Love for the Art of Weaving Looms Large for Huntington Beach’s ‘Best Crusader’

Jacque Lahti of Huntington Beach admits that she’s not the best weaver or spinner in Orange County, “but I think I’m the best crusader for them. You know, when I got back into weaving about five years ago, I thought I had died and gone to heaven.”

Well, she’s exaggerating the thrill, but not by much. “If anybody walks into my house, they better not ask me about weaving unless they have a lot of time to learn everything about it.”

Lahti, 51, a member of the Orange County Weavers and Spinners Guild, has eight looms of various sizes, nearly all of them transportable. “When I give a talk I bring them along,” she said, except for her 12-harness, double beam floor that stays at home because of its size. One of her recent demonstrations took place at the Santa Ana Zoo, where she and her husband, Roy Lahti, 47, transformed raw fleece from sheep sheared at the zoo into refined wool yarn through carding, spinning and weaving the fibers.

Two years ago, in a much-publicized event, the couple were married in a New Year’s Eve ceremony at the site of the Santa Ana Rose Parade float they helped decorate.

“The magic of making something out of a string or thread has never left me,” she said, pointing out that her first contact with weaving occurred 30 years ago at Whittier College, where she obtained her home economics teaching credentials. “You see and read about weaving and you can’t believe anyone can do it.”

Despite making rugs, clothing and other items, “I can’t believe that people have such skills and the patience to do it,” she added. “If nothing else, it makes you appreciate your grandmother, and then all of a sudden it makes you realize you came from strong and hardy pioneers.”

“The care and feeding of a loom” can be expensive, she continued, pointing out that in most instances it probably would cost less to buy an already made garment or rug. “But it’s so important that people don’t lose touch with natural resources and the people who came to America and taught us these skills.”

Lahti said the magic of making something out of a string or thread never left her, although 25 years passed while she pursued other ventures, such as a family.

“Now I’m back to weaving and can show children and adults something as unpromising as dirty-looking sheep wool and make it into something useful. I love sharing it (weaving) with children.”

One of the innovations some spinners use, she said, is to make cross-country ski caps out of dog hair that dog owners save after brushing their pets.

“They make very sturdy caps,” she said.

Ever hear of a famine-a-thon?

A clever and hardy group of Dana High School students decided that rather than sponsor a jog-a-thon to raise money, they’d starve themselves in a “planned famine” for 24 hours to raise money through pledges. They collected about $3,000 for world famine relief.

Students Eric Pinderski and Jon Ledergerber, who headed the group, gathered with 60 other students in the school gymnasium for the fast, some passing the time by shooting baskets and others writing letters to congressmen and senators to express their interest in solving world hunger.

Pinderski said it wasn’t just to raise money but to “raise student consciousness” about world hunger.

After one student suggested that next year they try for 48 hours, adviser Milton B. Rouse cautioned: “I think parents might be concerned about the health problems of their children if they went that long without food.”

George H. Horvath, 40, of La Habra thinks it’s fine to celebrate Mother’s and Father’s days, even though he feels that the two holidays have turned commercial. But now he thinks it’s time to have Family Day, where the only thing you give is your time.

“It would be a day of getting off the merry-go-round to say I love my family and I love what my family has given me,” he said. “No gifts, just a day to get together on a picnic or something like that to rededicate and rekindle a love for the family.”

Horvath has been working on the idea for a couple of years, and now Mayor John Holmberg said he is going to proclaim the first Sunday in June as Family Day in La Habra. Horvath feels that once one city sets the day aside, “this could work itself into other cities and maybe end up to be a World Family Day.”

And what’s Horvath’s motive for all this? “My family means an awful lot to me and we just need to have a day to celebrate the family,” he said.

Acknowledgments--Dave Stow, Placentia; John Miller, Fullerton; Derek Kowata, Anaheim, and Brad Hayashi, Irvine, individually won 11 of the 14 possible first-place awards at the Southern California Boys’ Gymnastics Assn. state championships in Glendale. As a team, the quartet also won the Iron Man trophy.