Waiting.

Compu-Dobby is still with AVL.  In the meantime, I have been sitting on my hands! 


Though not entirely.  I went with a friend last weekend to visit someone in Albany and got to see a number of AVL and slightly pre-AVL looms that had  been made by Jim Ahrens.  Among the looms was a dobby-run drawloom, which I was interested in until I realized that it only had four ground harnesses, so weaving satin ground would not be possible on that.  Ah well.  Still, it was a real treat to meet such distinguished people and to see prototypes made by Ahrens himself. 


They also showed us a tiny swatch of leno-woven silk, about 75 epi, which has to be one of the most beautiful textiles I've ever seen. 


Among the other treasures was a warp beam still beamed with an unwoven cream-colored silk warp that Jim Ahrens had beamed on it.  A haunting moment!
If that wasn't fabulous enough, a friend who's just purchased a new bobbin winder gave me her old AVL bobbin winder.  She says "It looks like it's been through the wars!".  Not bad.  It works, though; and this is a great thing.  Although I had bought a Schacht hand-cranked bobbin winder, for a good chunk of money, the same thing that happened with the old one I had happened, which is that it is not really a stable design, and seems to have been made with weavers who only weave a few bobbins once in a while in mind.  The electric one has a sturdy sewing machine motor on it and is controlled by a pedal.  I have to accept the electrical advantage, too, because winding bobbins and pirns had become a huge pain in the neck to do by hand with that undersized, rotator-cuff-injuring crank.




The numbness in my right arm, down the ulna from the elbow to the pinky and ring finger, has abated slightly.  I've been trying to sleep with my arms at my sides, which is a very unusual sleeping position for me, but it actually seems to be helping a little bit.  I can still feel the tingly numbness, but the fingers aren't totally numb anymore and the right side of the ring finger, though still tingly, feels almost normal.  My handwriting is still wonky, and I couldn't play piano too well yesterday, but I'm feeling a bit hopeful!


And I am reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally really missing weaving.