Pat Brown
Contributing writer
If you want to awaken—or reawaken—your inner fiber artist, there’s a cozy shop in Blacksburg where you can find raw materials and expert help.
Owner-manager Jessica Jones uses a machine made in Craig County to turn a hank of yarn into a ball. The expandable part that holds the original circle of yarn is made of walnut and designed to be flexible. The part that receives the yarn becomes a blur as it spins around.
New River Fiber (102 E Roanoke St.) in downtown Blacksburg has a small seating area in the middle, a workroom in the back and yarn and accessories all around.
A partnership has made the knit shop possible. Jessica Jones is the manager of the operation and the visible partner.
When “silent” partner Laurie Cubbison sought to buy the business in 2017, she made the deal contingent upon finding someone to manage the shop while she continued to teach English at Radford University. Jones was out of work and willing.
New River Fiber originated in 2014 in Blacksburg under a previous owner. Jones was a customer, and she followed the shop when it moved to a Christiansburg building on Radford Road.
Cubbison and Jones found their current location and moved to Blacksburg last winter, even though it meant downsizing.
Jones calls the center of the shop’s main room the “living room.” Two overstuffed chairs face a loveseat with a coffee table in between.
A classroom in the back provides customers a place to attend workshops and special events like “Knit Night” on Wednesdays or “Loops Groups” on Tuesdays. They can even drop by on their lunch breaks.
That’s exactly what Sheryl Giles was doing on a recent Thursday. She first learned to knit when she was eight years old from her mother and classes at a community center.
Taking a break from her faculty work in Virginia Tech’s economics department, she combined lunch with some knitting. She was working on a blue shawl as part of the shop’s “knit along” projects.
“Multiple people work on the same project,” Jones said. “That means that each person is weaving his or her own garment from the same pattern. The current pattern was created by Stephen West, a popular and flamboyant pattern designer.”
When knitters are finished, they will have scarves with a 96-inch wingspan, she said.
As a knit along gets started, participants often bring in small amounts of yarn from home to help others capture a variety of colors.
Giles said that for the current project at least five colors are needed.
“People are really hungry to become better knitters,” Jones said.
Working with others offers them a chance to advance their skills and get help solving problems.
Group fiber activities are also community- building Giles said. She said she likes to make hats and even a sweater for her husband.
“My husband is very knit-worthy,” she said.
Jones explained the concept of “knit-worthy.”
Knitters, who easily spend 20 to 30 hours on a project, are hoping the people they give things to will treat their gifts like valued lifetime garments.
“As a society, we’ve gotten so far away from that. People no longer even understand how to care for wool,” Jones said. “A large part of running this shop is education.”
She recommends handwashing and laying handmade items flat to dry. She pointed out that machines are abrasive and expose fibers to too much water.
Giles urged her to make an exception for socks, and Jones laughingly agreed.
Jones has three employees, each with her own specialty. Stella Boyer lives in Radford and is a spinner.
Liz Ackermann of Christiansburg can teach others to weave tapestries. Janet Jonas of Pulaski knits, sews and quilts.
“They are extremely talented women,” Jones said, “and very patient with me.”
Jones, formerly of Winchester, studied art at Virginia Tech beginning in 2001. She and husband Mark have two children, Lucy and Oliver reside in Blacksburg. She got serious about improving her kitting skills about four years ago.
Now she can do custom knitting and custom repairs for others.
“It’s expensive, so it doesn’t happen very often,” she said.
Jones weaves her love of natural fibers into the store’s merchandising.
It’s hard to compete with chain stores that carry rows and rows of synthetic yarn, she explained.
So she orders natural yarns—which are the yarns she prefers—from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Turkey. She can get undyed wool from a farm near Staunton and Alpaca wool from Pulaski County.
“I’m environmentally and sustainability-minded,” Jones said.
So she will not be ordering new acrylic or polyester yarns.
A tool that many customers appreciate is a two-piece contraption that lets Jones rewind a hank of yarn into a ball.
Its walnut frame can contract and expand, and a whirling bobbin is visually interesting as it coaxes the yarn into a ball. She found a supplier in Craig County for the low-tech machine..
For inspiration, already completed shawls and scarves rest atop mannequins dressed in simple dresses Jones has constructed. She is phasing out quilting fabrics in favor of fabrics that will work for clothing.
She believes folks can make garments that fit them better and flatter them more than anything on the rack.
“I would really like to de-mystify the art of making your own clothes,” Jones said.