Sew interesting: Fayette County Fiber Festival returns to the fairgrounds
Whether fiber is woven into the fabric of your life, or you鈥檙e 鈥測arn鈥漣ng to learn more, the Fayette County Fiber Festival is for you.
Held at the Fayette County Fairgrounds on June 7, the festival will include about 40 vendors, offering small-batch, hand-dyed yarn, fiber tools, project bags, stitch markers and other items.
Keri Fosbrink, president of the festival and owner of Youghiogheny Yarns in Connellsville, has been dying yarn for people who knit, crochet and weave for about a decade. That blossomed into being a vendor at festivals and shows to sell the products she makes.
So, when a yarn festival in Waynesburg shut down in 2022, she told her husband she wanted to start a fiber festival in Fayette County.
鈥淭he very first event was held in 2023 at a fire hall,鈥 said Fosbrink.
If she needed evidence that there was interest, that first festival provided it.
鈥淲e had 18 vendors, and the attendance surpassed anything (we) expected,鈥 Fosbrink said. 鈥淲e ran out of parking at one point 鈥 so we moved in 2024 to the fairgrounds. We鈥檙e able to offer additional vendors and more things, and we doubled the attendance from the previous year.鈥
This year, she鈥檚 hopeful the demonstrations and vendors will draw in an even larger crowd.
Melinda Wamsley of Boss Mare Shearing in Washington has taken part in the fiber festival since its inception and will return this year to demonstrate her sheep shearing skills. She said demonstrations like hers help to educate people.
鈥(A)griculture has become so disconnected from everyday life. Nobody knows where their stuff comes from,鈥 Wamsley said.
When she graduated from college in 2005 with an associate鈥檚 degree in ruminant production and management, Wamsley said she 鈥渨ould have laughed鈥 at anyone who told her traveling to festivals and shearing sheep would become her job.
鈥淏ut with the new movement of homesteading 鈥 and people trying to source where their stuff is coming from, I get to put that in front of little kids and be like, 鈥楥heck this out. This is what I do for a living,'鈥 she said.
Fosbrink said vendors come from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia to showcase their work. Her ultimate goal is to have people outside the United States come to the festival, she added.
Never been to a fiber festival? Fosbrink said it鈥檚 worth attending to see what it鈥檚 about.
Like Wamsley, she sees value in showing attendees about how the clothing on their back gets there.
鈥(T)here鈥檚 an educational aspect to it,鈥 Fosbrink said. 鈥淢any people have forgotten where the fiber for their wool, clothing, garments, hand knits 鈥 comes from,鈥 she said.
The festival is at Fayette County Fairgrounds, 132 Pechin Road, Dunbar, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission and parking are free.
Winding stations will be available for those who purchase yarn at the festival. Proceeds from the stations will go to the Wounded Warriors Foundation. Nonperishable items will also be collected for the food bank at Connellsville Area Community Ministries.