Life With Wool
Glad Gatherings
Greetings from Maine!
Just like that, September is here. The Blue Hill Fair has come and gone. The soft-serve machines and fryolators will soon be switched off for the season, the docks untethered from their moorings and floated to winter storage. By the end of the week, the sun will take her cocoa and hot water bottle to bed before 7 p.m.
There’s no denying a touch of melancholy when September finally hits. The field is definitely yellowing, though the trees won’t really change en masse for another month. The goldenrod is growing tired, the rosehips red and plump. Any day now, the hummingbirds will pack their suitcases and head south.
With so much ending, we can lose sight of what this month does bring. And for those of us who love sheep and their wool, who appreciate a good skein of yarn and the company of like-spirited individuals, this month marks the gateway into that golden universe of opportunity called fiber festival season.
I remember when the entire Knitter’s Review calendar had fewer than 100 events for the year. Now, I count 99 events in the month of September alone—and they cover the globe, from London and Vancouver to Fanø, Denmark, and Deer Isle, Maine.
The number of cruises, gatherings, tours, camps, retreats, and festivals is staggering.
Everyone remembers their first fiber festival. Mine was the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival, which falls in October. It was held up in the mountains at a ski resort before they moved it down to the valley to its current location at Tunbridge Fairgrounds.
I already had an inkling I was entering a new realm. When I called ahead of time with a question, the woman who answered was so concerned that I wouldn’t find a place to stay, she offered her own house to me. “I leave the door open,” I remember her saying, “so just let me know if you can’t find a place and I’ll give you the address.”
Fiber festivals are a multisensory experience. You always have music, even if just the gentle lilt of a fiddle, perhaps some tinkling dulcimer or, in the case of Rhinebeck of years past, the jolly notes of Peruvian pan pipes.
The cider donut line. Worth it.
There’s smell, too, usually grilled meat (lamb, obviously) and, if you’re lucky, the sweet fragrance of cinnamon and fried dough. Human voices form a happy sort of hum that tells you all’s right with the world. The occasional BLAAAAAT of a sheep reminds everyone why they’re there.
Festivals are an overwhelm of color and texture on display both in booths and on your fellow festival goers. Handknits are on parade. They’ve been worn to be admired and asked about. You’re with your people now. There’s no need to say, “Hi, excuse me, you don’t know me, but …” before asking about a detail of the garment. What fiber, or yarn, or pattern? How did you work the decreases? And how long did this take?
Before long, you’ve made a new friend. You wear comfortable shoes and stay hydrated, so you can make multiple trips back to the car when you run out of hands.
A fiber festival is tactile joy and creative curiosity incarnate.
Several of the events taking place this month are new, and not all can be expected to become annual affairs. But I was struck by the longevity I was seeing. The Westerwald Wool Festival in Westburg, Germany, is entering its eighth year, while Yarndale in North Yorkshire is celebrating its 12th year.
But some are hitting the double decade mark, like both DFW Fiberfest and the Western New York Fiber Arts Festival, which are celebrating their 20th years. The California Wool and Fiber Festival has been going strong for 24 years; the Bayfield (Colorado) Heritage Days and Sheep Trailing heralds its 25th year; the Sheep Is Life Celebration in Arizona turns a ripe 28; and the Wool Gathering in Ohio turns 29.
We’re barely getting started. September also marks the 33rd birthdays for Kitchener Waterloo Knitters Fair and North County Fiber Fair in Watertown, South Dakota. Yarnover in Minneapolis and Masham Sheep Fair in the Yorkshire Dales both turn a sprightly 38. Not to be outdone, Pennsylvania’s Knitters’ Day Out turns 40 (though it doesn’t look a day over 20).
Those are just a few of the festival birthdays being celebrated in September—and they all help us warm up for October, when Rhinebeck and the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival both turn 45. No discussion of longevity is complete without wishing a happy belated birthday to Connecticut Sheep and Wool Festival, which turned 106 years old this April.
Fairly certain none of these creatures were at the first Rhinebeck.
At a time when the average person’s attention span has shrunk to just two and a half minutes, according to the American Psychological Association, how admirable to see this many events endure. It’s even more impressive when you consider that most of them are run entirely by volunteers.
Not everyone has had such a smooth journey. After 38 years, the Wool Festival at Taos was moved to Santa Fe and renamed the Fiber Arts Festival. Now, after not getting enough vendor registrations to cover the costs, they had to cancel this year’s event. It’s a sobering reminder that these venerable institutions are actually fragile reflections of the community they serve.
Choose your festivals and support them well. Rejoice at September’s arrival. And for goodness sake, don’t forget the comfortable shoes.
Come Shop With Us
All so true!
I live in the town next to Rhinebeck. As Sheep n Wool approaches, the buzz begins with the locals! I work both days for Anne Hanson-Bare Naked Wool, and have for several years now.
I can’t wait! It’s so exciting! The towns bustling! The bridge is backed up! All knowing we can’t wait to see the “Hill”, who’s there, new designs and just to feel all the squishy, dreamy colors and of course the fiber!
See you soon!
I just warmed up with our local festival this past weekend (Endless Mountains Fuber Festival), and came right home to buy my tickets for Rhinebeck. I love festival season!
Aawww, so sorry to read about Taos wool festival being moved to Santa Fe, & then cancelled. Taos was a lovely setting at the Kit Carson park area. There is more to New Mexico than Santa Fe. Wonderful fiber artists & studios are all over New Mexico.
Aawww, so sorry to read about Taos wool festival being moved to Santa Fe, & then cancelled. Taos was a lovely setting at the Kit Carson park area. There is more to New Mexico than Santa Fe. Wonderful fiber artists & studios are all over New Mexico.
I’m a Marylander, so my local festival is a ways off, but I am going to PA’s Knitters Day Out at the end of Sept. Its a fun event!
O the joy!
Wisconsin Sheep and Wool just had it’s 22 event in Jefferson, WI this past weekend!
My favorite festival is New England Fiber Festival in Massachusetts the first weekend of November. When I lived on Long Island I would take the ferry to CT and drive straight up. It’s fairly big but still has a lot of farm- and small-producers. Now I’m in southeastern VA and there isn’t a local festival (unless a 3 hour drive is local to you ) but there’s been a few years where I meet my NY knitter friends at MDSW in May. I used to go to Rhinebeck but haven’t for years – it grew too big and crowded for me and became unenjoyable.
Oh, Clara, when I see your name pop up on my inbox it makes me sooooo happy! I always struggle with the coming of autumn. It is my favorite season, but the approaching darkness is not as welcome. After reading your piece, I went straight to my current project and knitted a row! A reminder that even in times that may foreshadow cold, dark months there is always yarn to slip through our fingers. Thank you for sharing!
(( GASP of JOY ))
My own local event up here in Canada made the list of mentions in Clara Parkes’ MDK post!
CLARA Freakin PARKES y’all!
I *might* even be able to make a brief run thru to scan closing deals at the Kitchener Knitters’ Fair event this Saturday, but of course… they’ve scheduled me for work 8 to 1 & the KW event closes at 3:30 & it takes me time to clock out, get out the door & drive over to the auditorium… ARGH!!!
It looks like the wool festival is back in Taos on October 4 and 5. The website is Taoswoolsfestival.com.
That is a new and different festival but we in NM are sure glad it’s starting up, thanks for mentioning it. Hopefully it will grow. We also hope that the one in Santa Fe, whatever they choose to call it, will be recreated at some point and return in a new incarnation.
Thanks for the mention of Knitters’ Day Out (KDO)! Knitting friendships together since 1985!
Class registration closes Monday, Sept 15. We have a great marketplace with free entry. Located across the river from Harrisburg, PA at Central Penn College. Stop by Sept 26 & 27 and help us celebrate our 40th!
My local festival, the Garden State Sheep and Fiber Festival is having their 30th festival this weekend. It is one of my favorite days of not just September but the year!
I was delighted to see that you mentioned DFW Fiber Fest, celebrating its 20th year next week. It’s my favorite event. Of course, it’s North Texas so it’s indoors and air conditioned!
And then there’s the 16th year of Shetland Wool Week, which I am happily attending again. Despite being so hard to get to this rock in the North Sea, it feels like my home away from (NM) home after 4 trips. Wool, sheep, fiber people are warmly welcomed and take over the islands! King Charles had a hand in getting it started when he decided to promote British Wool. Wherever in the world you want to go, there’s probably a wool event going on.
I can smell the donuts and feel the wool. And the sound of sheep makes it perfect. And multiple trips to the car for sure. While Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival is not in the fall, I will give it a shout out for turning 52 years of yarning. Thank you so much for starting the morning out with a wave of longing for the next fiber fest.
Garden State Sheep Breeders in Ringoes, NJ this weekend.
Do-able, not overwhelming, and plenty of sheep.
Admission is per car … great fiber for spinning, weaving and knitting.
I live in Maryland, not far from the Md. Sheep and Wool Festival. I started taking my girls when they were in elementary school. It really started with one daughter, who has a collection of stuffed sheep. We came for the sheep and stayed for the fiber, yarn, exhibitors, and funnel cake!! I can’t walk around the Sheep and Wool anymore, but we all have fond memories and often met other fiber friends there!!
I’ll be heading to the Machias Fiber Festival this weekend. It’s a small one, but should be fun!
The Knit City Vancouver 2025 is happening in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
The Knit City Vancouver 2025 is happening in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Such a beauty of a photo of the silhouette with web! Also, ahem, Connecticut at 106. Sorry/not sorry for the brag!
As far as I know The California Wool and Fiber Festival hasn’t happened in several years. Too bad always a fun show.
Rhinebeck has been a dream of mine for years. I thought this was the year. I was so excited. My friend invited me to fly up, stay with her in NJ for the night, then drive up the next day, of course procuring an Airbnb in advance, with her SIL. Sadly, she needs a total knee replacement, and a couple of weeks before the event was the only time they would give her. We’re hoping for next year, barring other surgeries or illnesses. Sigh.
Fiber festivals are great…I heard there is even a book about them!