Meet some sheep, buy some yarn: Everything you need to know about the Kentucky Fiber Trail

An unthinkable amount of time and energy goes into to knitting a blanket for someone, and in turn, usually a great amount of appreciation for it, too.

Now imagine saying "thanks" to the sheep, who grew all that wool in the first place.

You can do that and more when traveling the Kentucky Fiber Trail.

The trail launched in 2018 as a way to connect fiber artists with Kentucky-based farms, agritourism, retailers, dyers and events. Over the past five years, the memberships have boomed into an online network of more than 50 players, large and small, in the Bluegrass State’s fiber industry.

You can travel the trail throughout the year, but the group also hosts an annual Bluegrass Yarn and Fiber Crawl, which expands business hours, tour opportunities and retail sales among the trail's members. The next 10-day crawl begins on Friday, July 28.

Ahead of the event, The Courier Journal's Maggie Menderski sat down with trail director Sarabeth Parido of Sarabee Designs and Fiber Farm in Winchester to learn a little more about the enthusiasm around fibers and how to travel the trail.

This interview has been edited for context, conciseness and clarity.

Courier Journal: Where did the idea for the trail come from, and how did it get started?

Sarabeth Parido: Kentucky Fiber Trail came out of a conversation I had with the owners of The Woolery in Frankfort. They work with me on planning the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival, which is at Masterson Station Park in Lexington each May. We were brainstorming some ideas. We wanted to get the excitement that we get every year in May to last throughout the year and to highlight all the Kentucky-specific vendors and producers.

The Kentucky Bourbon Trail, obviously, is a staple in Kentucky. There’s also a Beer Cheese Trail and craft brewery trails. We have a lot of really awesome trails and networks that are built into our state's culture. So why couldn't we do that with fiber producers, events, retailers, and all the very different sheep-to-shawl things that we have across the fiber business?

So with some funds from the Kentucky Agriculture Development Fund, we were able to start the trail.

Courier Journal: What are the different types of stops that are featured on the Kentucky Fiber Trail?

Parido: So the trail itself is an online network. It covers agritourism and fiber-related events. We tried to highlight fiber artisans, so there are a lot of people who just have an online presence or make things out of the finished fiber products. There are also fiber producers and retail shops, like little yarn shops, throughout the entire state.

Courier Journal: What reaction do you see from trail-goers, when they realize what they're making from your fibers, is from a living and breathing animal on your farm?

Parido: It gives them a lot more confidence in buying wool products from local farmers because they know the animals have been loved. They know the animals have been cared for, and they can see that care in every step of it, instead of worrying that maybe the animals have been mistreated. Some of those fears are alleviated when they get on the farm, and they're able to see it firsthand.

They're also able to see all the steps that it took to take that wool off that animal and get it all the way to that scarf that you knit, or those socks that you knit, or the sweater that you crocheted, or the shawl that you wove. You're able to see the time and the care that goes into it all.

I think we see a deeper appreciation for the end product. Once they work with wool that was grown in their town or in their state, then it has that special value. It draws upon the memories of when they learned the skill or the loved ones that taught them the craft.

When you make something and when you spent time to make it there’s value. You're passing on something that becomes an heirloom piece.

Courier Journal: How has the trail grown over the past five years?

Parido: The pandemic did change a lot of people's mindsets, and we saw a lot of people get into farming and get into agriculture, during the pandemic. People who said, "You know, I would like to raise animals" or "I would like to begin selling my handmade crafts."

So we've seen a lot of people that are first-timers or a lot of people that are just getting started or restarted. We've seen a lot of people that have opened shops, as we've come out of the pandemic. They have opened shops and started small businesses based on having spent that time during the pandemic doing the things that they love

Courier Journal: What kinds of shifts in interest did you see from hobbyists during the shutdown?

Parido: We saw an explosion of interest in handcrafts, specifically, and we saw so many people returning to things that they could do, and wanting to learn new things because they had more time at home and were trying to find things to do.

They leaned into these handicrafts and things we forgot we could learn how to make. There was interest in watching videos that were curated specifically towards DYI’ers and people who wanted to try something new. All that encouraged people to lean into these legacy crafts.

Across the craft industry and the fiber arts industry, especially, we were seeing explosions of people diving in and asking questions, and wanting tutorials. We saw people wanting to know more about the background of what they were doing.

Courier-Journal: What is the prize for completing the Kentucky Fiber Trail?

Parido: We have cardstock passports for the Kentucky Fiber Trail, and participants can fill them up at their leisure. When they fill it up and send it in, we have some Kentucky Fiber Trail merchandise that we send to people who finish the trail.

There is also a passport for the Bluegrass Yarn and Fiber Crawl that can be downloaded from the trail's website, and you don't have to fill up the crawl passport to turn it in. They can turn it in at any time, and be eligible for a drawing for prizes.

Reporter Maggie Menderski can be reached at mmenderski@courier-journal.com

Want to go?

WHAT: The Kentucky Fiber Trail's annual Bluegrass Yarn and Fiber Crawl is a 10-day celebration of fiber arts and culture in the Bluegrass State that spans a network of more than 50 fiber-centric businesses.

WHEN: July 28-Aug. 6, hours of operation vary among participating businesses.

MORE INFO: To see a map of all participating locations, and download and print a Bluegrass Yarn and Fiber Crawl passport visit: kentuckysheepandfiber.com/byfc

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky Fiber Trail hosts annual Bluegrass Yarn and Fiber Crawl