Immigrants weave new connections through old looms

A lovely story about these refugee women from Bhutan who are putting old wooden looms to wonderful use. The looms were stored for many years until these women started using skills they have known all their lives. - - Donna Poisl

By ROBERT L. SMITH, The Associated Press

CLEVELAND — Mangali Rai sat before a wooden loom probably a century old and played the antique instrument like a harp. As her feet pumped slender pedals, her fingers danced across taut strands of yarn, plucking and arranging threads as if spinning a web.

More striking than the speed of her hands was the serenity of her gaze. As she weaves, Rai becomes lost in a kind of mental ballet, a silent rhythm that jumps an audible beat each time the "thump thump" of her beater presses another line of yarn into a growing tapestry.
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