Look at what came to my house today:

A floor loom! It's an older Leclerc counterbalance loom that I got via Paula. She and Lee, her husband, brought it to the house this morning. (Lee is one of my heroes. He's one of those competent men who can fix ANYTHING. I get smarter just by standing next to him.) This is the loom seen from the back, and yes, that's part of my stash of spinning fiber over in the corner by the fireplace.
Here's the view from the weaver's position, with Jasper in the background:

Jasper and the loom:

Things are NOT as slanted as it looks here. Maybe that's why Jasper looks so dubious.
BTW< you can see my first attempt at a homemade raddle sitting on the back beam of the loom. Let me give you a piece of advice if you decide to make something like this: do NOT predrill the holes on your kitchen table. You may THINK your drill isn't going that deep, but when you pick up your work and see this:

you'll discover just how WRONG you were, and you'll feel stupid. REALLY stupid. Ask me how I know this.
Oh well. Thank Og for wood filler, I guess.
The counterbalance is one sort of loom I've never used before. I've used jack looms and countermarch looms, but counterbalance will be new to me. It's got a long and respected heritage, and that's good. I'm looking forward to learning about it. I've actually read so much this afternoon that I'm a little freaked out. So I'm going to stop reading and just play with stuff, without feeling like I have to be MASTER. WEAVER. ON. COUNTERBALANCE!!!!!! in one easy lesson. I give myself permission to play. If I screw up, that's fine, as long as I learn something from it!
But I'm going to spin now and rest my brain.