B2—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, September 1,1984
Peg Meams spends
productive, challenging
hours at the
BY SALLY BAIR
Staff Correspondent
GETTYSBURG - For Peg
Meams, weaving is a continuous
source of pleasure, helping to build
confidence and offering the
challenge of making productive
use of retirement hours.
Peg took her first weaving
course when she was in college 50
years ago. She loved it then, but it
wasn’t until she retired that she
was able to pursue her interest and
turn it into a cherished hobby
business.
“The little seed lay dormant in
the back of my mind, so I decided
Peg winds yarn to begin the work at the loom. She wot
with cotton, linen and wool yarns, using them individually and
'imbinations.
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Working from old patterens found in her wide collection of weaving books, Peg created
these coverlets. She enjoys making the large pieces although they require more con
centration during the weaving process.
loom
to see if I enjoyed it,” she said.
With money given her for
retirement, she took a week-long
course at Mannings in East Berlin,
Adams County. There happened to
be a blizzard that week so she was
the only student, and she recalls,
“I got all the attention, and I got
more than a week of training.”
That was the beginning. She says
she loved it so much that she gave
pieces of her work to friends,
neighbors, aunts and nieces. Some
friends suggested that she take her
things to a fair for the “aged,” a
word Peg hates, and she says with
surprise, “It was very successful
mm j
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many
and I got all kinds of inspiration
from that.”
Although she admits that it took
a while for her to think that people
would pay for her items, she now
runs a successful business selling
woven items from her home.
Working from the washhouse of
the old farm house halfway bet
ween Gettysburg and Littlestown
where she and her husband, Bill,
moved six years ago. Peg works at
W&?P^~~ /A ''^
jg k jams is a v ,in concei ion as , puts < - warp on her four-harness loom.
Peg works in a remodeled washhouse adjoining the farmhouse she and her husband,
Bill, retired to in Adams County.
This summer kitchen or washhouse is the scene of Peg Mearns' creativity as she works
at one of her two-harness looms. The fireplace has been restored to working order, and
the windows were added to give her not only a summer’s breeze, but also an inspiring
view of the countryside.
\
her leisure, although she spends a
large part of every day there. The
room is cozy, and has its original
fireplace restored. Peg says they
never consider burning it because
of the hazard of fire with so much
dust and other fibers in the air.
The walls are lined with books
and yams, and samples of Peg’s
work abound. They added windows
to the small washhouse, giving it a
comfortable cross breeze in the
summer, and a beautiful view of
the pastoral countryside. “What a
vista I can get! I treasure the
space around us,” she says.
Indeed, the countryside does
seem to offer endless inspiration to
creativity. The Mearns’ son Bill
and his wife Raiana live on an
adjoining dairy farm and farm the
land. Their 16-month-old son
Benjamin is a frequent and
welcome visitor to his grand
parents’ home.
Peg has two looms in her work
space. One is a four-harness loom
which can handle material up to 36
inches wide, and the smaller loom
handles material up to 24 inches
wide. “It’s very helpful
everything in this one room,” she
says.
homestead
td/cies
Asked how much time she
spends at her looms each day, Peg
says with a laugh,“l don’t like to
dost baseboards, so I will do all
kinds of things to stay busy. I have
orders to keep me busy all the
time.”
She adds, “I took my watch off
when I retired and haven’t put it
back on.” She calls herself for
tunate to have a husband who is
interested in what she is doing.
The work itself is never boring,
of course, but there is a great deal
of labor involved in setting up the
loom for any given pattern, and
that is tedious, careful work. The
variety in weaving is what makes
the work interesting to Peg. “If I
get bored with what I’m doing, I
can do something else,” she says.
That’s the advantage of having two
looms. “I always look forward to
the next project.”
Since she makes anything from
placemats to scarves to runners to
coverlets, Peg has any number of
items she can work on at a given
time. She said she especially en
joys doing coverlets and larger
items, but adds, “I have to keep
(Turn to Page B 4)
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