Fiber Arts at the Highlands Festival at Waterloo

KLC was lucky enough to attend the Highlands Festival at Waterloo last weekend. In addition to bringing great crafts to the Festival, we met some amazing crafters. One of my favorites were the ladies from the Simpatico Fiber Collective. Rebecca and Julianne are handspinners, knitters, weavers and felters working in rural Hunterdon County. They sell beautiful, wearable fiber art and supplies for knitters and spinners.

Rebecca Dioda

 Julianne Targan

In addition to their lovely wearable art, they're happy to share their knowledge with those who would like to learn. Those are my kinds of people! So enjoy this short video of Rebecca explaining how her parlor spinning wheel works. (There's a good bit of simple machines science in there.)

I've tried my hand at spinning, and let me tell you, it's not as easy as Rebecca makes it look! She uses that amazing yarn to create all kinds of wonderful knitted creations, like the shawl below.

In this clip, Joanne explains the basics of needle felting. This is a really relaxing hobby I've recently discovered. She creates amazing projects with her felting, and she felts woven fabrics that she creates as well.