Millheim Fiber Festival, Sept. 13 at Bremen Town Ballroom

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The inaugural Millheim Fiber Festival on Saturday, September 13 has it all–a fiber show full of yarn, clothing, and craft vendors, live spinning demonstrations, kids crafts, knitting areas, and live sheep.  Festival events take place all over downtown Millheim.

Millheim Fiber Fest Banner jpgThe importance of fiber crafts in our daily lives has increased dramatically in the past 10 years. A goal of the show’s co-sponsors — Ecovents in Millheim and Main Street Yarn in Rebersburg — is to promote the life-cycle of fiber arts, from the farmers who raise sheep and other fiber animals to the spinners to the artisans that create crafts and clothing.

Shoppers can choose from a variety of vendors at the Fiber Show at the beautiful Bremen Town Ballroom from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  Whether you’re looking for that perfect wooly gift or beautiful hand-dyed wool or hand-spun yarn to start your own projects, the fiber show is the place to start.  Some vendors at this year’s show include Main Street Yarn, Steam Valley Fibers, Bald Eagle Valley Alpaca Ranch, Lazy O Ranch, Live Creative, Turtle Made, and Tamarack Farm.

Stock up now on hand-dyed fibers from Steam Valley Fiber Farm. For many years yarn and roving from Steam Valley have been hugely popular with local crafters. The Millheim Fiber Festival is the last stop in Central PA for the farm and its creative genius Phylleri Ball as she and her husband are selling their farm and moving to Colorado to be near their sons.

There also will be beautiful ready-made knitted and crocheted items for sale from “Live Creative” and “The Knotty Knitters.” “Scraps and Skeins,” a fund-raising project for Strawberry Fields in Centre County, will have a booth of yarns and fabrics for sale. All of their sales table items were donated and proceeds will help support their worthwhile program.

In addition to providing clothing to keep ourselves and our families warm, we need to think of our neighbors who may be less fortunate. There will be an area in the ballroom set up for charity knitting. Scarves will already be on the needles so sit and knit a bit. All items will be donated to the Outreach Center in Aaronsburg as part of a project started in 2005 by the Penns Valley Area Knitters.

The Fiber Festival will also have fun and free demonstrations. Joy McCracken of Hughesville will demonstrate spinning beginning at noon at the Green Drake Gallery & Arts Center. Spinning is fun to watch and also is educational – she will show how processed animal fibers are spun into yarn which eventually is used to make clothing.