drum, tons of extra hettles and the list goes on. The tradgey of it all was that the "garbage" movers were in quite a hurry and cut and smashed the looms up quite a bit. (Cut the castles off, wire cut all the jacks, smashed the dents!) Still I saw it as a prize and after hunting thru 2 dumpsters the size of tracktor trailer trucks for all the pieces (quite a humbling experience, NO pride involved I assure you!) I loaded it all in my van (3 trips) and found the nearest wood worker/weaver. (believe it or not!) He actually fixed the 10 harness for me in exchange for the other two looms and cash for materials.
Now here I am only 14 years after my last weaving class with very little memory on how to work this loom. Would anyone be so kind as to direct me to any known classes, books, web sites? I need to know how to wrap the warp. I don't remember how to do that. I also don't know how to hook up the petals to the harness'.
I appreciate any help.
Thanks!
In western PA
Isobeau