Complete and utter loom-acy

I’ve been busy the last few days prepping for the loom purchase, and really wondering what lunacy I’ve gotten into. Disassembling and packing a loom on unfamiliar turf is not for the faint of heart! But I think I’ve gotten most of the arrangements in order. I have plane tickets, a rental car, and a hotel. I have three weavers (bless their hearts!) coming by to help me disassemble the loom. That means that, even marking and photographing everything, the loom disassembly should be a breeze. I have gotten quotes from three or four freight companies, and have selected one to come by on Monday, pick up the loom parts, and then pack them professionally at their facility, crate them, and ship them to California via freight. It will cost me $700-800 more than having it shipped in a crate that I pack myself, but will allow me to ship insured and will quite possibly save my sanity, so worth the $$ – and fortunately I do have the cash to do it.

Which leaves the next piece of loom-acy – finding a place to put the loom. We don’t have a large house, so the loom is going into the garage, in the same place my AVL Workshop Dobby Loom currently resides. However, the loom is 2-3 feet larger than the WDL in nearly every dimension, and the garage is not huge either! So I have been rearranging the stuff in the garage, picking out items to get rid of, and so forth. Prosaic but also exciting. A new loom! How awesome is that?

I have also started winding the next warp for the stenciled warp project. This one will be 10 yards of 30/2 silk, 22″ wide. That’s enough to do four stenciled warps, or three stenciled warps plus some left over to let a loom purchaser try the loom. Because yes, I do need to sell my beloved Workshop Dobby Loom so I can make space for the new loom!

So if you know anyone in the Bay Area who would be interested in purchasing an AVL WDL, please let me know. It comes with lots of accessories (2400 heddles and an embarrassing number of reeds), plus various tweaks and improvements, like strip lighting across the top of the castle. I may even throw in an end-feed shuttle or two! I haven’t yet settled on price (it depends on what accessories I’m throwing in) but somewhere between$3500 and $3900. A new one from AVL is priced at $5500 – after tax and shipping, that’s over $6000. So it’s not a bad deal at all.

I’d prefer to finalize the sale in early January – after I’ve gotten the new loom in working order – but if you think you might be interested, please get in touch.

I’m also selling a 22″, 8-shaft Leclerc Minerva for $700, so if you know anyone interested, pass it on.

And, in finis, let me show you how excited the kittens were when I told them the news:

Yep – they may be excitable kittens, but they’re still cats. 🙂