July 23, 2012

It Followed Me Home...

And I'm keeping it!
just love that warp yarn that was left on...
 That is a Macomber 32" Ad-A-Harness Mac. Here's the story;

Saturday some friends and I headed up to Long Beach for the HGA Convergence. HGA stand for Handweavers Guild of America, and the Convergence is their annual conference. Like most conferences, there are workshops and classes and forums, exhibits and vendors and manufacturers. Loom manufactures.

Our plan included some light shopping, and heavy research on different types of looms. I was so not intending on buying a loom, that I drove my MINI up. Plenty of room for a passenger and our fiber-y purchases. Because I wasn't buying a loom. Just researching. So I'd know what to get later. If I'd been planning on buying a loom, I would've driven the truck!

So we sat a different looms, and asked questions, and I practiced throwing shuttles and very nice people answered our questions and told us lovely things about the looms in their booths.

We saw Leclerc, and Glimraka (the Ideal is very nice) and I'd heard of those before. But when we got to Macomber, I'd never heard about them. Fortunately, my friends had, and had heard good things too. The Macomber people had brought along their 32" loom to demonstrate, and they didn't want to ship it all the way back to Maine. I don't blame them. Wow, it was marked with a very good price, and included extras.

I didn't want to walk away, but, I was very stern with myself, and thanked the nice Macomber people and continued on. It took me at least 20 minutes to really settle in with feeling good about sticking to my plan. We checked a few more loom manufacturers and then started shopping.

Every so often, our shopping brought us near the Macomber booth, and I'd see that loom sitting there, and I'd think, "Well, its too bad I'm not ready to buy a loom. That is a great price for that loom." And my friends and I would continue browsing and shopping.

I bought a little silk to spin, 

and saw this cute Owl bag and so bought the fabric to make it.


The booth with the cute fabric (lots of Japanese fabrics), was in line-of-sight with the Macomber booth. And the loom. I felt done with my shopping, so I decided to make another pass around the looms. Back by the Glimraka Ideal and then the Macomber. It was still for sale. All of a sudden, it hit me hard. If I walked away from that loom, I just knew I'd regret it. No amount of stern talking to myself was going to change that realization. I don't like regret, not one bit. I whipped out my phone, and called my husband.

I'd already sent a text to DH earlier that morning, alerting him to the amazing deal before me, and then sent a text to tell him how I'd talked myself down.
I don't think he was that surprised when I called.
And he calmly listened to my reasons for buying the loom, and then said, "okay".
Then I dropped the real reason why I called him,
 "Honey, I need to you to bring the truck."
"Today? To Long Beach?"
"Yes. The show ends today, and it closes at 4 p.m. The loom has to go today." It was around 1:30 p.m. at this point. DH was a very good sport, and he and #1 Son spent around 3 hours in terrible traffic, bringing the truck. Later tonight I'm making chocolate chip cookies, a small way to show my appreciation. I think there's a pair of hand knit socks in the near future for DH, too.


I had one last bit of shopping to do. I needed a new loom project, a "welcome home, let's get acquainted" project. Lunatic Fringe Yarns had some great organic cotton weaving kits for sale, and I bought the napkin kit.


Here are some of the other looms; Leclerc
that's a sectional warp beam
the lovely Glimraka Ideal
an AVL computerized loom
and you can see more pictures here at SDMags blog.

Sunday was spent moving this;
out to the patio, to make room for the loom. Its been an exciting weekend.








6 comments:

  1. Congratulations, I think! Yes, regret is a terrible thing.... I wish I had more time to play; a friend loaned me her sampling loom but it's still sitting in my trunk.

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    1. Maybe you'll have time to play after all the berries are harvested?

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  2. Congratulations! Sweet loom. You're going to just love it.

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  3. Just want it on record that I did nothing to encourage you into that purchase but was a great and loyal friend after your purchase in helping you justify your new loom! I'm so excited and envious at the same time....

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  4. Duly noted! Yes you are a great an loyal friend, and I took shameless advantage of all the research you had done. I guess I'm just lucky Macomber didn't bring a 40" loom... :-)

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