Nice Surprise

Just when I least expect them, good things tend to happen to me.  Take the other day, for instance.  I received a call out of the blue from a woman who bought my corn at the farmers market the week before.  She had foster children coming into the house and needed her extra bedroom which currently housed a Hammett's No. 402 floor loom, and would I be interested in purchasing it from her?  Boy, was I ever!  I have been wanting to learn to spin and weave for years.  I could hardly contain my excitement; I just hoped she didn't want more money for it than I could afford.  She wanted $150.00 if I could come right away to get it.  Now, it just so happened that I had not gone to the bank with my farmers market deposit, and the deposit was just enough to pay for the loom, so instead of going to the bank, I bought the loom.  My little voice never hesitated.  I am so grateful to her for thinking of me.  It turns out that she and I have a lot of common interests and now I have another new friend to add to my "old time creative skills" network.  Self Organizing Collectives. Yeah!

It took me a while to put the loom together once I got it down in the basement, and I'm not sure I have everything where it properly ought to be so I have the bolts in place loosely until I can find a manual for the loom.

Hammett's No. 402 floor loom

Isn't it beautiful?  I'm going to clean it up with some Murphy's Oil Soap and rub the wood with some beeswax.  That should make it shine.  It's even nicer when I think that the loom came from the Metsalas Century Farm to the Ledvina Century Farm (at least our part of it).  The loom had been purchased by a rich woman whose husband built a castle -- no kidding -- somewhere up here in the woods, and the loom stayed -- unused -- for 15 years in a turret room before being sold to the woman I bought it from.  She also had never used it. 

I have been looking online for books that will teach me how to set up and use the loom, but am not sure where to start.  I really have absolutely no experience with weaving and am still getting the hang of using a drop spindle.  It's too bad I can't spare the time to take a course on weaving what with taking care of Lara and Ed, but I'm confident that if I can find the information to study that I'll be able to figure everything out.   If you know of a DVD course set on using a 4 harness loom, I'd appreciate a link.  I've watched several You Tube videos on weaving, but even the terminology used in those videos is beyond me right now. 

I didn't make it to the farmers market yesterday because Tom and I  worked out in the field trying to take down the twisted remains of my high tunnel.  We have about half of it taken apart.  We will bring some more tools with us when we go to take down the rest of it.  Tom wants me to sell the steel hoops, but I hesitate -- it would be just my luck to sell the steel to the junk man and then need a pipe for something.  Tom is even keeping one of the base pipes to use as a "breaker bar" (a mechanic's tool of some sort).  I'm glad that we at least got the torn plastic out of the way. 

This morning it was so chilly that Tom lit our first fire of the year in the wood stove.  I'm telling you my bones ached I was so cold.   Now the sun is shining and the leaves turning color are magnificent.  Think I'll go out to the field and see if any more pumpkins are ready to be picked.