Are you looking to buy looms? The Weaver House in the Bok building is closing.

Weaver House, the yarn shop and weaving school that has drawn fiber arts enthusiasts from around the world, announced it will shut its doors for good in December. The school, founded in 2019, is housed in the Bok building.

Artist and founder of the shop, Rachel Snack, said becoming a mother last summer had shifted her relationship to her life and her business, ultimately pushing her to close.

“It just became clear that I wanted to prioritize my family at the end of the day,” Snack, 34, said. “I’m also seeing it as an opportunity to reinvest in my arts practice, and my personal practice in weaving. There’s not been a lot of time for that, running a business.”

As Snack prepares to wind down the school, she is facing an unusual dilemma: She wants to find a single buyer for 16 enormous floor looms — “they’re very heavy and very hard to move” — that she purchased from the University of the Arts after the school abruptly shuttered in June 2024.

At the time, Snack launched a GoFundMe and raised $18,000 in less than a week to buy, essentially, the entire weaving department from the school, fearing that the equipment might otherwise end up in a landfill, or moved haphazardly out of state.

Now, she hopes that a weaving or teaching enthusiast might buy those Macomber looms and start their own weaving school. It would need to be someone who has enough space to store the looms — and a large moving truck.

“It’s similar to moving a piano, so imagine moving 16,” Snack said. “I feel a responsibility and an emotional attachment to these looms.”

Snack said she is not in a rush to sell the looms, and will wait to hear from the right steward or organization. She declined to say how much the Macomber looms collectively might sell for, but is open to figuring it out with the right steward.

Aside from the UArts equipment, Weaver House is also home to more than a dozen other looms, sewing machines, and accessories like warping boards, benches, shuttles, and weaving tools.

That studio equipment will be for sale at a goodbye party at the shop on Nov. 15 and 16. The shop will still hold its Fiber Craft Holiday Market on Dec. 6.

Snack originally opened Weaver House to be a school, with a yarn shop to support classes. But when the pandemic hit, and people were locked at home looking to invest in new crafts, yarn sales increased by 300%, Snack said. That transformed the retail business.

These days, the yarn shop makes up about 70% of Weaver House’s revenue — 375 students took weaving classes and workshops there last year.

Snack said the shop would remain open as long as there are still things to sell, until the end of December. Shop sales begin Nov. 1, with no restocks.

There are no other weaving schools in Philly, though the Philadelphia Guild of Handweavers, based in Manayunk, boasts hundreds of members, Snack said. She hopes that someone will want to open a new school.

In the meantime, “there are a lot of community meetings and craft circles and individuals coming together, making a point to stay in creative community together,” Snack said. “That will continue on.”

The article has been updated to reflect that Snack is not looking to sell the looms at Weaver House’s goodbye party.