Weaving in the Mountains

"Hit takes more'n a full season to finish a kiver--thread an' all--and a kiver's naturally bound to last more'n the span of a man's life--maybe two or three spans. I aim to make it endurin'."
Florence Reeves

Weaving looms were common in the mountains before the Civil War. They were built either by carpenters, professional tradesmen known as "weaver's joiners", the weaver himself, or by a farmer for his family's needs. The majority of weavers were women filling their household needs; however there were some professional weavers in the region. The size of the looms in the image above obviously created space problems in the home. Two possible solutions were to use the looms only during the winter months and then store it, dismantled, for the remainder of the year, or to use a weaving shed built specifically to accommodate the loom.

Flax, wool, and cotton were used for spinning and weaving. The earliest looms had two shafts which could produce only plain woven cloth, suitable for clothing. Later on, as manifactured cloth became available, many of these looms were converted to four shafts, allowing the weaving of decorative items such as coverlets. Affordable patterned yard goods and feed sack materials entered the region in the 1860s-1890s, and by the 1890s weaving was considered a "lost art".

Looms

Cantilevered Open-back Loom  |  Austin Loom  |  Four-corner Post Loom