Old Looms Have a Way of Finding Me

Garage full of Weaver's Friend loom parts.

My friend Joan Sheridan, shop owner of Heritage Spinning and Weaving in Lake Orion, Michigan was contacted by someone recently who wanted to find a home for an old loom. It is called a Weaver's Friend and was manufactured by the Reed Loom Manufacturing Company. Since I have gotten several old looms going again and no one else took the bait, she asked if she could bring it up to me.

It now sits on my garage floor in multiple parts.

This part attaches to the crankshaft and the lower back frame support board, and is cracked enough to not be usable.

It is the board in the center of this whole assembly of crankshaft, pitmans, and back support board.

Bob thought the design might not have been strong enough for the force on it, so he beefed it up a bit when he cut a new one. He also made holes for the washers at an angle so they would be perpendicular to the bolts instead of at an angle when everything is tightened down.

The other part of all this assembly is the support board with an arched metal piece that engages with the cog wheel in the center of the crankshaft. The pitmans are the four curvy wooden parts (two are shown in the photo above) and connect with the bottoms of the shafts. It all becomes the automated part of the loom to raise and lower the shafts during weaving.

This is a two shaft loom.  The shafts are very heavy due to the thick hardwood frames and the cast iron pieces. The metal heddles add weight also.

Sectional warp beam.

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(L to R) Part name?, cloth beam, front bottom brace, breast beam, and back beam.

Beater that includes a 12 dent reed.

Top to bottom: handle with pawl, sleying hook, crank handle, rag shuttle.

A few boxes of rag strips were included.

Also included was a blue chained warp and three  large cones of cotton yarn and one mystery fiber.

My hope is to get the restoration done by next week and get a warp on and threaded by the beginning of July.  If that all happens and everything is working well, it will take a trip over to the Walloon Lake Antique Flywheelers grounds to be used as a demonstration loom at the end of July.

That is all contingent on how I am feeling on any given day.  I am halfway through my chemo treatments, with my forth one scheduled next Thursday. I have four or five days of not feeling well following treatment, and am finding I am getting progressively more tired from each one. Daily afternoon naps have become part of the routine. This project has been a nice distraction.

I have started cleaning the loom and removing cast iron parts and painting them. My next post will start showing my progress.

World Ovarian Cancer Day

I couldn't finish the day without mentioning World Ovarian Cancer Day.  I have written about it before and will continue bringing attention to this cancer that is often missed until it is too late.

This is just one link describing what to look for and it encourages women to become their own advocate.
Ovarian Cancer Symptoms

If you don't care to go to links, here is a brief rundown of the symptoms.
1. Abdominal or pelvic pain
2. Indigestion
3. Loss of appetite
4. Bloating
5. Urinary frequency
6. Feeling full quickly
7. Constipation, diarrhea or alternating between both
8. Lower back pain
9. Sudden unexplained weight loss
10. Vaginal bleeding
If you experience any of these symptoms over a 2-4 week period of time, make a visit to your doctor and express your concern. There are no screening tests for this cancer, but there are tests that can be run if you have symptoms. Be persistent.

An Update on My Disease
I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in July, 2013.  I underwent extensive surgery and six cycles of intense chemotherapy.  After completing the initial chemo, I was put into a clinical trial with chemo treatments every four weeks for a year. I followed up with my doctor every three months, per the trial protocol.

At the end of two years, about the time I was supposed to start six month check-ups, I started experiencing the symptoms again. My CA125 test had been rising, so my doctor kept my next scheduled exam at three months.

About a week or two before my doctor appointment, I started bleeding rectally. I was told to go to my regular doctor to be checked. I called my local surgeon and he got me into his office a half hour later. A colonoscopy was scheduled for the following Monday. A tumor was found and the biopsy found it tested for ovarian cancer. I met with my gynecologic oncologist and he scheduled surgery for the following Monday.

I had a bowel resection and exploratory on April 3rd, five weeks ago. Here I am, ready to head to surgery. Boy was I puffed up from two colon preps in a week!

On a positive note, I had a great roommate for the week I was in the hospital.

Our daughter Carolyn came over from Green Bay to visit and brought her sister Becky (no photo) from Petoskey.

My aunt and uncle and family sent a beautiful plant.

















Three and a half weeks later, I started chemo treatments again. I will be having a treatment every three weeks with two chemo drugs. My next infusion, another non-chemo drug will be added that is supposed to shrink blood vessels, and hopefully starve any new tumors that may develop. Other than days four and five after chemo, which I pretty much slept through, I have been doing well, as long as I don't overdo.

Weaving Again

I finally picked a small weaving project to start on yesterday. I finished the design this morning, and got the warp wound this afternoon and had it wound on the back beam by this evening.

This only shows half of it spread in the raddle. Hopefully I can start threading it tomorrow after I get back from the infusion center in the morning. I just need lab work drawn. Hopefully it will be in the okay range.