I recently had the pleasure of connecting with Barb
MacIntyre, a longtime AVL customer and friend.
Barb is a retired production weaver with a passion for making a
difference. Even though she’s retired
from production work, Barb still enjoys weaving in her home studio on her Little
Weaver and 60” Production Dobby Loom, which she has outfitted with a double
beam, fly shuttle, and compu-dobby. She
also loves her AVL warping wheel. She
has found that her AVL equipment has allowed her to challenge herself to weave
more complexly with her design, skills which are reflected in and assist with
her new focus, paying it back. Outside
of her studio time, Barb has been teaching weaving to an unlikely group of
people—residents at an assisted living facility in Poulsbo, Washington. Her
self-appointed challenge after getting her mother-in-law settled into the
facility, was to get the seniors out of their rooms during the day and
challenge themselves to interacting with each other and enjoying life other
than breakfast, lunch & dinner.
Back in 2010, Barb helped to identify an unknown piece of
furniture an employee at Brookdale Montclair Poulsbo had found in the sprinkler
room. Turns out it was an abandoned 4 shaft floor loom. Barb cleaned the loom up, rethreaded it with
the warp that was found on it, and set it up in Montclair’s Great Room. Residents were invited to come-by and throw a
couple of shots on the loom. The rag rug
that was woven now is displayed in the Great Room. Sadly, the loom had to be re-homed, as it was
too difficult for the residents to treadle.
Montclair and Barb struck a deal, providing Barb with a dedicated space
within the facility to house the Kitsap Weaving School if Barb would provide
looms & teach the residents how to weave at no charge. Barb had been looking for a way to give-back
in some way, and was pleased when this opportunity presented itself.
For the last seven years, Kitsap Weaving School has been teaching
free classes for Montclair residents once a week for two hours and the room is
open to residents twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Barb also teaches day workshop classes and
private lessons to the general public. She has furnished the school with
several 1970’s tabletop looms, many of which she’s picked up from yard sales and
reconditioned over the years (as well as a few which were left over from her
previous weaving school in Montana), and instructs attendees on all aspects of
weaving. She utilizes her laptop and WeavePoint software as a teaching tool to
allow students and residents to visually understand structure, complexities of
color and how the overall look of a piece changes when changes are made. She also utilizes WeavePoint to prepare
drafts for the students so they can see what their project weave is going to
look like to assist in their selection, as well as taking complex weaves and
translating it down to four harness patterns.
When it comes time to work on a piece, residents perform all
steps of the process. They select a
draft from the options Barb has prepared, choose from the available yarns and
are responsible for measuring, beaming, threading, weaving (including manually
tracking the treadling), and wet finishing.
Barb encourages her students to push themselves, and enjoys
seeing the many benefits weaving provides them.
As you know, weaving involves a lot of physical exertion as students
have to stretch and raise their arms to warp, treadle, and operate the beater
bar. Over time, they often experience an
increase in stamina and their range of motion.
Weaving is also a mental exercise, as students are responsible for math
applications, and manually tracking threading and treadling as they progress,
keeping their beat even and recognizing flaws (once they identify a flaw, they
work backwards to fix the error). Barb
has also noted some important emotional benefits her students are experiencing
from weaving—many students have shared with Barb that the class has helped to
give them purpose again, as it provides an opportunity to leave their rooms and
work on a meaningful project.
One thing that struck me while listening to Barb describe
teaching at the Kitsap Weaving School, is that as a teacher she’s really
tuned-in to her students and meets them where they are at. If someone has a hard time manipulating the
loom to advance to the next pick, she’ll come over to assist. If someone has a difficult time
sitting/standing for a long time, she finds a way to modify the seating
arrangements to make them comfortable, allowing for longer stretches of weaving. In my experience, having a teacher who is
attuned to their students’ needs and abilities, is key for an enjoyable
learning experience. I was also
impressed with the level of involvement Barb elicited from her students.
In talking with Barb, I found her passion surrounding this
project to be both palpable and inspiring. She greatly enjoys giving back
through her teaching at Kitsap Weaving School, and her commitment to making a
difference is infectious. Recently, in
the banter of conversation among the residents, they indicated a desire to have
more meaning in their lives. Barb, after listening to their
discussion, started asking herself what she could do to make that
possible. After much thought, a
brilliant idea came to her. What if the
weavers could produce scarves that were of high quality, both in materials and
skill, that could then be donated to the Kathleen Sutton Fund. The scarves could then be auctioned off at
the foundation’s annual event to raise funds to assist cancer victims with
their transportation costs during their treatment visits. What a win win scenerio! The weavers loved the idea and six months
later, they presented four beautiful scarves to the Kathleen Sutton Foundation
to be auctioned off.
Barb encourages all weavers to look for ways to give back in
their communities. She’s found that the
rewards of making a positive difference in someone’s life to be
heartening. If someone is interested in starting
a program similar to what Barb has created, she suggests seeking out a facility
who is amenable to the idea. If you’re unable
to find an independent/assisted living facility that is a good fit, she also
recommends checking with Senior Centers as a secondary option (secondary only
because 24/7 access might not be available and transportation may be a barrier
for some interested seniors who would like to attend). If you’ve not taught before, Barb suggests to
keep it simple and have patience. Having
an interest in people is also beneficial. If possible, having a teaching partner(s)
would be ideal. It can be difficult
running the show solo—if you’d like to take time off, there’s no one to give
instructions and solve problems. If you
do take this project on as a partnership, she suggests that you take steps to ensure
you’re teaching consistently (decide together your approach to teach the
different stages of weaving, then commit to teaching that way, even if it’s
different from your own practice).
If anyone is interesting in supporting the program and their
efforts to create more scarves for the auction this fall, Barb is seeking yarn
donations. For more information on how
to send yarn donations, please email marketing
[at] avlusa [dot] com, and we will connect you with Barb. (If someone would prefer to support the
nonprofit directly they can send their donation to Kathleen Sutton Fund, P.O.
Box 727, Kingston, WA, 98346. Please
mention Kitsap Weaving School as you donate, so they know how you heard about
them.)
Submitted by Ashley, Marketing Manager
