Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Meet The 2019 Fiber Vendors


• ShayDay Fiber Arts: A small farm located in southwest Ohio with Kentucky roots. We raise a small flock of alpaca and sheep. We love the whole process of raising our fiber critters and take great pride in our products.  We have hand processed fibers and include some mill spun yarn that is done at a local mill. I have a love for dyeing and finding the colors that touch the soul. If you’re a spinner, knitter or felter, I'm sure you will find something to capture your interest.  You never know what else you might find as we are always adding "needful things" that are loved and repurposed, for this is what we strive for. Finding treasures in sustainable earth friendly treasures that represents our Heritage.  

Alpacas at Wolf Run Ridge will be back this year after being missed last year.  Sadly, due to health reasons, Ingrid Greene is dispersing her herd and this will be her last year at the festival.  She will be bringing fleeces, roving, farm yarn, commercial yarn and her lovely knitted items.

• The Kentucky Fiber Trail is a collective made up fiber producers, agritourism locations, and shops across the state that sell local yarns and finished fiber items.   Members of the trail will have locally crafted items for sale, such as yarns, scarves, hats, wreaths and more for sale as well as information on their farms, animals and locations.  Visit our website for our interactive map and for more information about our trail:  www.kentuckyfibertrail.com

• Weaving Memories - Charlotte Anderson - Nicholasville, KY.  With my Union 36 inch floor loom I weave throw rugs, mug rugs (coasters), hot pads, bath mats and bookmarks from recycled materials.  I recently gave a talk to a group of 5th and 6th graders in Lexington for their Environmental Issues Class.  I told them in the last 20 years I have woven 2574 rugs, 2977 mug rugs, 783 hot pads, 123 bath mats, 218 bookmarks and 201 rag bags (purses).  This has kept a sizable amount of "stuff" out of the landfills.  I did not keep track of the rugs and placemats I made in 11 years of weaving before I got my own loom.  I made my first rug out of grocery store plastic bags in 2011.  So far I have made 48 of these and each one takes 125+ bags. That is over 6,000 plastic bags.  It is a challenge to see what different items can be used for weaving.  Do you have a rug made by a grandmother or grand aunt that is falling apart?  It can be remade!!  Stop by my stand and give me some more ideas.

• My shop Rhapsody in Hue will have yarn in many different colors, bases, and samples of finished projects. The name of my shop comes from a play on the title of one of my favorite works of music and I like to think about the colors I use as musical notes that instead of creating a work of music, come together to make a cohesive and beautiful skein of yarn. I've added different bases to my collection this fall so be sure to stop by and see what's new.

• Daniel and Ewe - I’ve been helping my mom (Melanie Gibson) with Rhapsody in Hue for years. Inspired by all the fiber around me I took up spinning last year and love it! It has been the so fun and relaxing to learn how to spin fiber into yarn that I can knit with. My mom dyes beautiful yarn and I love seeing the results of her work, so I decided to dye my own roving. This year is my first year with my own booth at Woolfest and I’m so excited to have farm fresh fiber to offer for spinners and knitters alike.

• Jessica Faulhaber of Jessica’s Creations has loved the fiber arts for as long as she can remember. Her Grandmother taught her to crochet and do hand embroidery  during the summers when she was young. Now Jessica teaches about fiber being part of a effort to be self sustainable and truly believes that there is nothing like the feeling of being able to make the things you wear. Jessica creates the items available on her website, Jessica’s Creations. She is a certified crochet teacher by the Craft Yarn Council and is a regular teacher for Fiber from beginning to end for Fiber Frenzy in Berea, KY. You can find out more about Jessica and what she does by following her shop on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/CreationsJor on instagram https://www.instagram.com/creationsjessica/. While at Kentucky Wool Fest she will be demonstrating spinning, crocheting, and drum carding. In her booth she will have hats for baby to adult sizes (this includes her famous animal hats), shawls and scarves, dryer balls, reusable fabric food wrap,  hand dyed/hand spun yarns, and other hand dyed fibers!

• Michelle and Jeff Brown with Woolywood Crafts have been teaming for 20 plus years. Michelle started after she received a spinning wheel for Christmas and her dad and his wife showed her how to spin wool. 
With Jeff the wood worker and her spinning wool and Alpaca into  yarn,  they  have added more wood type crafts to continue to work together.
Jeff does the dying of the wool and she will wash and prepare it for him to dye. They have knitting boards that Jeff makes and demonstrates at shows. 
They look forward to fiber shows so they can show what they have made as well as meeting new people teaching about their crafts.

• Erin DeAtley of Rock and String Creations from Carlisle will be at the festival with Rock and String Creations. From horses to hand spun, Erin did not grow up with yarn  in  her hands. Reins were in her hands, not wool and her feet were in stirrups, not treadling a spinning wheel. Even so, she has always liked making things, creating, doing, building. Her teachers had boxes of things she’d be caught fiddling with during class that they’d take from her thinking maybe she’d pay attention if she’d didn’t have something in her hands. So she drew instead. In middle and high school she would fill whole sheets of blank paper with intricate squiggles then color them in with felt tips pens. There would be a whole sheet full of colorful, meandering lines. 
She is completely self taught. If she wanted to know how to do a particular stitch, she looked it up and gave it a shot. The nice thing about knitting is that if you make a mistake, you just rip it out and try again. After learning to knit, she learned about wool yarn and natural fibers. She thought if she could make fabric, maybe she could make yarn too and she did. She used a drop spindle for a bit, then graduated to a “real” wheel and in time began dyeing her own yarn and fabric. That is where the real addiction started. Erin loves color. She loves spinning a painted braid of fiber and watching the colors flow and twist together. She says she loves yarn more than knitting, so that’s what she makes. She makes yarn. 
This year at the Wool Festival, Erin will be spinning on her wheel as well as using a drop spindle. She will have her hand painted fiber and yarn for sale along with a few knitted items. So be sure to stop by and watch Erin for awhile and grab some new yarn for your next project.

 Stephanie Stratton of Deep Dyed Yarns by Lunabud Knits hails from Nicholasville, Ky  and is the color extraordinaire behind Deep Dyed Yarns. A lifelong knitter, Stephanie was interested in how yarn was made and purchased an antique spinning wheel to learn. After many trials and errors, she finally was spinning yarn and found a wonderful group of ladies in central Kentucky who helped expand her  fiber arts knowledge. A short time later, she took the plunge into dying fiber and was encouraged by Sara Dunham to become a contributing member of the Sheep and Wool Tent. It was her first vending experience and became the starting point of her new career as the spinner and dyer behind and in front of the curtains of LunabudKnits. 
To find out more about Stephanie visit www.Lunabudknits.com

• David Shepherd of Shepherd’s Woodworking as a spin off of David’s cabinet shop 6 years ago. 
He has been a lifelong woodworker starting as a child building things from the wood out of his father’s scrap box, later studying industrial arts and then after graduation joining his father at a local cabinetry shop. Years later when the shop closed he decide to open his own shop. Soon after he met the multi crafted Kelly who introduced him to the fiber arts and the many tools that go with them.  
The very first fiber tool David made was a crochet hook, It took weeks before he made a hook that met Kelly’s approval. Once started, he was hooked. 
From that first crochet hook to knitting needle and drop spindles, if a fiber tool could be made out of wood he made it.  
He has since added to his product line every year, now offering a wide range for wooden fiber tool, including lathe turned yarn bowls, darning eggs, blending boards, yarn caddies and a selection of weaving shuttles. David has also makes modern version of the Squirrel Cage Swift, an antique design with modern hardware. All of David's items can be found online  at  shepherdswoodworking@fibercrafty.com.
They have recently added handcrafted  Appalachian style brooms to their shop, after Kelly was given the opportunity to use 140+ yr old broom making equipment. 
Kelly has been his faithful product tester, and runs their online store and social media accounts and is also on occasion in the workshop helping with sanding and finishing items.

• Atavistic Acres is a small, hobby farm located along the beautiful Ohio river valley in Boone County. A family farm with Shepherdess Kellie Burke at the helm, they specialize in fiber of all sorts from Shetland sheep, Huacaya Alpaca, and Angora bunny! Education and Meet & Greets are another important staple for Kellie and Atavistic Acres with participation in the Boone County Farm Tour and other community events and outreach. The hope is that the more people learn and understand about the many uses of these animals, the more likely their sustainability and longevity in our community will be! Atavistic Acres also regularly has farm fresh, free range eggs, Apple Butter, and home made soap for sale!

Kellie and her family love sharing their love of animals and their flock! Come visit them in the wool tent and learn about general ruminant husbandry, take a selfie with a wether lamb, or check out some beautiful fiber. Like them on Facebook or check out the blog at www.atavisticacres.weebly.com

• Mike and Rhonda Colley and their daughter Amber from Farm at All Horn located in Lawrence County KY are new to the sheep and fiber world.  This will be their first year as a vendor.
Rhonda had the sheep dream and started their flock with five bred Border Leicester /Coopworth cross ewes that quickly turned into a flock of fourteen.  While the sheep are her main focus, the lovely wool they produce is icing on the cake.
Mike enjoys woodworking, especially wood turning.  He will be bringing some handmade niddy-noddies, nostepinnes, and a selection of beautifully turned bowls.
 Amber enjoys weaving, knitting, and spinning.  She will be demonstrating fiber prep.
Mike, Rhonda, and Amber have enjoyed the challenges of lambing to shearing, all the steps of hand processing wool and are currently learning the fiber arts. 
They will be bringing naturally colored roving processed by Ohio Valley Natural Fibers and unprocessed wool.
You can find their beautiful woolies and other farm friends including a few ornery goats, a multitude of cats, three dedicated live stock guardians and a spunky corgi named Cricket aka The Farm Boss!!! on FB @FarmAtAllHorn.

• Kreations by Phyllis

Phyllis Williams of Lexington, Ky is the main character behind this business.  My business started by mistake after a visit to a local yarn shop and spending the weekend making my first hat.  I was so proud of it, I took it to work to show my friends.  I could not believe how much the ladies at work liked my hat.  Next thing I know I have all these orders for hats in all colors.   The next year everyone who bought a hat wanted a pretty scarf to match their hat.  So I had more orders to fill again.  I started doing local craft fairs and my business way off and going.

My grandmother helped me get started knitting, when I was in high school.   I was determined to learn.  In the beginning, I would pull the yarn so hard she could barely pick it up.  She kept telling me to loosen up.  It finally clicked.  I chose knitting because there are only two stitches.   I was on my way.  I always went to the yarn areas of stores I was fascinated by all the beautiful colors. 

I own a knitting machine and worked for a local crafter perfecting my trade.  I love the machine, but my passion is hand knitting and crocheting. Along my path I got on to felting hats.  Through trial and error I found my greatest love of yarn.  Taking the beautiful colors of yarn, knitting it into a very large hat. Then I take it to a washing machine and abusing the yarn, until it submits and gives me my beautiful hats.  I allow them a couple of days to dry and they respond with my wool felt hats for this show.   These are truly a 
labor of love.

The crochet hats I display were added because cancer touched my sister in law.  She needed something cute and different that did not scream I have cancer.  So I added additional hats which I crochet in wool and non wool.  My repurposed hats were mostly sweaters in their previous life.  All have been washed, and repurposed into hats in both wool and non wool.  Stop by the wool tent and talk to me and see my kreations.  I will have a wool hat before it has been washed for you to see.


• Punkin’s Patch at Equinox Farm has been a fixture in the Sheep and Wool Tent for many years.  Sara Dunham's first sheep was a rescued bottle lamb she named Punkin.  After finding out how fun sheep are and learning the many ways to use their wool each year, her flock has grown to 38 sheep of all sorts of breeds, colors, types of wools and many fun personalities. Punkin would be surprised to see what he started! 

Sara, also known as thecrazysheeplady, enjoys helping new spinners learn to love fiber crafts, specializing in knitting and weaving with handspun yarns.  It's fun to know who you are wearing! She enjoys sharing her love of sheep as well and has been writing an award winning farm life blog for over ten years. Her photographs have frequented the cover of the festival program for several years.  Visit her and popular Serta Sheep #20 in the Sheep and Wool Tent this weekend and online at www.myfavoritesheep.com.

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