08/21/2026
Its Friday!!! Again! It's also National Senior Citizens Day! Woohoo! I definitely qualify . . . and I know I have lots of company. So, let's celebrate with Freebie Friday with something fun . . . and definitely older than us!
Allow me to introduce you to Jenny la Cour.
Jenny Erasmine la Cour was a Danish teacher and weaver whose pioneering work helped revive handweaving in Denmark at the end of the nineteenth century. Born in 1849 and raised at Skærsø on the Mols peninsula, she developed an early familiarity with traditional handicrafts. After studying at Askov Højskole, she returned there as a teacher and became an influential figure in the education of women.
In 1888, Jenny traveled to Sweden with her niece Johanne Siegumfeldt to study handicrafts. Their interest soon centered on weaving, and in 1889 they established weaving courses at Askov. For the next quarter century, Jenny taught hundreds of students, introducing them to both practical household weaving and Swedish decorative techniques. At a time when industrialization had largely displaced weaving in Danish homes and farms, her school played a major role in bringing the handloom back into everyday life.
Jenny also worked to make weaving more accessible to the home weaver. She collaborated with loom maker Anders Lervad and helped develop attractive, practical looms for domestic use. In 1897, she and Siegumfeldt published Vævebog for Hjemmene, an important weaving manual that included instructions for dressing a loom as well as actual woven samples.
In her later years, Jenny turned increasingly toward the study and revival of historic Danish weaving traditions. In 1913, she helped establish Husflidsselskabets Vævestue in Copenhagen, an influential center for researching traditional textiles, developing new designs, and providing work for trained weavers.
Jenny la Cour's greatest legacy was her role as a teacher and catalyst. Through her school, publications, and advocacy, she helped create a generation of Danish weavers who carried the craft into the twentieth century. Her contribution was recognized in 1914 when she received the Danish Handicraft Society's large silver medal for her work in promoting weaving.
As mentioned above, Jenny and her neice, Johanne, co-authored the influential 1897 weaving guide Dansk Husflidsselskabs Vævebog: 52 Ny Mønstre Til Vaevebog for Hjemmene [Danish Handcraft Association's Weaving Book: 52 New Patterns for Homes]. And guess what???!!! This book and all of it's drafts are available . . . for FREE!
Some of these patterns may look familiar. For example, the draft and sample shown on page 41 appears to be the same pattern (or very similar) to the sample shown on the cover of the "Virginia West Swatch Book" published in 1985.
You may be thinking . . . "But, I don't know Danish." That's okay. The draft information is clear . . . and if you are interested in reading the text, download the app Google Translate onto your phone. It will help translate the Danish text into whatever language you wish.
To access this 125+-year-old book, click on the link below!
https://www2.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/books/lcj_weav.pdf
Enjoy! And celebrate National Senior Citizens Day!
