D’Elin Lohr’s fascination with weaving began in high school. It was the late 1960s when there was a resurgence of the craft. Lohr then took classes with a friend at UC Santa Barbara, further developing a love for textiles and fashion.
“It just started my whole journey into weaving, spinning, and dyeing,” Lohr said about the classes. “I did it all for years and years.”
The Santa Maria native has been president of the Central Coast Weavers Guild for almost seven years, overseeing the more than 130 members in the group. Meetings are usually held in San Luis Obispo or Santa Margarita, but Lohr said weavers travel from as far north as Paso Robles and Cambria and as far south as Solvang and Buellton.
“When you walk around Santa Maria, there’s not that many weavers. So, I love getting together with people that are interested in what I’m interested in,” she said.
This year marks the guild’s 18th annual sale and showcase but is the first time Lohr is running it herself. More than 40 sellers will gather at the Strawbale Barn Weaving Studio in Atascadero on Nov. 7, 8, and 9. Attendees will likely see clothing, toys, household goods, finger puppets, and more at the vendors’ booths. Weavers will demonstrate different types of looms upstairs in the barn, too.
As a member of the guild for five decades, Lohr has seen it evolve. She remembers when a lot of young weavers joined in the 1970s and started holding meetings on Saturdays because they worked during the Thursday gatherings. A decade or two later the study group program began, giving members the chance to dive into one topic for an entire year.
Then special interest groups formed to allow weavers to explore niches within the larger practice. And now the prevalence of Zoom has opened virtual opportunities.
“People are interested in different things, and so we try to have different groups,” Lohr said. “Weaving is so varied and so broad that anyone could find their place in the weaving world.”
The guild can also be a social network for people who like practicing the craft or want to learn. Lohr suggests that prospective members, beginners, and veterans attend a meeting or contact the guild online.
“It’s social,” Lohr said. “A lot of my friends are in the group.”
While she’s continuously been a guild member, Lohr rediscovered her passion for weaving after a career owning a yarn dyeing business.
“Weaving is problem solving,” she said.
She recently taught herself how to rep weave by reading a handful of books published about the technique. Rep weaving creates a textured surface with yarn packed together tightly. Lohr makes place mats and table runners, which she’ll sell at the upcoming sale along with ornaments and jewelry.
“I’m doing my own designs,” Lohr said, “and I’m having fun with that.”
Check out the Central Coast Weavers Guild’s annual sale and showcase on Nov. 7 from 1 to 6 p.m., Nov. 8 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Nov. 9 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Strawbale Barn Weaving Studio in Atascadero. The guild hosts meetings, workshops, and speakers throughout the year. Annual dues cost $40, and the group is open to weavers of all skill levels.
For membership information, visit centralcoastweavers.org/membership.
Fast fact
• San Luis Obispo is considering instituting a registry for all residential rental properties in the city to better track rental data, which would help increase transparency, ensure compliance with regulations, and provide information for tenant services and city planning. The League of Women Voters of San Luis Obispo County invites locals to its Nov. 20 Lunch with the League webinar titled Rental Registries in Action. This noon event will review the spectrum of registries at local, state, and national levels and discuss how they can be used in rental market policy development and evaluation. Shane Phillips, manager of Randall Lewis Housing Initiative for the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, will moderate a panel of housing researchers and local government officials to discuss how these registries work and how they might help to mitigate rising rental housing costs. The event is free to the public, but registration is required at lwvslo.org. ∆
Reach Sun Staff Writer Madison White, from New Times’ sister paper, at mwhite@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 6-16, 2025.