Swedish Loom Restoration at Gammelgarden

July 7, 2023 by 3 Comments

Välkommen Hus at Gammelgarden (Photo by Brian Voss)

Scandia, Minnesota is the site of the first Swedish settlement in Minnesota. Gammelgarden Museum in Scandia helps preserve this history through its programs, exhibits, and five historic buildings while celebrating the stories of all immigrants and their communities.

On the second floor of the Välkommen Hus (shown above), there is an old floor loom. The loom was made in Sweden by a father with the intention that it would go to America with his daughter and her husband who would leave shortly after their wedding. The year 1879 is painted on the loom.

The daughter and her family used the loom in northern Minnesota until 1962 when it was sold at auction to Myrabelle Lange Sommerfeld. Myrabelle used the loom for rug weaving until early 1999. Everyone she knew had one of her rugs! In 2003, the loom was generously donated to Gammelgarden by Myrabelle’s daughter, April Sommerfeld Corgärd.

While the loom has been admired by countless visitors, it needed some minor repairs to be functional again. The Gammelgarden staff put an ad in the classified section of the Weavers Guild of Minnesota website, asking for assistance.

Ad on Weavers Guild website showing loom before restoration

Judy Larson, a member of the Scandinavian Weavers, happily volunteered. “It was an opportunity to see an old Swedish loom and visit Gammelgarden,” she explains. “The counterbalance loom is dated 1879 and was carved by a father for his daughter who was leaving for America. The side supports have some lovely wood carvings. As the loom was used by generations of weavers, there were changes made. A worm gear was added in place of the back brake. The string heddles were changed to metal heddles, and the shafts and treadles were held with nylon cords secured by wires, instead of knots. The front brake was still original and is exactly like the one on my great grandmother’s Swedish loom.”

Judy got to work restoring the loom: “I reset the worm gear rotation wheel to engage correctly, and then got the treadle cords and heddle cords to pull evenly and adjusted the reed height to get a better shed. The loom was now functional, and weaving could happen.”

Old Swedish loom at Gammelgarden after restoration

Judy returned two weeks later with fabric weft prepared and started weaving a blue gingham placemat: “I showed three volunteers how to weave on the loom, and even got some visitors to try throwing the shuttle across. The video was made, and a short description of weaving terms is posted by the loom. There is a QR code for visitors to access the video and see the 144-year-old loom in action.” Judy donated more weft fabric so weaving can continue.

Judy Larson demonstrating weaving on the old Swedish loom at Gammelgarden.
A volunteer weaves while Judy and visitors look on

Judy also restored an old tape loom at Gammelgarden so it is now functional. Thanks to her generosity and expertise, visitors to Gammelgarden can try their hand at weaving, which played such an important role in the daily lives of Swedish immigrants.

Tape loom before restoration
Restored tape loom in action. The band is about the width of a shoelace.

Less than an hour from the Twin Cities, Gammelgarden is well worth a visit! Be sure to try out the loom while you are there. To learn more, visit their website at gammelgarden.org (link below)

Välkommen

Filed under Swedish weaving Tagged with , ,

“Weaving with History” Workshop

July 2, 2023 by Leave a comment

Beautiful Sätergläntan in Sweden

Editor’s Note: Today’s blog entry was written by Judy Larson.

“Nordic Handcraft Workshop: Weaving with History – Using Historical Textiles” was a class co-hosted by American Swedish Institute (ASI) and Weavers Guild of Minnesota (WGM) and planned to be taught by Susanna Ayton of Sätergläntan Institute for Craft and Handwork in Insjön, Dalarna, Sweden. Enrollment filled quickly, and five members of the Scandinavian Weavers Interest Group offered to wind warps and prepare the twelve looms. Betsy Konop, the WGM Education Coordinator, ordered the materials and assigned the warps for winding. 

On Tuesday, June 20, the warps were delivered, and five of the looms got the warps wound on. Each loom had to be carefully warped using 6/1 linen, 6/3 linen, 6/1 wool, and 16/2 cottons. The next day, more warps were wound on, sleying started, and the process continued. That night, we were informed that the instructor had been called back to Sweden for a family emergency, and we could choose to continue with the class as a group study or get a full refund. Betsy said she was sure we could “make lemonade out of these lemons!” Besides, the looms were almost ready!

Loom warped in beautiful Swedish linen

Ten of the twelve students chose to still do the class as a group study, and so the warping continued. It looked like everything was ready! Just before leaving on Thursday night, I noticed that one of the 6/1 linen warps had “churros” between the reed and the back beam, so it had to be completely wound to the the front beam, all the way to the end, and the twists removed. Betsy’s dog, Hopsy, was patiently waiting to go home, and he sat toward the end of the warp as the twist was slowly worked back. The decision was made to make it to Hopsy’s ears, and then cut the warp! It was then tied to the back beam and re-beamed the next day.

Hops hard at work! (Note his magnificent ears)

Friday morning, the group met at ASI and had a quick introduction to Sätergläntan’s programs in weaving, woodworking, blacksmithing, and hand sewing. 

American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis

Then Phyllis Waggoner shared information and showed textiles from ASI’s collection in each of the weave structures we’d be sampling. Phyllis has been working with the ASI textiles for many years and is our local expert!

Phyllis explaining Blådrättar, a style of Dukagång

We first saw the Dukagång and Blådrättar.  Blådrättar means “blue dish” in Swedish and refers to the fact that this type of Dukagång was traditionally done in blue and white/cream, similar to the colors on porcelain dishes. In Dukagång, the wool pattern weft is laid in fine rows separated by thin lines of tabby wefts.

Close-up of Blådrättar from ASI collection

Rölakan and munkabälte (Monksbelt) pieces were shown next, along with Daldräll (Overshot) and Rosengång (Rosepath).

Close-up of Rölakan showing distinctive interlock technique

Close-up of mythical creature on Rölakan weaving

Another Rölakan from ASI’s textile collection

Daldräll from ASI’s textile collection

Munkabälte (Monksbelt) from ASI collection

After lunch, the group went to the Guild and started our group study.  Those with any experience in any of the structures gave their mini-demonstration, and then the weavers began making their samples.

Swedish wool yarn with WGM looms in the background

Lovely Swedish linen in a rainbow of colors!

Munkabälte and Daldräll were both pattern/tabby weaves and were more familiar. The Rosengång on opposites was a little trickier to do, but remembering the treadle partners of 1/4 with 2/3 and 1/2 with 3/4 helped.  The Rölakan differences with single or double interlocks, plus the dovetail and over two without interlocked were discussed.  The most challenging weave was the Dukagång.

Marianne weaving Rosengång (Rosepath)

Ever working on Rölakan interlocks

The weavers wove 6-inch samples of three different Munkabälte patterns, two Rosengångs (one with twills 4321234, and one with 123414321 threadings), two Daldräll patterns, two Rölakan, and three Dukagångs. As the weaving started, the patterns were coming out underneath. The tie-ups were all for counterbalance looms, so the tie ups needed to be reversed! More learning was happening!

Daldräll by Judy

Second Daldräll threading

Two of the Dukagångs were on 6/1 Farö wool warps, which kept breaking.  Finally, the decision was made to re-warp one of them with 6/1 linen, which worked much better. 

Sharon’s beautiful Blådrättar!

Sharon experimented with color blending in munkabälte

Close-up of Sharon’s munkabälte

More munkabälte

Munkabälte

Analyzing weave structure’s in Nancy’s show-and-tell

After weaving on Saturday and Sunday, there was a reception at ASI for all the participants in any of the four areas for Sätergläntan classes.  The blacksmithing teacher commented that it was impressive that the weaving class went forward, even without a teacher.  But it just shows that when weavers get a chance, they make the best of it!  We truly did make “lemonade out of the lemons!”

After the warps are taken off the looms, Betsy will take pictures of each sample, and send them out to their respective weavers.  The weekend was a great opportunity to meet more weavers, learn more about Swedish structures, and support the Guild/ASI partnership with Sätergläntan.  Thank you to everyone who made this possible!  

Editor’s Note: Special thanks to Betsy and Judy (and Hopsy!) as well as Erin Swenson-Klatt at ASI, who all went above and beyond to make sure this week was a wonderful experience for all!

Websites:

Sätergläntan: saterglantan.se

American Swedish Institute (ASI): asimn.org

Weavers Guild of Minnesota: weaversguildmn.org

Filed under Classes, Group Projects, Swedish weaving, Weaving Techniques Tagged with , , , ,