I have always loved to weave.  In the variety of places I grew up some kind of weaving was always a joyful part of my life.  As a young child living in Canada I wove on a home made “loom” made with nails in a board. Then while living in Kansas as a child, my friends and I wove on “potholder” looms and sold potholders door to door.  When I was ten and living in Pennsylvania I was taught by a Quaker woman, originally from Germany, how to weave my first rug.  Later, as a young teenager, I was living in Canterbury, New Hampshire where I learned more about weaving from our neighbors who ran a small private school where the “arts” were emphasized.  At age sixteen we were living in a Quaker community in the remote mountains of British Columbia where I first learned, from my best friend’s eighty-year-old grandmother, how to set up and weave on a large floor loom. Throughout the years my interest and training continued – a weaving class in college in California, a few weeks one summer in Canada with the weaver/author Stan Zielinski, a course with the rug weaver/author Peter Collingwood and a summer’s apprenticeship with South Acworth, New Hampshire weaver Mary Bishop.  I joined the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen in 1972 weaving mostly hats, scarves and shawls. After a few years break raising children and teaching them how to weave, I rejoined the League weaving rugs and pillows.  For thirteen years I had a booth at the Sunapee Fair in New Hampshire and at some other eastern state's craft fairs.  I then took a break from going to fairs for a few years  while pursing other interests,  though still weaving some.  I came back with  a new interest in dyeing my wool yarn with natural dyes,  with which my rugs and pillows are now woven.  The wonderful colors I can get using natural dyes is exciting  to me and I am glad they have a lesser impact on the environment.
I enjoy experimenting with color and design, making one of kind rugs.  I find the Norwegian krokbragd (crooked path) technique used in my rugs especially enables me to do this.  I like using weaving as a form of art with which I can produce sturdy, useful products.

Erica Pfister
265 Quaker City Road, Unity, NH 03603
(603) 542-9370 - pfister@myfairpoint.net