This is a “before” picture of my loom. (Hopefully I uploaded it correctly.) It’s “before” I bought her and polished her up. She’s really much prettier than this! I’ve never tied up and used a counterbalance loom before so it’s been quite an experience. So far, I’m figuring everything out but I am curious to find out anything I can about her. The previous owner believed she originally belonged to a guild near Berea College in KY. The thing that really puzzles me is what I’m calling the “horses” because they are where horses belong. They are sort of hourglass shaped pieces of wood with a hole in the top to thread up to the top pulleys and a pulley inside the bottom of the piece to thread to the harnesses. I’ve looked all over the internet and haven’t found anything like these. However, on a visit to the Berea College weaving workshop, I found an old loom that wasn’t being used that had the same kind of “horses”. It was during a school break and no one there knew anything about them. Can anyone tell me anything about them? They are beautiful pieces but I wonder if I should replace them with for normal horses for ease in weaving? Thanks for any information. Joanna

Comments

Fri, 10/22/2010 - 17:45

Joanne Hall

Hi Joanna,

It looks like you have a very nice loom.  One of the features of a loom like this is that you can weave with two, three, four or more shafts.  But you do need to learn how to do the tie-ups.  Since this loom is new to you, I suggest that you use just one of these pulleys on each side of the loom and tie up just two shafts.  Weave something in plain weave so that you can learn more about weaving on your loom.  Then for weaving with four shafts, you will use two pulleys on each side.  They will have a cord between them, going over the top of the loom.  I cannot see what is there, but usually there is a pulley at the top of the loom so that the cord easily moves to raise and lower the two pulleys below.

Contact me for more information, [email protected] and I can send you some instructions.

joanne

Fri, 10/22/2010 - 17:50

jshepich (not verified)

You are right. I hadn't thought about how the top pulleys would work together because just as you suggested, I am trying just two shafts to begin. That is just so cool to understand now. Thanks much. I actually made a note about some books you mentioned to an earlier poster and was going to contact you about getting those anyway so I'll send a separate email. Again, thank you! Joanna
Fri, 10/22/2010 - 19:16

Claudia Segal (not verified)

It's a beauty.  I have a cb/cm Glimakra Standard and find the Lundell book good.  Joanne has been the biggest help of all along with others on Weavolution with the same loom.  You should consider her new book, Learning to Warp Your Loom.  

I posted a question and pictures about my cb here in this post titled cb problems.  My horses are different and I have only used the countermarche until now.  

For posting pictures in your comments check here in the help section.  There are several YouTube videos on the WeavolutionWebcasts channel that were posted by Cyber-Fiber teacher, Mary Rios.

Claudia, Weavolution co-founder and happy cb owner