With the 75th anniversary of the Weavers Guild of Minnesota coming up, it’s a good time to celebrate the wonderful books that have been purchased over the years for members. We have a wealth of current and historical books and magazines available to us in the Minnesota Weavers Guild reference collection and through the Guild’s collection in the Textile Center Library, all waiting to inspire us in our weaving, spinning, and dying. I walked through the Textile Center Library recently and noticed a binder on a cart. Hmmm. Scandinavian Art Weaves. How was I not familiar with those pamphlets? As it turns out, this is a compilation that used to be in the Guild’s Library Archives, until space became an issue. Mary Skoy cataloged many of books to add to the Textile Center circulating collection.
I checked it out and then opened it. All the long-ago checkout cards were in a plastic sleeve. Wait! I had not only seen this in the past, I had checked it out – in 1975, the same year I took my first weaving class. There was my maiden name, carefully written.
In working for the Legislative Reference Library for 28 years, I had the most rewarding career of any librarian colleague I know. But sometimes I wonder about where my weaving would be now if I’d spent my working life involved in textiles. If I had been a serious weaver during all the years since I first checked out that book, could I be as accomplished as Aino Kajaniemi? She is the same age as me, and has been at the loom since she asked someone during college, “What should I study?” Weaving, she was told. What a magnificent and inspiring result. I think I will study one of her tapestries today, on a break from my work at the Guild.