How My 7-Year-Old Daughter Led Me to Fiber Arts

When I look back at how Bear Creek Felting began, there wasn’t one grand plan.

There were simply a series of small moments that kept leading to the next thing.

One of the most important started when my daughter Libbie was seven years old and announced that she wanted to learn how to knit.

There was just one problem.

I didn’t know how to knit either.

Learning to Knit So I Could Teach Her

This was before YouTube tutorials were available for absolutely everything, so we did what seemed logical at the time: we found a book, bought some knitting needles and yarn, and I taught myself.

Or at least I learned enough that I could begin teaching Libbie.

It didn't take long before I was hooked too.

I started knitting project after project, including a pair of slippers that I was ridiculously proud of at the time. Looking back at them now makes me smile, because they represent something much bigger than a pair of knitted slippers.

They were the beginning of my fascination with fiber.

All of the kids learned some knitting, but Libbie and I were the two who really fell in love with it.

And before long, simply buying yarn wasn't enough.

We wanted to know where it came from.

A Homeschool Field Trip Changed the Way We Looked at Yarn

I have an aunt, Linda, who had been involved in fiber arts for years.

She spun her own yarn, knitted, wove, raised fiber animals, and understood the entire process in a way that was completely new to us.

Since we were homeschooling, visiting Aunt Linda seemed like the perfect field trip.

She showed us how she worked with fiber and explained the steps involved in taking wool from an animal and eventually turning it into something you could knit with.

We were fascinated.

Until then, yarn had mostly been something that came from a store.

Suddenly we were seeing the whole story behind it.

The animals.

The fleece.

The natural colors.

The spinning.

The finished yarn.

And finally, the things you could make from it.

That visit opened up an entirely new world for both of us.

We Fell in Love With Natural Fiber

One of the things that really caught our attention was the beauty of natural wool.

There were creams, grays, browns, blacks, and subtle shades that hadn't come from a dye pot at all.

They had grown that way.

Once we started learning about wool and other natural fibers, we began paying much more attention to the yarn we bought.

Libbie and I jokingly became yarn snobs.

We wanted wool.

We wanted to know what kind it was.

We wanted to touch it.

And eventually, we started wondering what it would be like to have wool of our own.

That little question would become pretty important.