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The Magic of Fiber, Festival, and Community ✨
- Sönna Schuttner
- Aug 15
- 8 min read
The magic of gathering in a creative community — how shared spaces like fiber festivals affirm belonging, spark inspiration, and remind us that we are co-creating the world we want to live in.
8.15.2025
My dear Tangled Makers,
There’s a kind of magic that happens when we gather in the same space: the air hums with the murmur of friends reconnecting and the energy passing between us as eyes smile, skeins of hand-dyed yarn spill rainbows across vendor tables, and the whir of spinning wheels mingles with the steady rhythm of knitting needles and crochet hooks. At a fiber festival, craft is at the center, but so is connection and community. We are both called to squeeze a particularly soft skein, swap project stories in the aisles, and grin unabashedly in selfies with each other. We learn together and from one another, stitch by stitch. In this field note entry in Wool & Weather, I am sharing three lessons I learned at Flock Fiber Festival this year along with tangible ways we can actively co-create our community.
🧶 This project-based fiber journal comes straight from my real life as a knitter, designer, and seasonal maker. I write these posts myself — no AI ghostwriting, no ads — just yarn, community, and stories from the Wool & Wyrd side of life. If this post makes you want to pick up your needles or you find yourself searching "fiber arts festival near me," I hope you’ll follow that spark and share it with others.
It really is incredible to come together with so many people in our community. It is a special magic, and a powerful one. In moments like these, I can feel it: we are creating the community — the world — we hope to live in. Bringing us together in one place affirms that we belong here, every unique one of us, and that our craft has a heartbeat. For me, and for Wool & Wyrd, festivals are a reminder that yarn, tools, and classes are just the start. What matters most is the web we’re weaving between us, each conversation, each smile, each shared skein of wonder.
Jump to:
✦ Lesson 1 — Fiber, Festival & Community: The Power of Being in the Same Space ✦
I learned to knit in community, gathered around kitchen tables with other homeschooling parents, our children tumbling in and out of the house while we compared the play of colors, the satisfaction of finished rows, the sparkle of a new project idea. We planned our future makes as we brainstormed lesson activities, each conversation a braid of creativity, curiosity, and care.
Between 2012 and 2020, I worked in Local Yarn Shops where I was surrounded by makers of all skill levels and backgrounds, each one carrying their own palette of experience and inspiration. That constant hum of creativity fueled my own, and I carried it forward like a treasured skein.
When the world closed down in 2020, our gatherings moved online. The community I found there — friends who shared their stitches and their stories across screens — became dear to my heart. Before the world reopened, my family had moved to a small town. While it has its own active fiber arts circle, they tend to meet in the middle of the day when I am in work or in school. In the last five years, it has been my online connections and my long-distance friendships with the mamas I once homeschooled alongside that have kept my creative spirit nourished.
Not just community, but creating in community, has always been an integral part of my fiber journey.
Not just community, but creating in community, has always been an integral part of my fiber journey. It’s so deeply valued that I wove it right into the mission of Wool & Wyrd. I feel blessed to be creating alongside the Tangled Makers on Discord, my lovely newsletter readers, and the kindred spirits who cross my path on social media. These conversations (whether about patterns, colors, or simply life) are a nourishing gift.
To meet so many of you in person at the festival, to laugh together and watch our stitches grow in real time, to notice the color stories tucked into your project bags or carried about in your arms: this. was. amazing. It reminded me that virtual relationships are real, true, and deeply precious. And sharing physical space is grounding and life-giving. It brings with it a spark, a joy, and a sense of connection that I didn’t realize how much I needed until I was standing there, needles in hand, among friends old and new.
✦ Lesson 2 — Fiber, Festival & Community: Makers Build the World Together ✦
When we work with fiber, we practice an ancient art that has been essential not only to survival but to bringing people together. This art has been handed down to us, and we carry the torch forward, expressing our individuality while participating in shared work.
Our stitches shape more than fabric; they shape our relationships with each other. As we give ourselves grace for the wobbly spot created while learning a new technique, we learn to give grace to those we encounter throughout our day. We learn about ourselves as we learn about our crafts, and in this way, we become more whole and healthy humans. Creating in community means crafting more than the project in our hands; we are co-creating the society we want to live in.
As I made trip after trip to the area where back stock was stored to refill the wall with skeins of yarn, I was struck by how wildly diverse the fiber community is. We ranged in age from children to elders. I saw Christian crosses, Stars of David, hijabs, pentagrams, and triple moons. Our handmade clothing ranged from modest to downright sexy. Some wore a simple rainbow; others came adorned in full queer regalia.
For me, and for Wool & Wyrd, festivals are a reminder that yarn, tools, and classes are just the start. What matters most is the web we’re weaving between us, each conversation, each smile, each shared skein of wonder.
We are all so different that our “weird” is normalized, woven naturally into our shared love of the fiber arts. Learning together, laughing together, sharing resources, giving each other props for work well done and colors beautifully combined — I saw how our individuality matters and is essential to forming the beautiful whole that is our community.
There is a sense of safety and belonging in a space that celebrates craft. While our online spaces can be carefully curated, in-person interactions are more unpredictable. Trusting our community to see us, value us, and even celebrate our differences can be vulnerable. And when so many of us come together over a shared passion and find not only acceptance but belonging, a deep healing can take place.
✦ Lesson 3 — Fiber, Festival & Community: Connection Needs Care ✦
Connection needs care. I’ve had many conversations about nurturing relationships and the energy it takes to maintain them, especially from afar, such as with the homeschool mamas I used to knit alongside. But what I’ve discussed less is the care we must take for ourselves if we want to participate in community the way we wish.
Sometimes it’s as simple as eating food! At the festival, friends had to remind me to stop, drink water, and eat. I can get so caught up in the current, high on the joy, that I forget to check in with my body.
With the intention of being as present as possible at Flock Fiber Festival, I created a strategy that set me up to be comfortable, have what I needed, and feel grounded. You can read more about that in this Wool & Weather journal entry. Even so, I was blessed with buddies who reminded me to follow my own plan — and I needed those reminders!
A practice I noticed again and again was care given so that someone else’s connection could deepen — not our own. I saw folks step back so a vendor could focus on another conversation, offer to take photos for strangers, pass a skein down from a high shelf, or share the details of the pattern they were wearing. These small, fleeting acts quietly strengthened the community warp, helping others weave bonds we might never see.
✦ Finding Your Circle, Wherever You Are ✦
Coming into a fiber festival where it feels like everyone knows each other can be overwhelming. But there are four truths woven through any gathering. Keep these in mind and trust that you have a place here:
You belong.
Everyone doesn’t know everyone (even if it feels like they do).
Our shared love of fiber arts is enough to knit together that sense of belonging.
You belong.
If a festival isn’t accessible, there are other ways to find community:
Ask your local yarn store about knit nights, classes, or stitch circles.
Reach out to an existing community — a church group, book club, or neighborhood gathering — and see if anyone knits, crochets, or weaves.
Volunteer at a fiber farm (they always need someone to pull weeds).
Post in local classifieds or a community board to see if anyone would like to meet for a regular low-pressure knit night at a coffee shop or pub. Then show up week after week even when you wanna bail.
If in-person meetups aren’t possible, connect online. Join a group like Tangled Makers Discord — yes, it’s virtual, but the connections are real. When we do meet in person, it feels even more special. This is part of what Wool & Wyrd is about: tending to the threads of community so they can weave into something lasting.
✦ The Final Thread ✦
I feel such deep gratitude for the fiber community who make a festival space feel alive and am so blessed to have been steeped in the magic of coming together. That magic doesn’t end when the weekend does — it’s something we can carry into our daily lives as we create a craft-centered world.
A craft-centered world is a living circle where time, skill, and beauty are valued as deeply as the stitches themselves — where we hold one another up, wander freely into new ideas, and leave soft landings for projects that wobble or unravel. It’s shaped by kindness and curiosity, open to all who join hands (and shuttles, needles, or hooks) in co-creating it.
It is in these moments that I am reminded why I feel called to Wool & Wyrd as my fiber practice. The fiber arts we practice evolved in community, and through shared creating, connecting, and holding space for the kind of world we dream of, we have the power to shape so much more than our stitches.
May our stitches shape more than fabric, may ground us in craft, Land, and community,
~ Sönna🌀
✨ Whether it’s at a bustling fiber festival, a quiet knit night, an online group, or a table at your local yarn shop, I’d love to hear where your circle gathers. Share in the comments! Your story might inspire someone else to find their own place of belonging.
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Wool & Wyrd is my fiber practice, empowering makers to knit with confidence and intention, shaping not just our stitches, but our connection to Earth, craft, and community.
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OMGods this was so beautifully written! It was incredible to see you during the festival!!!
Finding community is so important. It keeps us active in our craft whether discussing ideas, troubleshooting, pattern searching, and even a "look at you go!" After just moving back to Seattle from the East coast things have FINALLY settled down enough that I was able to make the Saturday gay men's knitting circle at the Stitch Cafe on Capitol Hill, Seattle!
It runs 10am-12pm every Saturday at: Stitch Cafe 1408 E. Pine St, Seattle, WA 98122.
You can also find the group on Instagram: @seattlefiberdudes
Everyone was super welcoming and I absolutely cannot wait to return! Hope to see my fellow gay male knitters there!!!