’Tis the season for going to fiber events and woolly gatherings! Maybe you’ve added a fiber excursion to a family vacation or planned a solo getaway to indulge in your craft. Wherever you roam this summer, traveling plus attending a fiber festival equals a great opportunity to meet new people and expand your handspinning community.
Wisconsin vendor Susan’s Fiber Shop. Photos by George Boe
Vendors
Year after year, while shopping at my local fiber festival in Wisconsin, I got to know several of the vendors. The merchants have great insight into what’s trendy and new. When I moved to Colorado a couple of years ago, I was delighted to find some of the same familiar faces, and friends, working the booths here, too.
Grace and Elizabeth Corrette of Event Horizon Ranch show a pair of Lincoln Longwools at the 2017 Estes Park Wool Market.
Fiber Producers
The shepherdess who supplied the divine fleece that you adored preparing and spinning last fall can teach you a lot about the animals in her flock. Strike up a conversation and make a new fiber friend! Sign up for her mailing list so you can get first dibs on freshly shorn fleeces. Have a favorite ewe? Spinning the same sheep’s fleece can educate you on how wool can vary from year to year.
Maggie Casey leads a spinning class.
Teachers
You can’t learn everything in a single class—even with the best teacher. Taking several classes from your favorite instructor will not only expand your skill set, but will help you get acquainted, too. Some of my teachers have become good friends. We may not see each other regularly, but I look forward to catching up with them when our paths cross at fiber events or when taking their latest class.
Students in a beginning weaving class consult each other on their technique.
Classmates
The easiest person to get to know at a fiber festival is the person sitting right next to you in a class. Get started by offering encouragement or asking a question, and the conversation will flow. You already have something in common! Once, while traveling to attend a fiber class, I serendipitously met several women from my hometown, and we decided to start a weekly knitting group when we returned home.
—Elizabeth
*Sung to the tune of Sesame Street’s “People in Your Neighborhood”