[Preface b y Marilyn Greaves - One our weavers, Sarah Egan, is undertaking a large rug, approximately 57" x  72".  She has been weaving for two or three years.  She is to be commended on such a large project. I have seen her progress and it is going to be a beautiful Two Grey Hills consisting of a lot of her own handspun, which she produced on the Navajo Spindle.  My hat is off to her for that.  I have asked Sarah to share some words of wisdom on the subject. Her title says it all, "THE LOOM OF DOOM".]

Hello Weavers! This is the story of my "up and over loom". I have been weaving for almost two years, ever since I took a beginning weaving class from Mel and Marilyn in Auburn, CA. I made several smaller rugs and then began to contemplate a larger loom, something that I could make a rug larger than a three by four feet. Mel and Marilyn had several larger looms that I studied, but as with all things that I do, I had to go bigger! I was seeing in my head a large rug on the wood floor of my dream home. How would I be able to make a rug that large with out a really big loom?

So I went for it. Off to Home Depot for the wood. I decided to go with 2 X 6 lumber for the frame, because I thought that a large loom would need the extra support. (My finished loom is a little taller than 6 feet square.) I also picked up pipes. I had seen the size of the pipes used by the women on the reservations, but they didn't have something that large at Home Depot. So, I bought thick walled 1-inch pipes.

Yeah right. Marilyn came over to help me put on my turnbuckles and tighten the warp. It hardly took any time at all, and the pipes were already bending by three or more inches. The warp was not tight. So I went back to Home Depot and explained what I was trying to do to the nice gentlemen there and was directed to the 2.5-inch corner posts for chain link fencing. Ok, I thought, these would work. Warp came down, strapped the new pipes on and started to tighten.

Yeah right. Although it was significantly better than the first set of pipes, there was still about a four inch sag in the middle of the top pipe and a the bottom pipe was pulling up by two inches or so. I did some weaving with these pipes in place before I admitted to myself that I couldn't continue to weave with the pipes bowing. So for the third time I loosened the warp and took it off the loom. At this point I listened to my mother. She suggested that I use 2 X 6 lumber in place of the pipes. (She had suggested this before I tried either set of pipes!) So, I screwed the wood in place and tightened down the warp. Finally! The wood was only sagging an inch or so on the top and very little on the bottom.

That was last April, and now my rug is about two feet high. The final size of this rug will be almost six feet by just over seven feet (I think.) When it is complete, I will be happy to pass on a picture.

Moral of the story, Listen to your mother the first time.