sweetgeorgia

Sarah’s Loom

Sarah’s counterbalance loom is here in photos too:

I took pictures of the loom and warping mill. Just so you know, I will be asking $500 for the loom (including the bench, extra heddles, and a weaving book) and $200 for the warping mill (the mill would be about $400 new).

Looms and yarn for sale!

This is on behalf of Sarah MacKinnon, a fantastic weaver located in Vancouver who is unfortunately letting go of her yarn and looms… read on if you are interested!

I have finally decided to sell my yarn. What’s the best way to pass the message on? Do you know anyone who might be interested? It would be great to sell it as a lot, but if I have to, I could sell it in smaller amounts. I have estimated it to be worth approx $375 new, so hope to get around $200 for the lot.

Any feedback or leads you might have for me would be much appreciated.

Spring this Summer

So, I had lunch today with an old, old friend — someone I haven’t seen in seven or eight years — and we got to catching up. What have you been doing? What are you doing these days? Blah blah blah. I think there was much verbal diarrhea on my part, but somewhere in the midst of all that, I blurted out, _”I’m going to be a weaver.”_ And you know, it felt _so good_.

Yep. As an early birthday gift to myself, I ordered a floor loom. An [8-shaft Louet Spring 110 (44") parallel countermarche loom](http://www.louet.com/looms11.htm). My excuse is that this birthday is a big deal. In a super cheesy way, it’s the beginning of a new phase in my life (although, did I just hear Jacey say that “30 is the new 20″ in [her new podcast?](http://insubordiknit.com/podcast/)) and this loom, both symbolically and practically, represents change, flexibility, new pathways and learning opportunities.

There was some urgency to place the order with Louet because they don’t keep the floor looms in stock (within Canada) and the containers only come over from Holland every two months or so. If I didn’t order by their deadline, I’d have to wait until September and you know how bad I am at waiting. Plus, I want to get a headstart on gifts. After placing the order, I talked to my weaving teacher and got her blessing for the new loom. I’m all set.

As for the loom itself, it’s a countermarche-type loom. I’ve been doing much research on the different kinds of looms (jack, counterbalanced, and countermarche) for the past few months and was positive that I wanted something _quiet_ and versatile. Like different spinning wheels or different knitting needles, each kind of loom has it’s own pros and cons: Jack looms tend to be easier to tie up and use and they accommodate uneven tie-ups but they can be really noisy! Counterbalance looms are quieter, form better sheds (some of the warp goes up and the rest the warp goes down making a big shed) but don’t accommodate unbalanced weaves. Countermarche looms have the best of both worlds — they are quiet, give big sheds and accommodate unbalanced weaves, BUT they require twice as many tie-ups which often discourages people from ever changing the tie-up. In fact, after ordering the loom and then starting to read [Peggy Osterkamp's](http://www.weaving.cc/) section about countermarche tie-ups in her book ["Warping Your Loom and Tying on New Warps"](http://www.weaving.cc/leasesticks/WeaveWeb.html#2), I thought _”crap, what I have I gotten myself into?!?”._ But, I am using this as a challenge to myself to become confident and efficient with all the little intricacies of the loom.

Thanks to Ahrisha, Stef, [Arianie](http://arianie.blogspot.com/) and [Brooke](http://missyb.typepad.com/missy_b/) who made suggestions and fielded my questions about floor looms. The combined knowledge of these lovely fibre artists is a force of nature.

And here’s a list of starting points and reference materials that helped me during my search:

* [Learning to Weave](http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/1883010039) by Deborah Chandler
* [The Weaving, Spinning, Dyeing Book](http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0394715950) by Rachel Brown
* [Buying Your First Loom (HGA)](http://www.weavespindye.org/pages/rfts-wtr01.html)
* [Which Loom Should I Buy? (HGA)](http://www.weavespindye.org/html/rfts-spr01.html)
* [Things You Need to Start Weaving (HGA)](http://www.weavespindye.org/pages/rfts-need.html)
* [Selecting a Floor Loom (Joanne Hall)](http://www.glimakrausa.com/choose.html)
* [Countermarch Info (Joanne Hall)](http://www.glimakrausa.com/cminfo.html)

The loom is scheduled to arrived sometime near the end of June — just in time for the transformation of our house into a _real_ working studio. I’ve already picked a paint colour for the new weaving/spinning/fibre room. Now all I have to do is start dreaming up and planning new projects!