One day last summer, as I was casually browsing the looms on Ebay, I came across the Loom of All Looms – a 60″, 16 shaft, 18 treadle J-Made with double warp beams, worm gears, and rear hinged treadles, plus tons of accessories. I knew immediately that it was meant to be mine.
I marched right out of the house and across the street to our neighbor’s driveway, where Chad was having a conversation.
“I found The Loom,” I informed him.
“Cool! Where is it?”
“Oregon,” I said, and turned to walk away.
“How are you going to get it?” He laughed. It was understandable, since we live in Florida.
“I don’t know,” I called, “That’s for you to figure out! I just know that’s The Loom!”
As it turns out, it’s not so easy getting a 6′ loom across the country. The seller wasn’t able to ship it or even take it apart, which really limited my options. First, I tried posting the listing on Uship. The quotes came in! I was thrilled until I actually read them. No way was I paying $4,000+ just for freight.
Next, I tried placing my own price. I waited and waited, but no one was interested.
As a last resort, I looked into a UHaul shipping container, but that was pretty pricey and I still had to pay someone to pack it up and load it in.
Finally, after nearly three months, I almost gave up. As a last ditch effort, I posted in a Facebook group looking for help. It was suggested I contact Eugene Textile Center, so contact them I did. It turns out they do this sort of thing all the time, and the quote was within my price range! I couldn’t believe this could actually happen.
I made an offer on the loom right away. It expired after only 12 hours with nothing response or counter offer. I was worried the seller never saw it because of the time difference, so I sent her a message.
Time passed, still no response. I was devastated. To be so close, and miss out! I had to know if she’d seen my message and offer. Finally I hit Facebook.
Fortunately, she had a unusual name. I found her right away and wrote to her. She responded quickly. She was so nice! She hadn’t seen the offer or message, but she would accept it! I still couldn’t believe this could actually happen.
Arrangements were made for ETC to pick up the loom and enormous amount of accessories it came with. Suzie, the owner, went down with help, and loaded it all up.
Less than a week later, it was packed into a crate and headed my way. I still couldn’t believe this could actually happen.
Then it arrived! The crate was enormous and weighed in at 900 pounds. It barely fit in the spot we’d cleared in our garage.
The next day, we opened it up.
Nine hours later, it had a spot in what had suddenly become my loom room…and I can finally believe it could happen.
