by Pam James
Last September the Heddle to the Metal study group met in person for the first time in many months in Room Three. As we were settling in and chatting quietly among ourselves, the energy in the building seemed to change. We could hear a gradual crescendo of happy little voices and excited commotion in the hallway. We were soon surrounded by six little weavers from Mary Roper’s group home. I would say they could barely contain their excitement in being there, but they absolutely did NOT contain their excitement! They were looking at the weavings around the room, introducing themselves to some of us, and unpacking their looms and weaving show-and-tells. As we were about to almost get everyone settled in, one little girl looked at Donna Eash and exclaimed, “You wove your shirt!”More commotion ensued. Eventually everyone settled in enough for us to invite them to each stand, tell us their names, how old they were, and to show us what they were weaving.
They were so excited to show us different things they had woven and what weavings they had on their looms. That resulted in each of us also introducing ourselves and having to decide whether to lie about our ages. Their excitement over our weavings was punctuated with observations that some of us who were honest were older than their grandmothers. (Thanks for noticing!)
They were excited to see what we had done but were weaving away as soon as they could get their looms out of their bags. That gave us the opportunity to see how Mary works with them on planning their weavings. They each start with a piece of paper the width of the loom and make stripes the colors and widths of the warp they want. As they were weaving, we were amused to see that Mary had used names of people who made donations as names for the looms. Sadly, our young guests exited nearly as quickly as they had come because they were to attend a swim party, but Mary emailed us soon after their visit and said that she was pretty sure if they had taken a vote, they would have voted to stay with the weaving group.
The value of weaving for this group of kids is almost palpable. They seemed to find it both calming and stimulating as well as rewarding. They were weaving things they could give to their friends or family or to sell to raise money for an outing they were hoping to have. I think we can’t underestimate the good that is coming from Mary’s care and the introduction of weaving into these children’s lives.