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I’ve just done a very successful swap.  I had a 16S Harris table loom that is very heavy, takes up a lot of floor space in my studio and isn’t used much.  I suddenly decided that I needed to sell it and buy an 8S table loom that folds away, so that my students don’t find it so daunting, and I have space available when it’s not being used.  Then I started thinking about the logistics of selling one and buying the other and frankly, it felt like a weight was landing on my shoulders!  Just the thought of it made me want to abandon the idea. 

Then I had a little brainwave!  What about a swap?  No money changes hands, someone gets a more sophisticated loom that can do far more in the way of complex weaves, and I get a loom that my students will be happy using, that gives me the floor space I need when I want it. 

My husband thought I was a little cuckoo – after all, downsizing 16 shafts for 8 when you’re a self-confessed shaftaholic seems a little bizarre – but I don’t actually use this loom much myself – it’s way too slow for my multi-shaft weaving, and it’s very heavy trying to transport it for the occasional workshops that I attend.  I could see where he was coming from.  After all, I did pay £700 for this loom just a few years ago.  Probably way too much, but I needed it for something and that was the only one around that I could get to… 

And now I wanted to swap it for something at least half the monetary value.  He has a point.  So I asked him if he’d like to take over the transactions…  Suddenly there were no more objections. 

So I went to the Virtual Market part of the UK Online Guild of Weavers, Spinners & Dyers, and posted the information in the For Sale part as a swap.  I got three responses, one of which matched my requirements, and we did the swap, meeting midway (roughly) in a motorway service station car park today just before it started raining – again!! 

So there are two people who are happy with the win-win transaction and no money to mess things up!  I like swaps… 

Now, is there anyone out there with a TC-1 computer jacquard handloom to swap with a 1930s industrial jacquard powerloom?????  We could go halves on transport costs!!