A few days ago my beautiful new-to-me loom arrived. It’s former life was with Kaz, who created gorgeous textiles on it. Kaz did the most amazing job packing up the loom to make sure it arrived here safely – complete with lots of bubblewrap and foam and corrugated cardboard and numerous labels and photos. I’ve spent the last few evenings slowly piecing the loom together, pestering Kaz with questions and details, and was in the final stages with just a few little bits to finish off. I had the blog post all planned with before and after photos of my work area and was thinking about the first warp. Oops.
I was just taking a final look through Kaz’s photos, wanting a detail of the mount where the beater pivots. Something caught my eye. Something about the cloth beam. There’s the ratchet and pawl and … the handle. The handle that can only fitted as the cloth beam is put in, which is pretty much step one of putting together the loom. The handle which I thought fit the warp beam. The handle which was still sitting on my work table.
The whole thing has to come apart again and be rebuilt from scratch – this time including the cloth beam handle.
I knew I would make mistakes as I learnt to use this machine. I expected setbacks. I know that very soon this will be a funny story, a small blip.
Just at this moment, I’m catching my breath.
Fibres of Being 
My husband, brother and I assembled a loom which my mother bought from my aunt (goodness, that was a family affair) and we learned an awful lot in the process, which was looong… Good luck on your second build. It is always so much quicker than the first.
Thanks Cally. Some sleep helped and I’m feeling quite positive about this now – but I’ll leave it until the weekend and hope my brain is a bit sharper in daytime.
Judy
What a beautiful loom! I can’t wait to see what your first project will be.
Isn’t it wonderful?! I’m busy sleying a practice warp. No photos – I’m muddling my way through and want to think things out myself.