HomeTimeline of Major Events

Timeline of Major Events

Year Event
1948 The Kingston Hand-weavers Club is established by the "Kingston Amateur Weavers," a group of six students taught by Mrs. Bannister on Brock Street. Ida Merriman is named the first President.
1950 The Club holds their first exhibition of hand weaving at the Modern Furniture Store on Princess Street.
1952 The Kingston Hand-weavers Club holds its first sale at the Sunday School Hall of St. James Parish
1956 The Club, now called the Kingston Hand-Loom Weavers, drafts a Constitution. 
1971 Ted Carson teaches spinning at the Guild, which is renamed Kingston Handloom Weavers and Spinners. 
1973 KHWS collaborates with artist Antanas Tamosaitis to weave a tapestry for the City of Kingston's Tercentenary celebrations. The City gifts the Guild a 100" loom.
1976 The Guild moves into a studio space at the J.K. Tett Centre.
1988 KHWS begins attending the annual Grass Creek Sheep Dog Trials to participate in the Sheep to Shawl competition.
1998 Kingston Handloom Weavers and Spinners celebrates its 50th anniversary at the Kingston Frontenac Public Library.
2005 The Ontario Handweavers and Spinners conference, “Stepping Stones,” is held at Queen’s University.
2009 The group relocates to Portsmouth Town Hall as the City begins renovations on the Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning.
2012 The Guild first participates in First Capital Day in Kingston.
2014 The Kingston Handloom Weavers and Spinners returns to the Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning. 
2020 During the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person workshops were discontinued and weekly in-studio days and monthly in-person meetings moved online using Zoom.