There wasn’t much progress happening on this project for a while, thanks to my cranky back. And thanks to my back I’ve been examining the whole set up for good ergonomics. We’re going to make some changes.

First up, the support beam on the front of the table needs to move further back as it prevents me getting my legs close enough under the loom. Secondly, I’m not sure the height of the table is right, now that I use pedals.

Putting pedals on the table has opened my eyes to all the features a floor loom has that make weaving easier. I had no idea what lamms were until recently. Now I want some badly! It would mean I could weave on days where my mind wasn’t up to the challenge of keeping track of pedal combinations. Also, a loom with a beater that swivelled from below the reed, not above, would mean the race didn’t rub against the underside of the fabric, forcing me to advance the warp every few centimetres.

However, shopping for looms when you’re in Australia is no straight-forward task. If I want to try before I buy, the only place to look at looms is the Guild, so I have to hope they have a good range for comparison. Then either I buy from Europe or the US, with expensive shipping rates and a long wait for delivery, or I keep an eye out for second hand looms.

It’s easier to keep modifying the loom I have. I’ve come up with a way I could possibly tie up two or three heddles to one pedal without using lamms. It’ll also provide the bracing currently given by the support beam on the front that I want to remove. I’ve even been considering removing the beater and making a new one that swivels from below the warp.

All which means I won’t have the problem of a table loom to sell – probably for much less than I bought it for. Unless I kept it, of course. I have no idea where I’d put it, though!