Macomber Large and Small
I have recently replaced my larger Macomber loom with a small one. The large loom is a four shaft Add-A-Harness with a 32" weaving width. It's the loom my grandmother bought the summer of 1962 when she took me to Penland School of Craft in western North Carolina to learn how to weave. It's the loom my husband and I have moved from house to house and state to state for decades before I went back to weaving. I've used it for several projects in the last several years but came to realize that it's not my favorite loom and I prefer to weave on any of my other looms. I struggled and waffled with the decision of re-homing the loom because it's been in my family for so long. I finally realized that both my mother and my grandmother would have thought I was silly to keep it if I didn't really want to weave on it.
The best thing about finding a new home for this loom, is where it's going. My friend, Patsy Engelhard, who owns Knit 1 Oxford, in Oxford, MS is thrilled to be the new owner of the loom. One of the wonderful things about it is that Patsy remembers my grandmother. It's like giving it to my sister. So sometime later this spring, Peggy and I will load up the loom and the accessories and drive up to Oxford, MS. We will deliver the loom to Patsy and give a class on weaving on the new wider Cricket loom. More about that later.
Here is my new and much smaller Macomber loom. It's only 20" weaving width but has 8 shafts and folds to make moving it around much easier. It's heavy and I don't really intend to haul it around regularly but I can take it to a workshop if I want to. I bought it from Betty Vanderberg, my favorite jewelry making weaver. Betty decided she needed to clean out some equipment that she wasn't using and I'm the happy recipient of the great little loom.
I replaced the older style flat heddles with inserted-eye heddles and have ordered a sectional back beam for it that should be here shortly. I've already woven a couple of mohair boucle scarves and I love the loom.
Moving the new smaller loom into the space previously taken by the larger loom gives the whole studio a more open and roomy feel. We have so much stuff crammed in here that any additional room is a good thing. We even have made room for the Schacht spinning wheels that we are now carrying.