Be a part of Romney Ridge Yarns & Wool’s next creative endeavor! Help put our yarn & wool business on the road with a mobile shop.
For almost sixteen years, I have been in love with my job. Everyday is full of creativity. My workspace is my farm … my farm creates my job … my job feeds my creative soul … my creative soul is fulfilled when I share. It comes full circle.
One of the greatest gifts my work has given me are the people I have met along the way. I travel to shows, markets, and local yarn shops, sharing and teaching, laughing and gaining from them the inspiration and support to further in my endeavors.
Every show is uniquely different. Some are more of a Farmer’s Market set up, others are more Fiber Festival displays, and some boutique like. I attend shows that are inside and some that are outside, each requiring different ways to display various amounts of Hand-dyed Yarns, Knitting Kits, our Farm Calendars, Note Cards, and Needle Felting Kits.
Secondly I am a teacher. From simple beginner’s classes in needle felting to more advanced personalized and unique felting projects, my students learn creative ways to sculpt using natural colored as well as hand-dyed wool, mohair, and alpaca fibers. I also teach fiber dyeing techniques for custom designed yarns and spinning batts. While teaching my classes, I spend time educating. It’s so enjoyable watching my students get excited and amazed with what they can do! Everyone is an artist if given the freedom to create! :)
Its time to take Romney Ridge Yarns & Wool to the next level! It’s a idea I have had for almost a year … I want to bring more passion for color and lots of creativity to you! Imagine a new way to arrive at a class with better options to serve my students, or to arrive at a show or market with a full selection of each line of yarn I produce in every color, and a better variety of our knit and felting kits. I have thought long and hard about the best, most cost efficient and practical way to achieve this … and this is what I have come up with.
I have enjoyed meeting many of the food truck owners at the markets I attend. I have looked at their very creative designs and talked with them about the logistics and have thought this might be a fun option, but it would be another engine to maintain and not a sensible option for traveling longer distances cost effectively or practically. So how about this? ….. I have been exploring a custom built cargo trailer that I can tow to shows, markets and to take to classes fully equipped and include a dyeing station!
The design would allow me to stock the trailer as a traveling yarn and wool shop. It would be complete with skylights for lighting, wiring for electricity, shelving for products, a small sink and energy efficient electric burners for teaching and demonstrating at markets and classes! I have sketched out the design to utilize every space in and outside of the structure and customized it with a crisp clean interior and exterior in neutral colors I could even come to you if you would like to have a Fiber Arts block party in the Summer and Autumn months … in the New England area for now :)
I would also use my trailer for education, helping my customers to choose the best fiber for their projects with demos and displays explaining each attributing factor of each yarn, showing where it comes from, how it is best processed and what it can be best used for.
I would even be able to include yarns from several of my fellow fiber farms offering an even better variety of small, unique, farm-grown yarns. With space and mobility like this the possibilities are endless!
A good friend recently shared his enthusiasm for creativity and encouraged me to look into myself for the why, how and what of my own passion for creativity.
For many years I have been in love with color, structure, farming, sheep, fiber, and the simple earthy goodness I feel in my soul when I sit in the barn smelling the sweet sheepy air feeling the peacefulness of their presence. With kindness and nurturing, they provide me with my medium. From freshly shorn fleece, to carded fibers for spinning, to the simple twist of a strand of yarn wrapped around my needles, I am inspired to create from their gift of beautiful wool.
The colors I choose come from my surroundings. Be it the blues and greens of the salt marsh near my home, or the deep brick reds and neutral shades of stone that I enjoy when I visit the city. Even the natural ombre shades of the sheep themselves excite me! I consider my dyeing to have no rhyme or reason, but yet to let the inspirations from life dictate my palette.
My understanding of fibers and their best use comes from 16 years of working in the fiber industry, volunteering on sheep and wool associations, judging fleeces and fleece shows, attending educational seminars from the American Sheep Industry, and talking and learning from farmers and knitwear designers and you, my best teachers … my customers.
I have spent almost a year researching this idea. The only challenge I foresee is organizing time to fit in all of the shows and markets and classes I wish to attend and teach. :) But I have already committed to many starting in August once the trailer is up and ready to roll … the skies the limit as I will be expanding my reach and excitement and passion for sheep, wool, yarn and design. Many, many thanks to the support from my wonderful customers and friends old and new over the past years. I am excited for what comes next. xoxo