PRAIRIE CITY — Bare feet pumping the treadle of an old-fashioned spinning wheel, Dianne Wright uses practiced hands to feed hand-dyed sheep’s wool into her wooden machine, creating beautiful blue-green yarn.

“This is the way it’s been done for centuries,” said Wright, one of 29 vendors who participated in the fourth annual Prairie City Fiber Fest. The event began on Friday, July 29, with workshops on weaving, spinning, basket weaving and other skills, then continued through Sunday, July 31, with more workshops and vendors in various locations around town.

Some vendors, like Wright, set up shop indoors at the Teen Center or the Community Center, while others displayed their wares under pop-up canopies in the city park, where musicians entertained the browsers.

Fiber Fest is the brainchild of Prairie City resident Ginger Shive, a spinner and weaver who had been to similar festivals in the Willamette Valley and wanted to bring the same fun experience to Eastern Oregon.

“Our first year, 2019, we started out with five workshops and 18 vendors, and each year it’s grown,” she said.

“We have people come from all over the Pacific Northwest.”

Most of the vendors live in various parts of Oregon, including locals from Prairie City, John Day and Seneca. But there were several who traveled from Idaho for the festival and some who journeyed from as far away as Reno, Nevada, and Northport, Washington, just a few miles from the Canadian border.

Almost everything offered for sale was handmade, with much of the fiber coming from sheep or alpacas the vendors had raised themselves. Goods for sale ranged from raw wool and hand-dyed yarns to scarves, hats, sweaters, baskets, bags, looms, spinning wheels, homemade soaps and hand-carved walking sticks.

Diana Adams of Flying Wheel Woolery in Bliss, Idaho, had a wide range of goods for sale under her pop-up awning in the park, including fluffy 4-ounce braids of hand-dyed roving – unprocessed wool for spinning.

“I’m an intuitive dyer,” she confided. “It means I don’t go by any rules.”

This was her first year participating in the Prairie City Fiber Fest, but she seemed to be enjoying herself, chatting happily with a steady stream of customers. While she was glad for the chance to make some sales, she said what she likes most about participating in fiber festivals (she’s shown at others in Idaho and Montana) is meeting people and hearing their stories.

“I get a kick out of people’s stories,” she said.

A few stalls down, Keith and Roma Henney of K&R Crafts in Elkton were displaying their wares, which included wooden picture frames, continuous-weaving looms and walking sticks decorated using a technique Keith Henney calls fractal engraving.

He coats the wood in a resistant solution, then applies a pair of electrodes through which he runs up to 2,000 volts of electricity. Using a rheostat to carefully control the voltage, he scorches the wood with feathery patterns like the fronds of a fern.

The Henneys were recruited by Shive for the first Prairie City Fiber Fest in 2019 and have been back each year since. Like Adams, Keith Henney said he appreciates the income that he gets from showing at festivals, but what he really enjoys is being around others with similar interests and enthusiasms.

“I’m a people person – I enjoy talking to people and making them happy,” he said.

“My wife’s very shy, but when she gets around crafts, she opens up.”

Shive said she’s been to a lot of fiber festivals in other places, and they all have one thing in common – a friendly, welcoming atmosphere that creates a sense of community.

“They’re the nicest people,” she said. “They share their patterns, they share their knowledge, they look forward to seeing each other. I think it’s friendship that brings these people together.”

Incorporated as a 501©3 nonprofit in 2020, the Prairie City Fiber Fest has become a fundraiser for local youth groups. Last year, Shive said, the festival donated $1,800 to the Grant Union High School FFA program and gave nearly $1,000 to local 4-H clubs.

The event contributes to the local economy in other ways, as well. While Fiber Fest’s scattered layout makes it impossible to get an accurate count of participants and visitors, organizers estimate anywhere from 500 to 800 people come to the event each year. Many are from outside the area, and all seem to have money to spend – on everything from gas to food and lodging.

“We definitely bring people to Grant County, said Trish Lindaman, president of the Prairie City Fiber Fest board.

“The Airbnb’s have people, the hotel, the RV park. … We’re hoping it brings a little tourism and business to Grant County.”