An unexpected windfall...

Last week a package arrived in the mail—a manila envelope from someone whose name I didn't recognize. Inside was this beautiful, handwoven towel and a letter from the woman who bought my Glimakra loom this past summer: the towel was from the first warp she'd put on the loom. She wrote a detailed note about how much she was enjoying it, about the rep rug she was weaving, and how it was so pleasant to weave because of the tremendous shed on the loom.

Selling my loom was a tough decision. I'd bought it more than 20 years ago and it was quite a stretch for our family to make that purchase. But it served me well for many, many years: I sold my work to friends and family members, at fairs, in a shop, and through an interior design firm. When I had little children I tried to weave at least a couple of inches every day so that I could feel I'd accomplished something that didn't need to be repeated (like cooking and laundry) just as soon as I'd completed it.

But when I went back to grad school my weaving slowed to a trickle and when we moved ten years ago I didn't set up my loom right away and the basement where it was going to be located was taken over by teenagers (mine). It sat in pieces in a storeroom until, in our big basement clean-out last summer, I decided that I was now a quilter and it was time to let the loom go to someone who'd use and appreciate it. Getting that package from Mary Beth really reaffirmed my decision to move on to a different phase of life.