The Oxford Fiber Festival, one of the South’s largest celebrations of the fiber arts, will kick off Friday and Saturday, Jan. 24 and 25, at the Powerhouse. The festival will include free and paid classes and a market filled with vendors selling supplies and finished products.
Program director and coordinator Stacey Sanford explained the mission and idea behind the festival.
“We are part of a bigger organization now called All Y’all Fiber,” Sanford said. “They/we are responsible for promoting and encouraging and preserving the fiber arts, whether that is quilting, knitting, crocheting, needlepoint, cross stitch, rug hooking — whatever the fiber is. We want to preserve and promote those hand crafts.”
Sanford explained that the festival typically draws from 400 to 800 attendees and participants. Due to the ice and snow storm that enveloped Oxford, the festival was remote last year, with guests from six countries joining the online festivities.
Many vendors come to Mississippi specifically for the Oxford Fiber Festival.
“We pull in some pretty big names in the fiber world,” Sanford said. “We have vendors that only come to Mississippi once a year, and they only come to us.”
The festival was started 15 years ago by the local knitting shop Knit 1 and then moved under the care of an Arts Council incubator, where the program transitioned from an exclusively yarn-based space to a community-based, inclusive place for all crafters.
This year, classes and vendors focus on a variety of fiber arts disciplines. There will be classes for all skill levels and interests. The lineup features beginner classes in cross stitch and needlepoint as well as more advanced classes such as crocheting, knitting and lacemaking.
Perhaps the most unique class in this year’s roster is a kudzu-weaving class.
“We have a basket weaving class that is super fun because kudzu is so prevalent here,” Sanford said. “And yes, vines and plants count as fiber; if you can have cotton yarn then yes, kudzu is considered a fiber. That is a very, very cool hands-on class.”
Water Valley, Miss., needlepoint shop The Stitchery will teach a needlepoint class titled GrandMillenial: Needlepoint 101.
“Many handcrafts have been forgotten, but I am happy to know that needlepoint is making a comeback,” Camille Breckenridge, owner of The Stitchery, said. “I am teaching a needlepoint 101 class on Saturday and looking forward to sharing with others. My belief is we are all born with creativity in some form. Finding and expressing your creativity adds joy to your life.”
Most classes at the Oxford Fiber Festival require a registration fee, but shoppers are free to browse the market. Along with fiber crafts, Sanford said, shoppers can expect earrings, necklaces, accessories and bookmarks, along with other types of trinkets.
“I want people to know that you don’t have to do a fiber art to enjoy the fiber art festival, and that we have plenty of finished items,” Sanford said. “If you just like a quilt or you just like a handmade, finished object, you don’t have to make it yourself.”
Sanford touched on the importance of the arts and having a community within the arts for all age groups.
“(This) new, young generation wants to learn cool stuff they have seen on TikTok,” Sanford said. “But there’s that big gap in watching a 30-second video and doing the thing.”
The goal of the fiber arts festival, other than promoting and engaging the community, is learning.
“It’s really easy to watch a video about how to crochet, but unless someone has touched your hands and said, ‘This is how it feels, this is what you’re doing, this is what it’s supposed to look like,’ that kind of stuff really is better taught in person,” Sanford said.
“Can you learn it online?” Sanford said. “Absolutely, COVID taught us that. But COVID also taught us that when we have to stay home, we turn to the arts.”
Annie Evans, a sophomore marketing major from Iuka, Miss., said that she is looking forward to meeting the artists and art enthusiasts and agrees that college students and young people value the fiber arts.
“I find fiber arts to be a deeply underrepresented genre and love to see it showcased when I can,” Evans said. “Fiber arts are a fabulously diverse category of expression. That’s what I think college students and young adults crave and need.”
While the festival is only once a year, the larger organization of All Y’all Fiber offers year-round programming and support.
“We’ve done things from pop-up shops to extra lectures to different classes,” Sanford said. “We have a community sewing machine program right now called Sew Oxford that offers free or low-rent sewing machines for people who want to learn or who want to take a class.”
Sanford and the Oxford Fiber Festival hope to continue the tradition of fiber arts while always bringing new and innovative ideas to Oxford.
“We tell people it’s like going to summer camp,” Sanford said. “Everyone’s super friendly and everyone’s excited to see everyone. It’s a good time; it’s like a family reunion year after year.”
