Lola’s New Legs!

The first week or two in November 2019, I acquired Lola, a 15 3/4” Leclerc Dorothy 4 shaft table loom.

She was in okay shape, but she was missing a reed and part of her beater. She was rusted and rundown.

After cleaning her up, I made her a fancy new pair of aprons, painted most of her hardware, and outfitted her with shiny new heddles.

Her maiden project was a set of placemats using 8/2 cotton as warp and 8/8 cotton as weft.

  

She wove beautifully, but she was a bear to actually use because the levers took so much effort to engage. She was not fun to weave on at all. 

It was very disappointing. 

A few weeks ago, someone added a very interesting post on the Leclerc Loom Owners Facebook group. This lady installed a lever kit, which replaced the original difficult Leclerc levers. 

In a word, I was gobsmacked. 

I had no idea such a thing existed. I have poured all over the Leclerc website and scoured Camilla Valley Farms for parts and accessories. Not once did a lever conversion kit ever come up. 

The reason? 

It’s an aftermarket item created and produced by a lady and her husband in Canada. Link here. 

A close friend and I each ordered one immediately. 

A week later, they arrived. 

Half an hour later, the sweet husband installed it!

Oh!

It worked perfectly!

Now, backing up a bit, on March 8, 2020, someone posted a Leclerc Dorothy 15 3/4” loom for sale with a separate listing for the loom stand. Here is the original photo posted:

I was aware Leclerc made and sold these stands, but they are $235, and this is not one of my main looms. I have her to teach people to weave and to take in the RV when we go camping. I did not want to invest too much money in her; however, the used stand was $100, plus shipping. 

Then shelter-in-place happened.

I was in touch with the seller, she knew I wanted the stand, it would just take a while until she could ship it. In addition, she did not have a PayPal account and preferred I send a check, but she would have to see how much shipping would be...

Fast forward nine weeks and five days, the stand arrived earlier this evening!

It took five minutes to open the box and another two minutes to put it together. 

And, I was weaving on the patio, waiting for a storm to blow in. 

With the pair of antique Hammett shuttles and cool 3D bobbins provided by a nice lady in San Antonio (more on those in this post), Lola is now the perfect little loom!

I cannot wait to share her with a few friends interested in weaving. 

Yay!