73 Handloom Weaving By John McAtasney ? I'm John McAtasney sometimes called John the or threadles were very close together, working the '' Weaver. I get letters sometimes just addressed to John threadles was very hard on socks and we had to wear ? theWeaver." I began handweaving at the age of 14. two socks on the right foot socks wore out very I left school then and of course that time you had to quick. Later on when I began weaving in public in the ? ? work your quarter you spent three months after the Ulster Folk Museum in 1968 Iworked there for 11 age of 14. Jobs were sort of automatic in those days. years a lot of who watched me weaving would ' people I'm from Lurgan and jobs in weaving were automatic. say 4Isee you've got odd socks on you.'' I had tomake I can remember when I started weaving in 1948 at the some comment so I would usually say, "I have got ? same age of 14 you could work out my age with a little another pair the at home." bit of calculation! There was nothing else only weav I return to the time I started weaving at 14. I was ing in Lurgan. I can't remember any other industry. there for three weeks before I got my first pay. Robert The first industry that came to Lurgan outside of weav Crozier was the owner of the fixed loom and he said ' ing was United Kingdom Optical Company and it's still tome after three weeks, 'You're doing all right John; there. Weaving was looked upon as the lowest form I think Iwill pay you." He gave me 2/6, 1/= and 3d. of a job you could possibly be put into and I was put 3/9 (18p.) That was my first wage. The second week into it alright. My father was a weaver and my grand I earned ?1, and after that I was on "piece work." ? father was a weaver. We weren't called weavers You made your own pay, starting any time you liked. we were called "wavers." The very grand title of That didn't mean you started at 11 o'clock in the mor weavers was unheard of. I went to hand loom weav ning and finished at dinner time, although itwas poss ing or waving as it was called. It was not hard to get ible to do that. If you wanted to make a wage you had a job in hand loom weaving but I didn't like it. My to be on the job at a quarter to eight in the morning. ? friends were in power loom weaving and they earned Iwas on the job at a quarter to eight some weavers ? more money than I did. were on the job long before that and I wove to twen I started in a cottage which held six looms. A loom ty to seven at night. We boiled our tea on a gas ring ? would take up a space 11 feet by 11 feet some looms inRobert Crozier's kitchen and I, being the youngest, were wicker. The loom Iwas using was a table napkin I had to go to make my tea in a tea drawer (an open loom. It wove a narrow width cloth 22 inches wide tin with spout). You made your tea and brought it back ? it was a very high loom and was known as a Jac to the loom and you sat on the loom and had your tea ? quard loom Jacquard was the name given to the and sandwiches (called piece). I had five brothers and machine on top of the loom. It was named after a sometimes one of them would come up on a bicycle French man who improved the machine used to put with a tin of soup for me. That was 1948 and I work a pattern into linen. Joseph Marie Jacquard improved ed under oil lamps. The lamp hung at your left shoulder on the machine in the year 1730. It's very hard to on a long wire. We used tomake the lamps ourselves believe that this Jacquard machine was worked by pun out of Tate & Lyle syrup tins. ched cards and someone once remarked to me that it Now if you got behind in your work, or something was an early type of computer. It enabled the pattern went wrong during the day, the thread broke, or the to be woven into the loom by a series of hooks on top yarn just broke when you were weaving or the cards of the machine which pulled up cards which in turn would snap, you never got paid for that. You only got pulled up threads tomake the pattern. There were nine paid for what you wove. When your shuttle stopped, ? were foot pedals used in weaving on that loom eight your pay stopped. If you didn't make cloth then you worked with your right foot and one with your left foot. didn't make money. If you got behind you had to work Now your right foot was going from right to left and later, to make up for that loss of time. Some other weavers then back again to right and your left foot was going would be weaving to their usual time, maybe up and down. The left foot was working the cards while 7 o'clock and when they were leaving they would loan on the right foot was working the twill of the cloth the you their lamp, if you were working late. Itwas great cloth itself. It's hard to explain that unless you see it to have two lamps. The light was tremendous. Poor working to weave with the right foot working the eight lamp light did not seem to effect a weaver's eyes. I pedals you had to take off your shoe because the pedals wear glasses, but it's not for short range. I have great Z 15 > z o o I r X! 8 3 ^^^^^^^H^^^^^H^^^^^^^^^K^ ;M? ^PE^^HB^B^B^B^B^B^B^H^^B^B^Bli^B^B^B^Bf V."'' JohnMcAtasncyatwork. ^Jb^L^L^b^b^b^b^b^^Bi^b^b^b^b^b^F?B3b^Bjma^L^BUia^L^L^B*B^^^^^aiL^L^L^LHlla^^L^BHb^L^L^L^L^L^L^L^L^L^L^L^L^L^Hv* B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^HBBISIbISbbVk' ^'yW15^~;5^S^Jf^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Kf,Vijii^'^?<ft^fr''*l*?^7^^^} ?'"j ,.. B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^BWiMil^SL^9B^B^B^BBHtlB^B^BBB^ ^ %^rV>rf''^': - -*<MBb SIBHS'lSajf ' ^IL^B^B^B^BflB^B^BPF j. -JMK^d^^H^HHH^^^ -V'J&J; ^'OiaalBtftfSSBS^ ^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^bW" POYNTZPASS AND DISTRICT LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY 75 wove eyesight at short range. I for eleven years in were lifting up more cards and more lead weights. On Ballydougan Weavers' Cottage at the Ulster Folk occasions you had to stand up and really jump on the was no Museum. There electricity in that cottage. It threadle to get it to go down. The threadle snapped is the only building at the Ulster Folk Museum, which on me on a number of occasions. As I said when I ? is a replica. All the rest was brought, stone by stone started off I didn't like weaving for the first six ? from the places where they were situated, but the months but it has grown on me. I wouldn't do weaver's cotetage from Ballydougan (a townland out anything else now, I haven't done anything else. side Lurgan) was made of mud. You could not take I have also woven tweeds. I wasn't confined to ? amud cottage anywhere. It had to be built on the spot. Lurgan although all my linen work was in Lurgan In fact it fell twice before they got it to stand up! They it was the only place where linen was woven. Linen had it going nicely. Itwas sitting well, when there came weaving by hand had died out in Lisburn by 1941 and very heavy rain one night and when they arrived in so by 1948 when I entered the trade Lurgan was the the morning the house was lying in the middle of the last place in Ireland where linen weaving by hand was field. done. I decided after a time to branch out. There was The floor in the weaver's cottage was always made a slackness in the linen trade and I was offered a job of mud. This was very useful in the working of linen. as a tweed weaver with a firm inGreat Victoria Street ? You can't weave linen without moisture and an earth in Belfast just across from where the Railway floor has natural moisture in it. Also in a dry spell of Station used to be. I didn't think tweed weaving was weather you can sprinkle water around the loom.