Artisans from far and wide visit Frederick Fiber Fest for fun and community

Oct. 28—Fans of knitting, crocheting, weaving, needle felting and everything in between came from far and wide to experience a fiber festival at the Frederick Fairgrounds on Saturday.

Frederick Fiber Fest, which was sponsored by The Frederick News-Post and Magpie Fibers, hosted more than 100 vendors and a handful of local food trucks.

Vendors represented every facet of the fiber arts, from the farmers who raise fiber animals to the folks who spin and dye the raw material harvested from them into yarn and the artists who eventually use the yarn to create finished pieces.

At one station, a group of Viking reenactors known as Njörðr's Wanderers demonstrated how Europeans processed textiles in the Middle Ages.

Members of the Wanderers showed off a warp weighted loom, which uses heavy rocks to keep the yarn taught, and metal combs to strip the hard exterior from flax, revealing the soft inner fibers that make up linen fabric.

Krag Buck, the group's leader, said their display was meant to mimic a 9th-century seasonal trading camp in Scandinavia. In those days, Buck said, the textile arts were thought to be a uniquely feminine form of magic.

Visitors of Frederick Fiber Fest had a wide variety of handmade products to choose from, including clothing, bags, plush toys, key chains, cosmetic products made from sheep and goat milk, Christmas ornaments and even loofahs.

Jodie Rock, who owns the business Yarns of Garland, traveled all the way from Maine to sell her products at the Frederick Fiber Fest and pay a visit to her mother-in-law, who lives in the area.

Rock said it takes her several days to crochet a large plush character and stitch all of its components together. She first learned to crochet at 8 years old.

Some vendors at Frederick Fiber Fest focused on selling hand-dyed yarn. Andrew Felsheim co-operates Dachshund Daddy Knits out of his kitchen in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The name of the business is a nod to Felsheim's dog, Oona.

Felsheim first took an interest in knitting after losing his job in 2020. He learned the craft from Deb Goodwin, who lived across the street from his parents and once had her own yarn store.

After teaching Felsheim the basics of knitting, Goodwin quickly realized her mentee's talent for hand-dying yarn. The result was Dachshund Daddy Knits, where Goodwin handles "the numbers" and Felsheim handles "the colors."

Some of the people who attended Frederick Fiber Fest came specifically for the artisanal yarn. Rebecca Yu and Daphne Ho, both of Washington, D.C., heard about the event through knitting pages on social media.

Wearing a dark blue tank top she knit for herself, Ho explained that indie yarn-dyers often use natural fibers and interesting color combinations that can't be found in large craft stores.

"If I'm investing so much time into knitting something, I want it to hold up over time," Ho said. "It's all very intentional. You get to pick the material, you get to pick the color and you get to pick how it fits."

Yu said she appreciated getting to meet other young knitters at Frederick Fiber Fest. Previously associated with an older clientele, the fiber arts appealed to many teens and twenty-somethings stuck inside during the Covid-19 pandemic, she said.

"I think there's starting to be a greater appreciation for slow fashion," Yu said. "It's definitely a little more expensive, but it's super cute."