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Crazy as a Loom

Wednesday, October 6, 2021

It's always something.


My weaving friends will understand this.  

My non weaving friends can probably compare this to some annoying event in their own lives.

Because as Lois often tells me, "It's always something."

I was weaving away week before last, and the cable from the compudobby to the elift SNAPPED.

Harnesses dropped, elift cable spun out of control.  

NO MORE WEAVING.


The elift cable goes around the wooden cam.  The cable that broke goes around the white plastic cam.


This cable broke 4 years ago, and I managed to fix it.    But you don't think I can remember much about it, do you?????







I did manage to buy a roll of 1/16th" cable, and a supply of the two kinds of ferrules I needed to connect the cable, but the crimper that I needed to secure the ferrules on the cable was $178.
That's quite a lot for something I'm going to use for 5minutes.
Lucky for me, the hardware store 3 miles from my house has one, and they  lent it out to me four years ago, so I asked them to lend it to me again.



It is not something that I can do by myself, it takes two sets of hands.   Finally, when I had my space in my head organized for this task, Lois and I got it done.  Unfortunately, the loom still didn't work.

So after a little more studying, I cut the cable off, and we did it a second time.  The big question was "do the cams rotate the same way, or in opposite directions."  The answer is, they rotate in the same direction, but the cable on the white plastic cam has to come up and around it, before going to the compudobby.

All this being said, I took photos, printed them out, typed up directions and a description of just how it needed to be done.  I put all this in the box with all the extra cable and parts, and even included the lineman pliers that I spent $20 on, the ONLY thing that would cut that braided cable clean.

The loom fired up and works beautifully.
Kudos to me and Lois.

I totally congratulated myself on NOT freaking out, for taking it ONE step at a time, for NOT being intimidated by the scope of it, for believing that it was totally doable.

Because it was.


This is  a picture of Sydney's new favorite place.........the sofa.
She is not one bit put off by a 50 lb pit bull/lab mix on the other end of the couch.
And she has decided that snoring under my arm is just peachy.





On the knee front, yes, it still hurts.  But progress is daily.   I can now sleep on my side, and it is amazing.
I can't believe that I have slept on my back for 3 months.

I also discovered that weaving on the Louet using all 10 treadles is pretty good exercise for my knee, and afterwards, it feels better.

It is still sort of swollen, not pretty, but it is beginning to feel more like it belongs to me.

My three months of PT is complete, so it is up to me now, to get it stronger.  They are not kidding when they say that recovery from a TKR takes a year.
I believe them.




The 40 yard towel warp on the AVL is finally done, on to something different.




It's not just my knee that is feeling more normal.  I am, too.   Being able to weave, planning my next warp, creating, all of that just makes me feel like I am once again comfortable in my own skin.

Now for a couple of recommendations........

Books I've read and really liked:

Matrix, by Lauren Groff.

The People in the Trees, by Hanya Yanagihara

Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah

The Madness of Crowds, by Louise Penny

Something to binge:   OFFSPRING, on Netflix

Have a great October week......I love October.




2 comments:

Joanne Noragon said...

And I thought a Louet friction brake assembly was complicated!
In the really good news, I'm so happy your knee is coming through for you, one day at a time.

Peg Cherre said...

So glad to hear you’re doing better. That raspberry & blueberry weaving is STUNNING! I love both the colors and the weave structure.

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Because every thread counts

Because every thread counts