Village Squire, 1973-05, Page 10Evelyn Hardy works at her loom in her Colborne township home, turning out products that go all over Ontario.
She weaves quality on her loom
In this day of synthetics and wash and
wear clothing, most people think a woof
is a noise a dog makes.
Not so Evelyn Hardy, a Carlow -area
lady. She is one of the few practitioners
these days of an almost dead art: weaving.
Ever since the industrial revolution
killed the cottage industry in England
more than a century ago, weaving has been
a skill that has been slowly lost. In
Canada its passing was a little later as
the pioneer women strove to keep cloth-
es on their backs and those of their fam-
ilies. But as soon as the land was clea-
red, towns sprung up and any lady with
money to spare soon found her way to
the dry goods store where she got the
cloth necessary to make clothing.
The reason was simple. Weaving
was a slow and for most people, a ted-
ious job.
Today, however, some hardy indiv-
iduals like Evelyn have taken up the
warp and woof again, but not to supply
clothes for their families. No they
specialize in supplying the ever-grow-
ing market far quality goods in a
society that has more money and leisure
to enjoy quality.
10
Evelyn Hardy took up weaving nine
years ago as a hobby. She doesn't
know what she would have done without
her hobby, she says now. She had been
left handicapped by a bout of polio
which prevented her from taking an
active part in the farm work with her
husband Wilmer. Her new hobby filled
the void.
Soon, her talent became evident and
her work began to get more attention.
After exhibiting one year at the Art
Mart in Goderich, she and four other
ladies thought of the idea of putting on
a craft show and sale of their own. They
used the Colbourne township hall at
Carlow and the Colborne Christmas
Country Fair was horn. Soon it drew
thousands and in recent years has been
one of the biggest attractions around.
The last three years have seen Mrs.
Hardy's hobby turn into a minor business.
She has her products in stores all over
Ontario, from here in the county to
Ottawa. She also sells out of her home,
southeast of Carlow. She enjoys having
people come to her home to look at
her mohair shawls, baby blankets, place
mats and rag rugs like the pioneers used
to have.
She enjoys meeting the people who
come to her home she says. People
interested in quality crafts are gener-
ally individuals of fine character she
finds. And although there are some
people who are just curious, most come
to buy.
Orders fcr her rag rugs were coming
in so fast in the last year, she found it
hard to find enough old rags to meet
her needs. She solved that problem
when she went to a rummage sale in
Wingham. She recalls with a smile
the reaction of the ladies at that sale
as she carted out lot after lot of old
clothing.
But though she had the materials
she needed then, there was still the
time-consuming job of tearing the
clothes into strips to be used in
weaving the rugs. The job took time
she didn't always have and was a messy
job as well. A neighbour took up her
offer of paying to have this part of the
work done, however, and now she is
free to spend more time at the loom
making rugs and not worrying about
the preparations. Each rug takes about