Love of crafts a common thread for FiberFest vendors, attendees

Under a gray, drizzly sky on Saturday, the Frederick Fairgrounds were filled with color and creativity during FiberFest, where vendors and attendees with a love for all things fiber arts came together to bond over their passion for creating new things from wool.

Fiber crafts, such as knitting and crocheting, are often a solitary activity, said Maya Clark, who lives in Baltimore but grew up in Frederick County. Clark walked around the fairgrounds’ buildings and weaved in and out of vendors’ booths, taking her time to observe the bundles of yarn and feel their texture.

Clark has attended FiberFest, which is organized by The Frederick News-Post, for the last two years and is an avid knitter. She was wearing a dark gray sweater she had made herself.

Events like FiberFest help her to see just how big the fiber arts community is.

“Knitting or crafting ... you’re just by yourself a lot,” Clark said. “It’s really cool when you come here because you’re like, ‘Oh my God, I’m not a freak!’”

More than 100 vendors set up tables at the festival and sold a range of fiber-related products, including handmade clothing and toys, dyed yarn, bags, footstools, buttons and other fiber art tools.

The event drew more than 2,000 people to the fairgrounds, according to Samantha Bangh, one of the event’s organizers.

Just as the festival offered attendees the chance to connect with other fiber artists, vendors also had the chance to mingle with each other and discuss techniques and tips for crafting.

Linda Jennings, who runs ColorStorms, and Kira Wharton, who runs Scrap Master Studio, occupied a booth together. ColorStorms sells yarn dyed with plants and bugs, and Scrap Master Studio’s products include knitted toys made of wool and bags made from scrap fabric.

Jennings started ColorStorms in 2014, and she dyes the yarn herself. Each color and material requires a different process, and she said she’s fascinated by the various ways to create different pigments, rather than using commercial dyes.

This year is her third year selling at FiberFest. She described the event as “a statement of just how crafty Maryland is.”

“There’s the Sheep and Wool Festival, there’s the Frederick FiberFest ... and the Alpaca [and Fleece] Festival,” Jennings said. “Maryland is such a great, crafty state.”

Wharton started Scrap Master Studio in 2022 after she retired from the military, and this was her first year being a vendor at FiberFest. She said that “it’s nice chatting with other makers about what they’re working on” while selling her own crafts.

“The people here are always very excited and friendly,” Wharton said. “This is a really great place to come and meet people that also create these products.”

Some attendees came to the event by themselves while others shopped with family members and friends.

Tisha Varghese and her daughter Isabel Thachenkary of Urbana were shopping for crochet materials together and looking for recommendations on crochet workshops so Isabel could learn the techniques.

Isabel said she thinks FiberFest is “a good thing for the new generation just to get to learn these types of crafts.”

Varghese said it’s nice that Frederick County has so many events, including FiberFest, so that they don’t have to go far from home to find things to support Isabel’s budding hobby.

“We don’t have to go anywhere. We’d rather come here than go to retail shops,” Varghese said. “This is so much nicer.”