On getting warped and weft

The first time the weaving bug bit me was in Winnipeg in 1992. I was upstairs in the old Ram Wool Warehouse on Arlington Street. I was actually looking for wool roving to spin when I saw the tapestry loom. I took home a brochure on looms and would dream about the loom I would some day own.

Family, homeschooling, and church life kept me occupied without a loom until we moved to Chilliwack in 2001. There I was introduced to a new whole set of people that spent a lot of time spinning and weaving. I was not alone in this crazy fibre world! But, although I did weave a blanket on my friend's loom, the time was still not right to own one of myself.

Then in 2008 I bought a small Dorothy 15" loom. Armed with two good instructions books, and cheap acrylic yarns, I was off to the races. Then in 2009 I inherited my mother-in-law's 60" counterbalance loom. Now things were really starting to happen. That Christmas each of my 6 children got an afghan for Christmas.

But you know how it is. Both the Dorothy and Fanny counterbalance have limitaions. So I went on Kijiji and bought a 22" Minerva. My husband cleaned it up, fixed it up, tweaked it a bit, and just recently I sold/traded it for a 45" Nilus Jack loom.  I'm not sure how old the Nilus is, but I do know that it is not a recent vintage. The jack mechanisms and brake tensioning device are not what I have seent on newer looms.

I am very excited to try out new weave structures on this loom, especially one called the Theo Moorman technique. So if you don't see me around, I am probably getting 'warped' in one of the weaving rooms on the second floor. Drop round and see me some time!

                                              The first project off the 'new' loom.