It's time for another update. We got together and did some more work, not on the loom this time but on the "accessories," such as the cone filler and the warping stand. We're hopeful that the Bisbee Fiber Arts Guild will take the loom; they have expressed interest in it, and we will be happy to have it go to a new home where it will be used. In the mean time, I've been rolling fabric strips into balls. They were stuffed into a plastic 55 gallon contractors trash bag, in no order, and became a tangled mess, so it has been a hard won battle. My husband commented on how much work it must have been for the rag rug weaver to sew all the strips together (and there are a lot of them) and I replied that cutting and sewing was probably about half of the prep time for weaving a rag rug. The weaver must have been on a roll because we've probably got about 80 lbs of fabric strips. Almost all of them are sewn, too, so it was definitely a time consuming process.

Here's what we've been doing:

Pirns

We took out the pirns, washed them and dried them, looked at their functionality, and only had to throw away 2. The rest, while worn, are in good shape (or at least good enough to use).

We also looked at the cylinders and found that most of them, while worn, were in good shape as well. Then we got started on the cone filler and the warping stand.

Coffee can device

Cone holder

the new leg

Feeding mechanism for rag strips

Lee doing wood work

Measuring angles for new leg

Measuring angles for new leg

We're not sure what the coffee can piece was for, but as you can see Lee replaced a leg and we cleaned up the Pony. The central support is a user added item, and it is slightly longer than the legs. We'll fix that and it will be ready for use.

Apparently the Phillips head screw wasn't used until after WWII, and Lee happened to have some "old" (straight slot) screws which we used to replace a couple of the Phillips head screws for the appearance of authenticity.

A repaired "Pony"

Not the original seat

The seat support is an addition and is slightly longer than the legs.

Looking much cleaner

Next is to remove rust from the warping stand, repair the base, and order some parts that we know we need for the other Pony.

Thanks for reading the blog.