My first venture...

into the world of fiber happened in my senior year in high school. I decided to knit a turtleneck sweater for my boyfriend. A friend’s mother taught me to knit after school. The yarn for that sweater was a rich chocolate brown. The boyfriend loved it- and oh did he look so handsome wearing it!

The second fiber venture was knitting a turtleneck sweater for my dad, this time a beautiful heathery sea green. My dad loved it, and he looked so handsome wearing it too. He joked about Southern California not really being cold enough for a turtleneck wool sweater.

That boyfriend from high school went on to get a degree in Environmental Studies, became a luthier, then bought a business that made and sold mountain dulcimers. I finished college with an Early Childhood, Elementary and Special Education teaching degrees and a Master’s Degree in Special Education.

Fast forward to 1976 and a friend taught me to weave on the loom she had in her General Store. She also taught me to spin on her spinning wheel. Soon I wanted my own spinning wheel, so I ordered a kit from New Zealand, and assembled it myself.
And by now, I wanted my own floor loom. So that boyfriend copied my friend’s loom design and made my loom out of maple. She is gorgeous.

A couple years later we bought a 29+ acre piece of property, designed and built a house that focused on passive solar design. We also got animals- chickens, rabbits, sheep and a llama. This was during the heyday of Mother Earth News magazine, and I bought the idea that I really could do everything: the vegetable garden, chickens for eggs, rabbits and lamb for meat, sheep for the wool, my teaching, and babies. It worked until the baby arrived- she was not buying the view that she’d be happy enough letting me weave or spin. So the loom and the spinning wheel went into storage.

Another baby girl, and a move here to Calistoga to a 1906 small farmhouse. We closed in the attic to make another bedroom, allowing the girls to have a bedroom of their own.

Then, after a cumulative 36 years teaching preschoolers through college students, I retired. And was finally able to get the spinning wheel and the loom out of storage and back into use.

That was 2010. I’ve been spinning wool, dyeing with natural plant materials, knitting, crocheting and weaving ever since.