A Family Fiber Story
For as long as we can remember Sarah and I (Meaghan) can remember our mother (Cindy) spinning in the evenings. So it is not surprising we have all become craftswomen using fiber as our medium. As many of us are, Cindy was taught to knit by her mother, but it wasn't after her 3 daughters were born that a neighbor taught her how to spin. She found she enjoyed spinning and used it to relax in the evenings once her daughters had gone to bed. From spinning Cindy investigated the many aspects of fiber from processing a raw fleece all the way to a complete knitted garment. She learned how to dye wool with commercial and natural dyes as well as played with felting wool and knitted objects. All this experimentation culminated when I asked her to make me a sweater from one of my favorite picture books and she designed and knitted Treva's sweater from drawn pictures. As a mom Cindy is often the most busy with non-artistic ventures, but she has also had the most time to appreciate our surroundings in beautiful if sometimes dreary, rural New England. As a result many of her knitting patterns and pillow designs are inspired by our animals or the landscape around us. Sarah has always been a color outside of the lines kind of a person so it wasn't altogether surprising when knitting from patterns became too boring for her and she began to make up her own designs. She in particular has an affinity for lacework and often will focus her designs around lace or cabling. Me and my mother often joke that out of all of us she is the most like a real artist, making big messes and never doing the same thing twice. While this often leads to half finished projects it more often leads to beautiful and inventive designs. When Sarah and Cindy started to get involved in selling at local farmer's markets I decided I wanted to get involved too. Knitting never did interest me, though I know how, so I decided to go in a different direction and started felting. I sell most often at the shows we attend, but I also have many of my items on Etsy. When we are at shows we always bring the spinning wheel and the circular sock machine. Cindy can often be heard going into a detailed description of how exactly the fleece right off the sheep's back becomes that beautiful knitted hat. Understanding the connection between the clothing we wear everyday and the raw material is important to us. After all we strive to combine the craft of spinning, knitting, felting, and dyeing with the art of our design.
