Before I fell in love with fiber, I fell in love with farming. I often think of farming as a way to build community while connecting people with the land and the plants and animals that live on the land.
Fiber can also be a way of building community, a way of connecting us with the animals that produce the fleece as well as the fiber-y folks - the spinners, felters, weavers, knitters and crocheters who work with the fiber. I love being a fiber-y person! Are you a fiber-y person too?
Taking the time to create handmade items in a world where mass produced items are readily available sometimes feels like a radical choice. Creating handmade garments for ourselves and others from handmade yarns is an extraordinary experience. The finished piece is beautiful, but the process is beautiful as well.
Although I have worked with fiber since I was a child, weaving, knitting, dyeing, I was trained as a sculptor and painter. I try to bring an artist's perspective to the yarns I create.
I draw much of my inspiration from the beauty of my natural surroundings. My grandparents bought our farm in 1941. Although most of us have wandered around the world, visiting and living here and there, three generations of our family live on the family farm now. I often harvest plants from the woods and meadows such as yarrow, tree flute, beech and bracken fern to make luminous rich dyes for yarn. Plant fibers such as milkweed silk have offered opportunity to spin unusual and beautiful yarns. I carefully hand shear our animals yearly for their beautiful fleeces. My work with fibers begins with care for the land and the animals that live here.
You can see my yarn in Simply Handmade magazine as well as issue 4 of Knitsy magazine
" And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles, no matter how long, but only by a spiritual journey, a journey of one inch, very arduous and humbling and joyful, by which we arrive at the ground at our own feet, and learn to be at home." Wendell Berry