Dale A. Carlisle Decoys
June Erla
Mrs. Fogg's Kitchen
JoJo Beads
KRT Woodworking
Crafts by Pat Masone
Joe Watts’ Burled Bowls
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Weaver June Erla
By Laura Jean Whitcomb
 In 2001, New London resident June Erla signed up for a Beginning Weaving workshop taught by the New Hampshire Weavers Guild. Before the workshop was over, June bought her first loom.
Since age 10, June was always creating something, whether it was making the majority of her clothes, tailoring a winter coat for her husband or knitting sweaters for her family. “My mother taught me how to sew when I was a young girl. I went from sewing to knitting. I was always making something,” she says. She later became intrigued with basket weaving, learned from nationally known basket weavers and wove baskets for 15 years.
Weaving fabric on a loom was a whole new way of weaving. June, who was a manufacturing tool planner with IBM in Burlington, Vt., for 25 years before she retired to New Hampshire, was ready for a new challenge. “Weaving is very detailed,” she says. ”The finished item is planned carefully from the beginning: What yarn — all same size and type — or should some textured yarns be mixed in; what color(s), how many ends per inch; how long; how wide; how much shrinkage should I allow (based on previous samplings). All of this and more needs to be answered and calculated before the weaving can begin.”
June uses a Swedish countermarch loom to create shawls, scarves, hand towels, table runners, lap blankets and fabric. When the loom arrived in pieces, June was probably one of the few people who would have said, “Oh good, a puzzle.” She put it together in three days and had fun doing it.
Sometimes June uses a computer program to design a weave structure or looks up old patterns in books, such as a 1918 copyrighted, black-and-white book Foot-Power Loom Weaving. But these resources only give her the recipe, “it’s up to me to add to it, modify it and use it creatively,” she says. “One of the challenges in weaving is making sure the finished fabric is suitable for the item. A scarf should be beautiful, soft and sensuous; a table runner should also be beautiful, but firmly woven out of a fiber that can easily be washed and dried in case of spills.”
She describes the process using terms like “heddles,” “threading,” “warp beam” and “dents,” but all you can think is “gorgeous.” The 100 percent cotton hand towels are made with vibrant colors, almost too pretty for wiping dishes or hands. But, looking over at June’s dining room table, you see that they can also serve as placemats. A red chenille scarf, with hand twisted and hand tied ends, is so soft to the touch that you want to wear it everywhere — even though it’s not quite winter yet. June’s eye for detail results in high quality, heirloom items that are reasonably priced: Hand towels range from $20 to $30, runners from $20 to $55 and scarves from $60 to $85. “Someone is spending their hard earned money buying my things,” she says, which is why she weaves each item as best as she possibly can.
June spends about two to three hours a day in the weaving process (designing, planning, dressing the loom or actually throwing the shuttle). “I am not a production weaver. I prefer to make fewer items, all somewhat different from each other, rather than mass produce many of the same item,” says June. “I enjoy the challenge of learning new weave structures or using different fibers. I hope in the process that I make something beautiful that my customers will enjoy wearing or using throughout their homes for many years.”
June’s work is available at Harbor Gallery in Sunapee, Artful Things in Lebanon, All Things Creative in Enfield and “Dickens through December” at the Library Arts Center Gallery & Studio in Newport.
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