Stony Hill Fiber Arts originated north of Raleigh NC in an area locally known as Stony Hill.  

So much for geography  ... 
The company in  all actuality is located in my head then down through my heart which comes out of my hands as knitted stuff.
   If you come by, you’ll get the royal factory tour which includes such major points of interests as the brainstorming/workroom also known as the kitchen; the dyeing  facility oftentimes called a back porch,
The drying area—anything that serves as a hook; and finally, the pre-shipment/storage station which includes any empty spot 
throughout the house (which
are few and far between in 
lightof our many treasures.)
   The company was 
established in 1994, the
year of great sadness, 
when a friend handed me 
knitting needles and a pattern 
to which another friend added 
skeins of her extra yarn, 
and that was all she wrote.  
I knitted my way through grief, I spun away my anger: my sadness dyed in works of tactile art.

Hours of operation are: before the children’s breakfast, backpacks, and busses, red lighted intersections, between cooking and homework, betwixt bath tub occupation and pajama donning (which can sometimes yield a whole bootie, depending upon the willingness of a child to stay immersed to the early raisin stage) and after stories—for about two minutes for then my needles lull me with their “you’re getting very sleepy” rhythm.  And those gloriously wonderful two days  that we call weekends.

       Okay, the product is cute, so how do I sell it?  How ‘bout I sell the ‘HOW TO’ and the ‘WITH THIS’: hence , patterns, yarn, kits, and Knit Wits  went  into production in much the sane, I mean, same fashion the finished booties,                             hats and slippers; ie all the                                     moments between all the                                       time that something else                                        was not occurring and                                            sometimes, when it was…


     At first, I attempted to manufacture, market and sell the finished hat, slippers and baby booties.  I would skein up the yarn, then I dyed the skeins either by boiling them in a specific color or laying them out and brushing on different combinations of colors to produce the “rainbow effect” I then steamed them to set the color.
    The yarn was then 
hung to dry ,usually 
for a few days.  Then I 
knitted, felted, shaped 
and dried the booties 
once again for a few 
days. I sewed on the 
accessories,  packaged 
and peddled them  to whomever I could.  
                                           
    Well , gentle crafting reader, you probably know 
from your own experience that most folks -particularly those who do not enjoy handcrafting - have no idea of the hours involved and .75 an hour won’t even feed our fiber 
addiction much less the family.  
   
    My Hannah and I spent 
many an hour at various shows
without a sale, shops were 
delighted in the booties, just 
not the price … 

something had to change.  
   

     After 19 years of wallpapering in new homes, my wet hands,  frozen tail and sweating shins wanted a new way to live a making.  With a leap of ignorance faith I got busy.   

    It has been almost 30 years now, since I 
soloed in on fiber arts and we’re still in business. We have moved from wool to organic cotton, working with farmers and mills of the southwest and southeast US.

  Stony Hill has moved from our beloved hilltop house of nineteen years to the mountains and into my Mother’s childhood home in Tryon, NC.   
    I feel as if I am living in a dream.  I wake up in the room I shared with my sister once upon a time.  Each day I am greeted by the beauty of my valley the warmth of my little community, I am happy.  

Dylan Walker - child laborer
in Stony Hill Sweatshop

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Stony Hill  Fiber Arts
828 817-3096