Fiber Festival being added to Fayette’s list of spring activities
The owner of a Connellsville yarn shop is weaving a new festival into Fayette County’s lineup of spring and summer activities.
Keri Fosbrink, the owner of Youghiogheny Yarns, has been hand-dying yarn for about a seven years, and has been a vendor at fiber festivals in Pittsburgh and Waynesburg. When the latter of those opted not to schedule a festival this year, Fosbrink said she decided to sponsor one herself.
“We need this in our area,” she said.
She started organizing, reaching out to other vendors, and contacting venues to make the inaugural Fayette Fiber Festival a reality. On Saturday, May 20 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., those who enjoy knitting, crocheting and other similar activities are invited to the Morrell VFC Event Center, 1232 University Drive, Dunbar.
The free festival is “a chance to share ideas, connect with others in the community and find inspiration,” Fosbrink said.
She added that it’s also a chance to find products that aren’t sold in mass-market box stores, and more importantly, to meet and speak with the artists who created them.
“These are small-batch, mom-and-pop-type companies,” she said. “It’s not just a hobby for some people; it’s their lifestyle, and they’re passionate about their craft.”
For this first year, Fosbrink said, 19 vendors are scheduled to attend from all over Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The vendors include a shearing service, handmade project bags and notions pouches, soap and hand-dyed yarns, book-inspired yarns from past and present stories, various dye and supply businesses, an alpaca breeding farm, yard businesses, a stitch-marker business, bath and body items and more.
Along with vendors, The Loyalhannon Spinners and Weavers Guild will be at the festival to provide a fleece-to-shawl demonstration as well as having their items for sale. A yarn-winding station will also be available where, for a small fee, materials can be rolled into a usable ball of yarn.
Fosbrink said all the proceeds from the yarn-winding station will go to the Wounded Warrior Project as the day of the festival, May 20, is also National Armed Forces Day.
She added that a food truck will be on site from Shawn’s Smokin’ BBQ in Connellsville.
Depending on this year’s attendance, Fosbrink would like to continue the festival next year at a bigger venue with more vendors.
Both parking and admission are free, and those attending are asked to bring a non-perishable food item to be donated to the Connellsville Community Ministries Food Bank.
For more information, visit the festival website at fayettecofiberfestival.weebly.com.