This is a photo of my grandmother, Mary Sayler. She taught weaving for many, many years in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Growing up we lived about two hours north so most of our visits were during the holidays. My grandparent’s home was not the typical “grandma” home of the time. My grandparents often traveled and most of their trips somehow revolved around the fiber arts. Grandma and Grandpa’s house was filled with artifacts from the Southwest as well as South America. There was always a spinning wheel in the living room with fleece in a basket and one of her many looms sat prominently in the sunroom off the formal dining room.
Grandma’s basement- well, that’s a whole other story. That’s where grandma taught her classes. Looms and yarn everywhere! It was magical even then when I didn’t understand a bit about weaving. Growing up I knew grandma was really into weaving, but it wasn’t until recently that I have an appreciation of how much and her impact in the weaving world.
The family story is that after the death of her child at 7 years of age (which would be my uncle), her father purchased her a loom in hopes that a new hobby would help her through the healing process. Grandma took to this new hobby immediately and her love of weaving continued through the years. In fact, much of her life, as I can remember, revolved around weaving and spinning. Grandma graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in Home Economics with a special interest in garment design so weaving seemed to be a perfect fit. The fabric she wove was often sewn into skirts, shirts, and suits. The holiday table linens were always handwoven. As her interest in weaving flourish, she co-founded the Woodland Weavers and Spinners Guild in Grand Rapids, served as the president of the Michigan League of Handweavers for several terms and co-chaired the first Handweaver’s Guild of America convergence. Besides the basement full of looms and yarns, the living room with the spinning wheel, fleece and artifacts from her travels, I have clear recollection of grandma’s first Atari computer. Grandma was an early adopter of technology and was all about using it for weaving. Grandma had a computer way before I did. What’s fun for me right now is that I found a notebook full of weaving drafts my grandma created on that computer and I just love looking through them now that I understand what they are. Someday I’ll weave a few. There are days that I sit with my iPad creating a design on the iWeaveIt software and think of how my grandma would just be amazed.
As I started my own weaving journey I began to research a little bit about the history of weaving and to collect books. Of course, the name Harriet Tidball, pops up often when you do that. I quickly put together that Harriet Tiball from the books was the same Harriet my grandmother would travel with to the Southwest and to South America. My grandmother and Harriet were actually very good friends and even as a young child, I recall hearing Harriet’s name often as she would come to my grandmother’s home for visits, and I’m sure, visa versa.
My father was given this book by the author, Marion Marzolf, which references my grandmother’s role in Michigan’s weaving history. As her granddaughter, who is now a weaver, it’s so nice to read about her as I no longer have my grandmother to talk to directly.
As my grandmother aged, there was discussion in the family about carrying on the weaving tradition. My aunt was not really interested in learning and my sister, who is a statistician for Eli Lilly- well, I’m sure there are statisticians who are also creative and craftsy, but not my sister. So she was off the short list. That left me. I was in my early 20’s just off to college, but was willing to give it a try. My grandmother and I set a date and time to start. Going in with high hopes I quickly realized it was much more complicated than anticipated and weaving involved a lot of math. To say I have an aversion to math would be an understatement. Our weaving lesson lasted one day. By the way, I just didn’t get why you’d spend all that time, and energy figuring out math, to weave a placemat. Now looking back, I only wish I stuck it out. Learning to weave from my grandmother would have been amazing to say the least.
Fast forward a bit. Around 2019 my aunt Cathy called. She was contacted by Jayne Schafer, a former student of my grandmother’s who went on to teach weaving in Grand Rapids. Jayne was downsizing and closing up her studio and had a Macomber loom that she was gifted from my grandmother. This loom was special as the loom was gifted to my grandmother by her first weaving instructor.
Although my aunt did not want the loom, she asked if I would take it into my home as it held special meaning to all of us. Learning to weave was stewing in my mind for decades now and I jumped at the chance. I was in my 50’s, looking towards retirement and this seemed to be a good time. Jayne and her husband disassembled the loom with us present and Jayne gave me a quick weaving lesson. On that day I didn’t know even the basic terms such as warp, weft, heddle, shaft… woah, was that overwhelming. We came home, reassembled the loom and I started to watch YouTube videos. Thank goodness for YouTube!
I have to believe there is a time for everything. Looking back, learning from my grandmother would have been special, it just wasn’t meant to be. Soon after weaving a few samples on my loom, I joined Facebook weaving groups and stumbled upon Jane Stafford’s School of Weaving. I can’t say enough about Jane’s lessons- I’ve learned so much! My grandmother would have loved the idea of teaching classes online as well as learning and collaborating with fellow weavers on different platforms. In addition to the online resources, my husband’s aunt moved to town to retire here in Northern Michigan. Aunt Dee Dee is an accomplished weaver, spinner and dyer. She is a wealth of information and has helped me greatly in learning to weave, spin and dye my own yarns. She also double checks my math which is still needed.
So where does that leave me now in 2024? Well, I’m a grandma myself. At the moment I have one granddaughter and will soon add two more grand babies to the fold. I have a spinning wheel with with my own basket of fleece and two looms sitting in my living room, one of which is our cherished family heirloom. In addition, I have seven other looms in the add on area of our home including a 36 shaft AVL dobby. There’s something about our family, when we go in we go in big! I’m also teaching weaving now on a limited basis. My two daughters have woven a few items and I am teaching a few friends to weave and spin wool. I feel a bit of an obligation to nuture and grow this craft I’ve grown to love so much (even the math part a little). My granddaughter is at our home often and the loom and spinning wheel fascinates her. I think she has a preference for spinning. When the timing is right, I’ll look forward to teaching her as well.
As I weave, especially on the Macomber, I think of my grandmother often. I would like to think that she’s pleased that we’re carrying on the craft that she loved so much.
