Hello! Nice to meet you...

The short and sweet version:

Hi, I’m Beth! I'm the fiber artist behind the dye pots, milling equipment, and spinning wheel at Spindelicious Wool Works. I live in the beautiful Pacific NW with my wonderful husband, two crazy kiddos, and my exotic shorthair cat named Boo.

I specialize in dyeing fiber for handspinners, whether that be combed top I purchase from a wholesaler (most commonly known as "braids") or fiber blends I mill myself (sourcing from local shepherds, scouring, dyeing, blending, and milling using industrial equipment from Brother Drum Carder). Each braid or each milled blend of fiber has been dyed with attention to detail and handspinning in mind. Not only do I focus on creating vivid, interesting, and fun colors, but I take into account how the color will look and blend when drafted out and spun, whether into chunky or fine yarns. My dyeing style honed over the years tends towards painterly and creates a "color melting" effect. Each colorway is crafted with love and attentiveness. 

My other arty ventures include weaving and mosaic art/glass art. Outside of wool-time you can find me gardening, creating wildflower mini-meadows, beach-combing, trail running, hiking, and reading...I always have 3 books going at once.

I hope to one day have a little plot of land to call my own where a few chickens, Shetland sheep, and some fat and fluffy English Angora rabbits can frolic…Add some big simmering dye pots and my spinning dreams would be complete!

Thanks for checking out my hand dyed goodness. If you have any questions/comments/love notes or concerns feel free to contact me. xoxo Beth

The Longer Version:

Oh hi, you're still here? Great! Grab a cup of tea, settle in, and I'll tell you more about why I do what I do:

In 2006 I moved to the charming little town of Bellingham, Wa. Being a proper knitting addict, one of the first tasks upon settling into my new home was scoping out and chasing down the local yarn shop. On my first visit to what was then called NW Handspun Yarns, I had a fiber revelation while witnessing a circle of women spinning yarn together. I was fascinated by handcrafts, the raw materials, and the connection between the land, animals, and the people who stewarded these resources. I wanted to delve back further to the ancient roots of creating yarn, while also exploring the modern ways fiber-based art was being used to push creative boundaries by artists like Pluckyfluff (Lexi Boeger).

I needed to learn how to spin yarn.

I started hanging around the shop with these older women, learning from their hands and hearts, studying (major book nerd here!) and practicing spinning and dyeing.
I launched my Etsy shop in 2007 selling small batch, hand dyed/hand spun yarn in all styles.
In 2009 I put Spindelicious on hold while I pursued a calling to become a midwife serving mamas and babies in rural areas. Even though I packed away my spinning wheel, I took knitting needles and yarn with me around the globe, knowing that someday I would come full circle in my fiber pursuits.

After moving back to the states, getting married to the world's most awesome man, and having babies of my own, we moved from my hometown (the urban center of Portland, Oregon) to a rural town in Southern Oregon with the hopes of creating a small homestead with a giant garden, angora bunnies, sheep, alpaca, and space to have a small fiber studio. I knew once the kids got a little older and we put down some roots, Spindelicious and my fiber-y pursuits would grow again.

I decided to re-launch Spindelicious Yarn and Wool Works in the new year of 2020 after a particularly rough year when my husband was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. After walking next to him through multiple surgeries and treatments, thank God he is now cancer free. As any maker knows, crafting something with your hands is a grounding, healing pursuit. After that long year I was reminded again how necessary creating something beautiful and useful is to ones soul. Spinning, dyeing, and knitting have been my mainstays through the ups and downs of life.

I re-launched Spindelicious with the hopes of not only creating fun, colorful yarn and fiber to share with the world, but also creating community around fiber arts through makers meet-up, classes, and gatherings in Southern Oregon. I love people! After all, sayings such as "weaving our lives together," and "spin a yarn" come out of the history of fiber-making connecting people and communities. We "spin new yarns" as we create new stories to tell together. 

Values and reasons why:

• I value community: Knitting circles, spinning circles, quilting circles, sewing circles...One thing that has always bound people and fiber crafts together through time and space is the circle of community. People gather together to create space for one another as they create useful, beautiful things with their hands.

• Slowing down: As our modern pace of life grows more hurried and frantic, nothing feels more precious than time. The very acting of stopping long enough to create something with your hands, with natural resources, creates a margin in our lives that reconnects us with the land, with our community, and with ourselves. 

• Being intentional: When people purposefully choose to slow, to gather together, to handpick wool, yarn, color, and fiber to create something beautiful and useful, a new vision is born for living together in our modern world. A new respect for the living things we've been tasked to tend to is birthed. A deeper compassion for friends, strangers, and our community blooms. We are crafting something together to bring flourishing for everyone.