Goldie

When Evelyn said she thought there was a story behind Goldie, she certainly was right. I bought this LeClerc Nilus Artisat loom that I completely didn't need on a total whim. Even now I'm surprised at me. I named her Goldie because she's in her golden years. Where to start?

I have been the newsletter editor for our guild for probably eight years and so also the online contact. I received an email asking if I'd advertise a loom for sale. After several email exchanges, I ended up purchasing it myself. I didn't need this loom but the story made my heart ache - I blame that. Ken was a recent widower. They had bought Goldie in upstate New York and Lee Ann wove on it for 20 some years. Sometimes Ken, an engineer, would share a project with her. They retired from the Bay Area and bought their dream house in the very pretty little community of Gardnerville. Three months later she was t-boned in an intersection and died instantly, thus my opinion on traffic rotaries.

I realized from our emails that Goldie needed to not be put out for advertisement - you know what that's like. I told him I worried that people would dicker with the price when he told me wanted to place an ad for "best offer." After days of thinking about the story, I arranged to buy it and Josh and DIL Missy picked it up for me - they were camping close by. I was still working, didn't have time to weave and Goldie got stuffed in the dormer.

Last fall I got the bright idea to replace her wire heddles with Texsolv heddles. I wasn't crazy about how hard it was to slide the wire ones after working with the wonderful big-eyed heddles on my Gilmores. If I thought the wire ones didn't slide, I was in for a surprise. These puppies were constipated! On top of that, this is a light weight loom. I know Lee Ann wove rugs on it and I have no idea how, but with the fiber heddles, the harnesses popped out of the sheds like bread from a toaster. I wove two sets of towels and stuffed her back into the dormer.
Lee Ann had every-
thing, including these extra bunches of wire heddles. I set about replacing the fiber heddles with these. What a job, a long and dirty job. I do love the wide open shed and ease of tie-up. I've decided this has to be my dish towel loom. Change of tie-up on Gilmores is rigorous and athletic. I realized when I got ready to weave my last rug that I had changed the tie-up for the baby blankets last year and had not been weaving twill ever since, even though I thought I was treaddling it.
And the heddles are done, ready to go. I'm not quite ready however, as my attention is focused still on weaving another rag rug, but it's good to know that Goldie is back in business. Benita admonished me a couple months ago to "free the loom." The loom has been freed :-)

I believe the day will come when Goldie will become DIL Missy's first loom. Goldie is important to me - she gave me into the weaving spirit.