A Mouse in the Loom?

A mouse in the loom? Well, not really, but I was beginning to wonder. I was quietly weaving the blanket but every few shots, a shaft would not drop. I couldn't even push it down. Rarely the same shaft. I tried to look through the threads and heddles and shafts to see what was keeping a shaft from going down. I couldn't see anything. When I would push on the shaft in an attempt to get it down there was a weird kind of soft resistance, look it was actually pushing against the warp. But it wasn't. A mouse? Well...........one last look revealed that this little rubber bumper, one of two which rests on the bottom to soften the blow on the shafts when they drop and make the whole operation a little less noisy, had flipped off its resting place and was getting caught in the shafts and getting in the way. Problem solved.

Of course, with the loom warped, the front and cloth beams in the way, I cannot easily replace that bumper, so there is only one bumper on right now. But I will put it back on when I am done with this blanket. With masking tape.

Masking tape? When I was putting the loom together when I first got it, I couldn't figure out what these rubber things were. When I finally figured it out, I had dislodged the staples that were meant to hold them onto the loom. So.......masking tape it was. I am definitely not a carpenter.