Chatham Fibers

I started spinning yarn in the autumn of 2013 at the North Carolina State Fair in the Village of Yesteryear. My wife had a booth at the Village for about 10 years before we met. The Village has an educational mission; people demonstrate crafts as they might have been done prior to 1920. She taught me to spin yarn on a drop spindle. My sole purpose was to be able to demonstrate spinning at the Village and entertain kids of all ages while helping with her booth.

In about 2017 I started dying roving and wool locks, and carding fibers to use in spinning. It was not long before I noticed my wife's stash of undyed yarn. I converted a bathroom to a dye room and started to dye a lot more. One sad and dismal day, it became clear that the undyed yarn stash was not infinite. I started buying my own undyed yarn. I sprung back and started using natural dyes. These were more difficult and less reliable. Through sheer perseverance I have gotten fairly good with them.

I have continued to help out at the Village every autumn. After 10 years of helping, the Village <s>insisted</s> politely suggested that I jury into the Village as a craftsman myself. I did, and am now a fully fledged Craftsman in the Village and continue to demonstrate and teach spinning to those who wander by our booth.