The second Creekside Yarn Festival of 2023 was held in Airdrie, Alberta, on World Wide Knit in Public Day, Saturday, June 10. Twenty-three vendors (both new and returning) offered hand-dyed yarn, project bags, pottery, and more. The event is a collaboration between Shelley Dupont of Polka Dot Creek and her mother, Penny, of Creek Gardens Crafts.
In 2014, Shelley started experimenting with hand-dyeing a few skeins of yarn in her kitchen. She soon began creating repeatable colourways and started attending yarn festivals with her collections. In January 2019, she and Penny co-founded the Creekside Yarn Festival to fill a seasonal void between other festivals. In March 2023, Shelley celebrated the second anniversary of her store and onsite dyeing studio in Airdrie, which she has grown to a part-time staff of nine. Polka Dot Creek regularly releases new speckled and self-striping sock sets and single skeins in a variety of themed palettes. Their yarns are available in store and online.
Airdrie-based indie yarn dyer Tracy Joshua-Morgan of Sassy Strings Yarn Studio is a popular returning vendor at the festival. Her seasonal small-batch releases feature complex variegated colourways and dimensional tonals. The complementary shades are designed to work together and flow seamlessly from one collection to the next. She offers five bases including her bestselling Sassy Sock and Sassy DK yarns. Tracy’s yarn is available on her website.
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Elissa Hainsworth is the self-taught leather maker behind Her Leather Co. She creates leather bags and accessories for fibre artists and crafters from her home studio in Calgary. She is passionate about natural materials and works with both new and reclaimed leather. Elissa is best known for her functional project bags and yarn bowls. These are complemented by her collection of small leather goods including pouches, cord clips, shawl cuffs, and scissors cases. Elissa regularly adds thoughtful new elements to her designs and shares her process on Instagram. Her work is available on her website.
The Creekside Yarn Festival is held biannually, in January and June. The next festival will be on Saturday, January 20, 2024, at the Airdrie Town and Country Centre. For up-to-date information, visit their website and follow along on Instagram.
All images by Connie Miazga.
