Two Harbors woman keeps weaving rugs at nearly 92

Irene Ronning still spent her time at a loom in Two Harbors, turning discarded fabric into woven rugs at nearly 92. She had taught herself the craft more than 50 years earlier, and the result was less a pastime than a steady habit of making something durable from what others had thrown away.

That mattered in Lake County, where thrift and reuse carry plain economic weight. The county had 10,905 residents in the 2020 census, and Two Harbors, the county seat, had 3,633. In a place that small, a craftsperson who has kept working for decades becomes part of the local landscape in the same way a store, a dock, or a school does: by showing up, lasting, and serving a practical need.

Ronning’s rugs also pointed to a deeper discipline that is easy to miss when the talk turns to handmade goods as nostalgia. Woven cloth is not quick work. It depends on patience, repetition, and the willingness to keep using skills long after trends shift toward cheaper, disposable goods. Her loom turned scraps into utility, and that simple exchange said as much about rural self-reliance as any speech about it. In an era when so much is designed to be replaced, her work stood on the opposite principle: make it once, make it well, and keep it in use.

That ethic fit into a broader Lake County effort to keep local history and craft visible. The Lake County Historical Society was organized in November 1925 to collect, preserve, and share the county’s stories, and it operates the Two Harbors Lighthouse, Depot Museum and 3M Birthplace Museum. Those institutions preserve place through artifacts and exhibits; Ronning’s loom preserved skill through repetition and daily use.

The North Shore also has a broader handmade tradition beyond Ronning’s home. Northern Wilds Magazine has profiled Cooter Pottery & Hand Weaving near Two Harbors, and Lovin’ Lake County says the Two Harbors Fall Art Fair brings about 30 fine artists from Minnesota and Wisconsin. Ronning’s rugs belonged to that same culture of making, but they were marked by something more basic than display: they were built to last, and they were made from what had already been worn out.