Winnie the Weaver Wilma P. Elkins Winnie Day Spring, summer, fall, or winter, no matter what the season, Winnie Day could be found at her loom weaving beautiful cloth for towels, coverlets, baby bibs, aprons, pillow tops, drapes, skirt material ... the list goes on. For more than seventy years, the rhythmic movement ofthe treadles to form the pattern, the sound of the shuttle as it pressed the threads together to form the cloth, could be heard from her home on Sam's Branch, a narrow valley in the beautiful hills of Knott County in southeastern Kentucky, where Winnie and her family have lived since 1921. Winnie Pigman was born on October 20, 1901, at Ivis, Kentucky, the seventh of ten children of Wilburn and Mary Belle Smith Pigman. Wilburn was a farmer and a teacher, Mary Belle a homemaker and weaver. She was taught how to weave by her mother, Susannah Hamilton. Allen H. Eaton, in Handicrafts ofthe Southern Highlands, lists Mary Pigman of Ivis, Kentucky, as one of the native weavers who gave indispensable help in the early days of the revival of handicrafts. The author, a Bereagraduate, is a retired teacher/educator now living in Lexington, Kentucky. She is a niece of Winnie Day. 39 Winnie followed in the footsteps ofher grandmother and mother and became a true artist in weaving. She was a quiet child who could often be found watching her mother work at her loom. Her formal education was at Jones Chapel and at Mallie, both small schools in Knott County. She enjoyed her school work and playing with her friends at school. At the end of the school day she helped with the chores, of which there were many for a large family living on a small farm. Also, she spent time at the loom learning to weave. By age ten, she had begun to help in the making of the woven products which were used at home as needed and were also sold to supplement the family income. Her loom was built for her by her brother, Dewitt Pigman. When Winnie was seventeen she went to Berea to develop more skills. Berea was then and remains today a center for handicrafts with emphasis on woven cloth products. At Berea she did weaving at Fireside Industries . (Years later, daughter Pauline attended Berea College and wove at Fireside Industries.) Her teacher was Anna Ernberg, a Swedish lady who was brought to Berea to revive the art of weaving and crafts at Berea College. Mrs. Ernberg marveled at the skill and talent Winnie displayed in her work. Not only was she an expert weaver, but she was adept at the preparation process: the carding of wool, the spinning, the dyeing (she often used natural products such as walnut hulls and sumac for making dyes), dressing the loom, and making the bobbins. She admits that she wasn't especially fond of the preparation process; her interest was in making the cloth. Later, the thread—woolen, cotton, or linen— could be bought commercially. Winnie could look at an object or a picture, then make a pattern to use in the designs. While at Berea, she came upon a picture of a pine tree which she thought would make a pretty design on her towels and scarves. She developed the pattern which became her signature on many pieces of her work. During her stay at Berea, the weaving was done at the Log Palace, later officially named the Log House, which Berea College still uses as sales rooms for Berea arts and crafts. Following her stay in Berea, Winnie Pigman returned to her home in Knott County, where she continued weaving along with her mother and her sister, Una, who later taught weaving for many years at the Hindman Settlement School. Lester Day and Winnie Pigman were married on April 9, 1921, and moved to the house on Sam's Branch; her loom moved with them. Along with the usual duties of a housewife and later the mother of four children—two sons, Astor and Sam, and two daughters, Pauline and Mary—she continued her weaving and marketed from her home, from 40 Hindman Settlement School, Caney Junior College...