• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
