Woman enjoys fruits of her loom

& lt;a href=mailto:kubik@vindy.com & gt;By MARALINE KUBIK & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AS A YOUNG GIRL LEARNING TO braid rugs under her mother's tutelage, Mary Kirk couldn't imagine the rugs she'd weave or how she'd love doing it.
Today, her loom room is her refuge, and if it came down to eating or weaving, Kirk said she would forgo the food, even her own homemade bread made from grain she grinds herself.
As a young wife and mother, weaving rugs wasn't high on Kirk's list of priorities. She hadn't mastered or developed a love for braiding rugs, and operating a loom seemed even more involved. With five children and an apple farm to run, she was just too busy.
Then, a woman brought an armload of rugs she'd woven to Kirk's farm market and asked Kirk if she would sell them on consignment.
Kirk loved the rugs and though the woman encouraged her to learn to weave, she had too many other things to do.
Then, Kirk said, "She told me about a loom that was for sale. She asked me if I wanted it and I said, 'When would I have the time?' But my husband said, 'She wants it.' So, here it is."
Self-taught
Using scraps of fabric and strips of cloth cut from discarded blue jeans, shirts and draperies, Kirk said she taught herself to weave.
"It was just me and the manual and I mostly learned by hard knocks," she said, explaining how it took her almost 15 years to figure out that a single drop of washable glue works wonders in keeping the end of a newly woven rug from unraveling when she removes it from the loom.
Today, her five children, age 11 to 22, are more self-sufficient, but she still has more than enough to do.
She and her family left the farm in 1994 and moved into an old Grange hall -- Greenford Grange No. 1085 -- and her husband, Jim, is still in the midst of renovating the 5,600 square feet of living space.
"He's upstairs right now making more sawdust," she said with a smile.
Kirk's loom room is on the old Grange hall's stage. Several feet of floor space in front of the stage hold dozens and dozens of apple boxes full of fabric scraps.
The area is separated from her kitchen and the open living space by a wall her husband installed and an enormous set of double doors salvaged from a remodeling project at South Range High School.
Most of the wood in the Grange hall -- doors, banisters, stairs and railings -- was salvaged from old buildings slated for demolition or renovation. Many of the light fixtures were salvaged too.
A set of stairs at the rear of Kirk's loom room leads off the stage and into a sun room overflowing with hanging baskets full of geraniums and what seem to be mile-high ceilings.
Atmosphere
Music from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite drifts through the double doors from Kirk's kitchen and into the comfortable clutter of the loom room.
Balls of fabric strips stitched together and rolled up like big balls of yarn sit on an old treadle sewing machine. Sock toppers -- loops of fabric cut from the tops of socks at a textile factory -- hooked together and rolled into a ball sit across the room near a more modern sewing machine. Balls of afghan salvages sit there, too. Eventually, Kirk will weave them all into rugs. Almost everything she uses to make her rugs are scraps that would land in the trash if she didn't have a use for them. So far, she's collected and color-sorted enough fabric scraps to make thousands of rugs.
"I hope I find someone to will this all to," she chuckled. Kirk said she doubts that she'll ever find time to make all the rugs she has the materials for.
Sales methods
Making the rugs isn't her only challenge. Once she finishes them, Kirk still has to sell them, and sitting at a craft show waiting for customers isn't her style.
"Sometimes I hang them on the front porch and people stop," she said. "I had one lady stop who said she'd been driving by for years and thought I was washing all of my rugs. She just thought I had a lot of rugs."
Kirk also makes a few rugs to order, though she said, she doesn't like doing that because she doesn't like having to meet a deadline. "Weaving isn't any fun then," she explained.
Recently, Kirk began selling her rugs at Greenford Cupboard, a little deli/convenience/specialty shop that features crafts made by local women sold on consignment, and locally made jams, jellies, preserves and honey.
Prices of Kirk's rugs run between 50 and 60 cents per inch of length for a standard width, 24 to 30 inches.
& lt;a href=mailto:kubik@vindy.com & gt;kubik@vindy.com & lt;/a & gt;