Journey, part 3

The decision to sell our home and move into a 400 square foot living space was not made easily.  For years I spent much of my spare time acquiring things, visiting antique shows, trolling eBay and Etsy for the perfect item. And the craft equipment! I love to make things, and the supplies to make things take up space.  A lot of space.  I have been sewing since I was a young child, watching Mom make our dresses.  Gram gave me my first sewing machine, and I loved sewing clothing and toys for the kids.  At one point I was making all their clothing by hand, and most of mine, too.

Later on, I caught the weaving bug.  My first "loom" was a rigid heddle backstrap loom. I had a lot of fun with it but decided I needed a "real loom."  So I put a notice in the Confidential Chat section of the Boston Globe, asking if someone would give me a loom.  And somebody did.  It was a Weavers Delight loom and it was all in pieces like a giant, three dimensional jigsaw puzzle.  I was able to restore it to its original glory, but, man--that loom was BIG! It had a footprint of close to 6' x6', which pretty much took up the whole living room.  After we moved to NJ I traded it for a table loom.

I have had a lot of different looms over the years, and Bob has always encouraged me to follow my passion. So it was difficult to imagine having to limit myself to small looms and minimal equipment. At present, I have the following in the motorhome, which all fit into the bunkhouse:

1) Macomber 20" 8 harness Baby Mac
2) Saori Piccolo
3) two 12" Ashford Knitters Looms (AKLs)
4) 20" AKL
5) 12" Avril
6) Ashford Sample-it Loom (ASIL)
7) Gilmore Lap Inkle

Along wth the looms, I have a stand for the AKLs (Bob made me a set of cross braces that allow me to use the stand with either size loom,) a Saori warping board, a raddle, weaving yarn, and a variety of pin looms and weaving accessories that are necessary for weaving. My Columbine spinning wheel also fits in there.

My weight limit for the contents of the bunkhouse is 250 pounds. I think I am within that limit!

I did a lot of buying and selling of looms and spinning wheels in the past couple of years, looking for just the right equipment to take on the road.  Time will tell if I have chosen wisely. I hope to have opportunities to teach rigid heddle weaving at campgrounds, thus all the RH looms.

What does NOT fit in there includes my sewing machine and serger, two bins of sewing "stuff," my marudai (which comes apart), fiber for spinning, and some knitting yarn. My needles and hooks will hang in my clothes closet. I'm hoping to tuck most of these (except for the bins) into the clothes closet and under the bed.  I'll keep you posted!

Let me tell you, it is HARD getting rid of things! All those cute little chotchkies that I collected and loved to display, all the baking pans and specialty cookware, the books, the family heirlooms, photographs, the Christmas ornaments... all had to go.  I was fortunate--the kids took much of it.  For  my precious Christmas decorations (many of them handmade) I invited the children over and handed each couple $1100 in Monopoly money for a "Survivor"-type auction.  They all wanted the tree we had, so I put a slip of paper in one box that said "tree."  They bid on bins of ornaments and decorations, sight unseen.  We had a lot of fun, and all the decorations went to new homes.

Our home of 24 years sold right away, after only 6 days on the market.  We moved into our former rental house, where the kids had been living.  After about 6 weeks of constant work (repairs, upgrades, and painting) it was ready to be listed.  We are now waiting for our buyer to appear so we can take that final step and drive off into the sunset.