Weaving

I say I am a weaver, I would love to say that I weave everday, but I don't. It goes in spurts. I may weave everyday for a few weeks and then my loom sits motionless for months. For me weaving is relaxing. There is the sound of the heddles rattling with every lift of the the harness. There is the rhythm of sliding the shuttle in the shed and pulling back the beater. When weaving you can only see a small portion of the project at a time, so there is a lot of satisfaction of watching the project expand and then finally getting to cut if off the loom and seeing it in full for the first time. I have several looms and they all have their different purposes, but my favorite is my Ideal loom that was made in the 1930's. It is old, rough, and very heavy. I have begged friends on numerous occasions to help me move it and my husband has moved it more than he would like to admit and moving it is not an easy job since it is bulky and weighs several hundred pounds. It is well suited for weaving rugs. I treasure it, if I could only keep one loom this would be the loom. I feel a connection to this loom that I can't explain. When I bought the loom I new nothing about weaving. I had seen weaving at a fair and thought it looked interesting. I was at the Washington State Surplus with my dad who went to see the auto auction. I walked in and there was the loom along with 2 others. One was sold already, the other didn't seem to have all the parts. I thought about buying it, but it $100.00 which I didn't have since I was working a minimum wage job. I didn't buy it, but my dad was hooked on the surplus, so the next week we went back and there was the loom still but it was marked down to $50.00, which my dad paid for and gave me for my birthday. The tricky part was getting it home since it didn't fit in the car, but that is another story. People ask me why the State of Washington would even have looms, and I will tell you that they came from the Veteran's rehab facility. The looms were used by Vietnam vets when they came home from war. I believe that is why I feel the connection to this loom. This loom was used for physical healing and I believe there was some emotional healing in those that weaved .