Northeast Fiber Arts Center

Northeast Fiber Arts Center The Northeast Fiber Arts Center is located just 10 minutes from downtown Burlington, Vermont.

We are an emporium of yarns for knitting & crochet, fibers for spinning and felting, looms, wheels, sashiko threads, silks for nuno felting, etc. We offer luxurious yarns from around the world & from right here in Vermont as well as inspiration and instruction for knitting, spinning, felting and weaving. We have a large selection of fibers to spin and felt, all sorts of silk embellishments, knitti

ng needles and patterns, books, spinning wheels, looms and everything you could need or want for a lifetime of creativity in textile arts

And from the same cooperative that the last post showing the plants they use here for natural dyeing came from, here are...
08/07/2026

And from the same cooperative that the last post showing the plants they use here for natural dyeing came from, here are a few photos of the rooms of ladies spinning, knitting, washing fleece, needle felting etc. The atmospete was like having friends over for a "stitching bee", but EVERY day for 8 hours and in straight back chairs, not curled up on the couch!! It'sso nice they have community for it... and they get a monthly stipend, have childcare, and counseling.

They needle felt a gorilla in 4 hours and it is rock hard and so cute! Each spinner spins all the wool for a particular project, so there were only 3 or 4 spinning while I was there, but when they have new orders, there may be as many as 20 spinning. I dont really believe this, but the managers English was good so I guess I need to time it for myself sometime ( I use combs or a drum carder, usually) but he said that in a single day the picker will only get about 80 gms picked and the hand carder only about 150 gms of rolags done? Does that sound right to those of you without a drum carder? (If so...you really need to put a drum carder on your XMAS list! )

More from women's cooperative that does everything we love! These 200 women make their living grading, washing, picking,...
08/06/2026

More from women's cooperative that does everything we love! These 200 women make their living grading, washing, picking, carding, spinning, dyeing and needle felting the wool from a flock of merino sheep they keep. Some are older women widowed or otherwise traumatized by the 1994 genocide: others are single women (deserted by the men and disowned by their families), so child care and counseling come with the job. They get a monthly stipend which comes from the proceeds of what they sell or thru donations.
Here's a rundown of the natural dyes they use- captions of the pics tell you the plant. A woman from Texas sends them cochenile every year, so they also use that although she didn't show it because she wanted to show me the local stuff they use.
When the yarn is from a leaf or flower they refer to it as "fresh" and if they used iron as a mordant, they refer to it as "rich".
I cannot get the cosmos photo to work. Sorry, but im too frustrated to keep trying the stupid system i have to use to clip a photo from a video on this phone

Met with yet another women's cooperative in the western part of the country where they raise merino sheep, wash, card, d...
08/06/2026

Met with yet another women's cooperative in the western part of the country where they raise merino sheep, wash, card, dye, spin, knit and needle felt. And thanks to the donation of a loom from the first woman of Eritrea(i may have that wrong, I was so tired I slept from 4:30 pm yesterday to 7 am this am so i didn't jot down my notes from the day!), they will be weaving soon too. They have an online store and make to order garments ( there was an amazing cable stitch swoncho they were knitting from a gorgeous dark brown fleece for a special order while I was there. Other women were working on mittens, ribbed sweaters and lots of hats. They sell the hats ( not special order) to tourists in the country, along with needle felted gorillas, giraffes, elephantts, etc. More about all that in another post. But they naturally dyed the wool (another post coming about that) too. The hat and carded wool shown below are of naturally dyed wool. So beautiful. Again, they are "at risk" or traumatized single women and they have a day care on site which watches their kids while they work. And on site counseling. So the proceeds of purchases and visitor donations help them out.

After tracking a family of golden monkeys yesterday, Jophride brought me to visit a center that was set up to train youn...
08/05/2026

After tracking a family of golden monkeys yesterday, Jophride brought me to visit a center that was set up to train young (16-20ish) year old, u***d mothers to sew. Like the women's cooperative I visited in Kigali, this Future 4 Kids Center offers free child care, mental health counseling and 6 day a week training to become a seamstress. I wish i had taken a photo of the young girls notebook that you see in the video to my left- the designs were amazing and the measurements so exacting it seems like she could have been on Project Runway! They took a break to greet me with drums and song...this happens a lot. You have to bear thru a slow start to see them start dancing and the girl with the beautiful brain start "yipping" or whatever that sound is! The girls seem so young! Jophride said some walk 3 hours from home each day to get there!
Considering that Rwanda is known for baskets and not textiles, they produce a lot of incredible seamstresses!

OK, Facebook wouldnt let me upload both pics and videos, so sorry you missed the drumming and dancing of the young girls.

Since I have time and good connection right now, figured I'd post another textile experience i. Rwanda. You all know how...
08/05/2026

Since I have time and good connection right now, figured I'd post another textile experience i. Rwanda. You all know how colorful and bold in pattern African textiles are. I've visited several markets and thought you'd be interested in this- especially quilters!
100% cotton here is grown and woven in either Nigeria or Ethiopia and then it is printed in DRC. In all the thousands of prints I have looked at, I've seen only 1 duplicate. Seriously, the range of choices is unbelievable. You purchase the prints in 6 yd lengths be ause that is how much it takes to make a traditional al garment. The fabric is a meter wide. Each 6 yd piece costs less than $10. That is too expensive for many, so many locals purchase an acrylic blend for their garments. So the local purchases a "piece" and then takes it to a seamstress who custom makes her a garment. The cost for that is less than $15.
This was interesting from a cultural standpoint-
I purchase a couple of pieces from one stall vendor ( who was an excellent sales person!) And just 1 piece from the lady across the way from her. On my walk back past these two, another piece caught my eye at the good sales lady's stall and I decided to purchase it, but because the woman across from her had the same pattern ( very unusual), the excellent sales lady asked me to buy the piece from the other stall so everyone could benefit!
I think because of the horrors they experienced in the it's and all the women's cooperative that sprung up to help the widowed and young r**e victims find employment, they are all so supportive of each other. It is amazing to experience the level of community they now have.
You can see fromonw of the last photos, that i was in an indoor market that day and they had no electricity, so we looked at fabrics by phone light!! And in finding these photos, I found the photo I was looking for in the previous post, but couldn't find...locals walking with these agasera baskets on their heads!

So I've been in Rwanda and haven't posted here in a bit because its mostly been about gorilla trekking, learning about t...
08/05/2026

So I've been in Rwanda and haven't posted here in a bit because its mostly been about gorilla trekking, learning about the Rwandan culture and history etc. But I do have a few textile related experiences to share that you might be interested in.
The first is that they have a big tradition of weaving baskets from sisal. The "Asagera" baskets as they are known are sturdy, beautiful in patterning ( often with naturally dyed colors) and in amazing shapes. I took a class at a women's cooperative in Kigali that was started by 18 widowed women after the genocide here in 1994. With the financial help from some folks from Slovenia they have expanded the program to offer basket weaving, sewing and now hair braiding curriculum to women at risk from the fallout of the genocide. There were lots of orphans, single women who had been r**ed and/or widowed, and just lots of ptsd after the horror of over a million people being killed in a matter of a few weeks by their best friends, neighbors, father's and husbands! So these women cooperatives teach a skill, offer daycare while the mother is learning, and offer counseling services and Healthcare (many now have AIDS).
I found this form of basket making very enjoyable and rhythmic, like knitting. But it is slow. Below is a photo of the start of my basket as well as the pendant it turned into!! Between them wanting to show me around and feed me a HUGE home cooked meal including ugali, isombe, apothecary, etc, I couldn't finish the basket. But my guide Jophride is taking me to a place to.orrow on our way south from Volcanoes National Park to Ngyunwe Forest so I can get some sisal to take home. I included a few pics of the beautiful trivets and baskets they make here since I didn't get to complete mine. And these beautiful urns they make that they carry on their heads to bring beans or sorghum to a neighbor ( or for the bride) as a gift.

So sorry....its noon and I am still getting infused. They had to stop for a while because of a really uncomfortable side...
07/25/2026

So sorry....its noon and I am still getting infused. They had to stop for a while because of a really uncomfortable side effect so they restarted it at a slower drip pace. I seem to be ok now and at this new rate should be out of here now by 1 pm, so at the shop by 1:30. My apologies. Meanwhile, I had a chance at the beginning of the drip, before the heart thing happened, to cast on and start a new scarf. Using Amitola and VIP to knit Prismarine scarf ( ravelry pattern). Thank goodness for knitting!!

FYI...so sorry....but i need to get a 4 hour infusion Saturday morning, so I won't be able to open the store until noon....
07/22/2026

FYI...so sorry....but i need to get a 4 hour infusion Saturday morning, so I won't be able to open the store until noon. But ill be here noon to 5 pm Saturday. Sorry for any inconvenience.

I'm putting some lovely CLEARANCE items out in the back room today - a little something extra for those participating in...
07/18/2026

I'm putting some lovely CLEARANCE items out in the back room today - a little something extra for those participating in the to drool over! And it doesnt look like a great day for gardening, hiking, beaching, biking or boating....so even if you're not doing the Yarn Haul, stop in today to enjoy some extra savings. If you're looking for a SUPER quick project to get a jump start on a new sweater for the fall, Joany knit this cute cardi up in a split second! Big needles and using just 2 skeins of Poema by Louisa Harding, its light and cozy. Or if you're still in summer mode, this Lamina Wrap scarf (Ravelry) is almost done and a beauty in 3 balls of Zauberball Cotton!

A restock of Felted Tweed arrived along with a few new brights and a couple lovely, soft pastels (as shown below)
07/17/2026

A restock of Felted Tweed arrived along with a few new brights and a couple lovely, soft pastels (as shown below)

Address

7531 Williston Road
Williston, VT
05495

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 5pm
Tuesday 10am - 5pm
Wednesday 10am - 5pm
Thursday 10am - 5pm
Friday 10am - 5pm
Saturday 10am - 5pm

Telephone

+18022888081

Website

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