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Tuesday, July 20, 2010

I'm officially FREAKED OUT!!

Yeah, I was exhausted, nose clogged up with dust, mind reeling with ideas and well generally overwhelmed. I knew this would happen but no matter how I mentally prepared, it didn't work. I AM REALLY FREAKED OUT!! I don't know what to do first, but I like a challenge and well the loom is in the garage so there is no turning back now. You know that feeling that you get when you really want something, then it happens and you think OH LORD what have I done or gotten myself into?? I'm there, I haven't slept since 3:00 am and that's not really good I need my 8 -9 hours.


40 boxes of extremely dusty dirty yarn, a lot of it wool, some linen, some cotton and some I won't know until I burn it. Also hidden in one of the boxes was Macrame yarn, I hadn't seen this type of yarn since the early 80's. I did discard a lot of the wool that was too dirty and tangled up to deal with, plus it had some kind of bug debris whatever was in it has been dead a long time. there was also some very thick almost roving like wool unfortunately it was in with the bug yarn.

Loom Bench that is also sturdy and adjustable, swweeeeeeet.

A bunch of slat sticks and two sets of these sticks that are tied on both sides with leather? I need to look in my weaving book for these. I have not emptied the milk can and don't know if by chance there are any shuttles in there but I don't think so.
The milk can that it housing these right now is suppose to be hunter green this did my nose and allergies in for the night.





The Stats: Macomber Ad A Harness Model B-5 Serial 4719
10 harness 12 pedals, no tie up from pedals to harnesses.
5 reeds, #5, #8, #10, #12 & #15 all Macomber, #15 is the only one without any rust.
I can't even begin to tell you how many heddles there are most are in great shape some have light rust. But counting them will be more tedious than cleaning the up. LOL..
There's a ton of cleaning that needs to be done and some de-rusting. I guess there will a mountain of dirty rags, wire brushes, steel wool and latex gloves in my near future.

7 comments:

Judy said...

Congratulations on a great weaving buy-an awesome loom and lots of yarn!!! Oh, happy day. I've bought two 30 year old looms that needed to be cleaned up and adjusted, but it was worth it and they are both great workhorses now. Enjoy!!

Geodyne said...

OK, breathe deeply, you've hit a bonanza!

Your loom is a countermarche, so not only do you have a lot of cleaning to do, you also have a lot to learn about tying up and balancing your loom. Fortunately there are a lot of internet resources to help. Shout for help when you need it and I'll point you to some valuable web pages.

The sticks you have which are held with leather at each side are lease sticks, and you'll be really glad you have them. I can see a warping board in there as well.

Delighted Hands said...

You can do this-just not all at one once! What a find, so glad for you!

Leigh said...

Congratulations on this! I love my countermarche and yes it was a tremendous learning curve but oh so worth it. Best type of loom for all-around weaving I say.

Glimakra has an absolutely wonderful book by Joanne Hall, Tying Up the Countermarch Loom, which takes the reader from set-up to weaving. I keep it handy at all times. It's reasonably priced and useful for all countermarche looms, not just the Glimakra brand. I cant recommend it enough.

Acorn to Oak said...

It looks and sounds like you've got a lot of work ahead of you but how exciting!

Theresa said...

Macombers are jack looms,I don't think they ever made a CM. so a CM tie-up isn't going to help you out much. I would pass on one piece of advice. You got the loom free, your time is worth much more than you would value it at I'm sure, rather than mess with de-rusting tons of heddles, I would highly suggest you invest in brand new heddles. My preference is inserted eye, a little more expensive, but you are ahead of the game. Macomber likely has instructions for all their looms and there is a gal with a blog who reps for Mac. Sarah Haskell, her Mac blog is here: http://macomberloomsandme.blogspot.com/
Macombers direct line is 207-363-2808, in York ME. They are a small operation so keep trying.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

Restless Knitter said...

Theresa is right, it's a jack loom.

I've ordered from Sarah Haskell before and can recommend her. She's a pleasure to work with. I don't see any hooks/super hooks to connect the treadles to the lamms so you may have to order some of those. They might be in the bottom of that 'green' milk can though!

It does look like your missing the strings on the cloth beam. There's a blog post at http://macomberloomsandme.blogspot.com/2010/05/new-strings-attached.html that explains how to replace them. I'm in the process of that one myself. I also have some tips for that if you'd like, just contact me.

Your reeds don't really look that bad in the pictures. Mine look like they have some rust but when yarn went through them, the yarn was still clean. And your heddles look to be in great shape. Can't see any rust on those in the pictures.

Grats on your loom :)