My Loom Came Home

Last October, my church put on a small 'Renaissance Fair.' I took my loom and Kimberly, who usually weaves on a table loom, wove on it while I spun on a drop spindle. At the end of the day, I asked Kimberly if she would like to borrow the loom for a while. She said she would, so it has been at her house since then. A few weeks ago Shirley asked if she could use it to weave at The Homeplace 1850, a living history museum in Land Between the Lakes on September 15. LBL is the area between Lake Barkley, created by a dam on the Tennessee River, and Kentucky Lake, created by a dam on the Cumberland River. They have a big loom at The Homeplace, but it is in a naturally lighted cabin that is rather dark. Shirley wanted a portable loom that she could put on a porch and weave in the bright light. Last Monday morning, we went to Kimberly's house and put the loom into Shirley's van. Shirley brought it back Sunday afternoon, so now it's in its usual place.

My loom is a Kessenich folding loom that is about a meter square when set up, so it is pretty easy to move. I bought it about ten years ago. I don't know how old it is, but the nameplate on it has a zone number rather than a zip code. Zip codes were started in 1963. I was in Germany that summer, and wondered what those numbers were that Mother started putting on the end of her return address. I didn't find out until I returned to the US in late August.


This is some of the weaving that Shirley did on Saturday. Kimberly had left a bit of warp on the loom, and Shirley used that. It was threaded in a Rosepath pattern (I'm not much of a weaver, but they both knew what that is), so Shirley used that. She said she lost track of what she was doing several times - you know how it is when you start talking to people, answering their questions. Anyway, there are breaks in the pattern. She said there's still some of the green thread on the bobbin in the shuttle, so I can finish it off with a few picks of plain weave and cut off the piece.


Lexi

Six-year-old Alexis spent Saturday night with me and we went to church on Sunday. I told her mother that I'd like to have her resume spending Saturday nights here frequently, partly because it gives me an incentive to drive the 30 miles to church. Like many kids that age, Lexi is missing her two front teeth. The bottom ones are about half-way in, but the top omes are completely missing. When she brushed her teeth Saturday night, I noticed that she was mainly brushing across the vacant space. I told her she was brushing where there were no teeth, and she said, "But there will be." I couldn't argue with that.