Fleece & Thank Ewe owners looking to expand

As summer sets in for the village of Trumansburg, on sunny days, you can often find Sarah Lopez, co-owner of Fleece & Thank Ewe Fiber Worx, smiling while spinning wool on her charkha on Main Street.

“All of our art yarn is hand spun and dyed in our apartment,” Lopez said. “I love the process of using the spinning wheel and plying two different pieces together and watching the colors blend. It’s a simple task to perform, and I get to stay active.”

Lopez and her business partner and co-owner, Carrie Kathryn “C.K.” Bookheimer, met on the dive team at Denison University in Ohio, where Lopez graduated with a bachelor’s in psychology with a concentration in queer studies.

“I left college and got into an intensive farming program [at] Calypso Farm and Ecology Center in Alaska,” Bookheimer said. “It was a 400-hour, hands-on course spanning five months, from April through October. We learned farming, spinning, dyeing, welding and blacksmith skills. The program also illustrated the need to make your skills viable financially.”

Bookheimer further described the experience.

“We were shown how sheep are shorn and the processing of wool,” she said. “I learned a great deal about it, and that’s what sparked my interest in pursuing it. I love watching everything change. Everything will change whether you want it to or not as the colors blend. You accept the outcome and you know whatever it is, it’s going to be cool.”

The partnership between Lopez and Bookheimer started when Bookheimer moved to Watkins Glen to help out with upkeep on her grandparents’ house. After Bookheimer reconnected with her old friend, they decided to get back together, set up shop and become roommates.

“I didn’t feel that Watkins Glen was exactly the right fit for me and I really liked Trumansburg,” Bookheimer said. “I went and picked up Sarah in Toledo, and when we returned, we found an apartment right on Main Street in the middle of town in T-Burg. We were so lucky!”

Bookheimer happily shared with Lopez the immense amount of knowledge that she received through her studies in Alaska. The pair enjoyed the artistry so much that they started selling their one-of-a-kind, hand-dyed and hand-spun art yarn, art batts, hand-dyed roving, hand-woven potholders and hand-knit and crocheted items.

“We offer a lot of our things at the Trumansburg Farmers Market, The Sampson State Park Farmers Market and at Fiber Arts in the Glen on Franklin Street in downtown Watkins Glen,” Bookheimer said. “We also participate in the Ithaca Night Bazaar at Steamboat Landing at the Ithaca Farmers Market. The upcoming dates for that will be from 6 to 11 p.m. July 14, Aug. 18 and Sept. 15. It’s a lot of fun. There’s also live music, burlesque shows, apparel, arts and crafts, and food and beverages. We also sell gift cards on our website, so if you see something you think someone might like but are unsure, you can gift them one of those and they can choose for themselves.”

Committed to using local products as much as possible, Fleece & Thank Ewe has started to get local roving from Rockabye Ridge Farm in Trumansburg. The farm offers whole processing from their own flock of sheep.

“Our yarns and wares are made from a large list of materials and items,” Lopez said. “We use a wide variety of wool from different breeds of sheep. Some popular wool breeds we use are: corriedale, merino, rambouillet and local Trumansburg southdown babydoll. We use mohair fiber from Angora goats and silk from mulberry-fed silk worms.”

Lopez explained that they dye all of these animal fibers with “Jacquard acid dyes, white vinegar and water.”

“Otherwise, our wares are made with our own hand-dyed and hand-spun yarns or mill-spun yarns, sometimes thrifted, that contain a range of fibers,” she said. “These yarns could contain anything from acrylic, polyester, nylon, wool, mohair, silk and cotton. Our potholders are made with manufactured 100% cotton loops.”

Bookheimer and Lopez are looking to expand their offerings in the future, including a larger collection of finished products and holding classes.

“We have a lot of people that want to buy things already made with the fibers in addition to the yarn,” Lopez said. “We already offer hats, potholders, necklaces and an assortment of finished art, but we get energized by people’s ideas and want to do more.”

With Lopez continuing to expand her art form and Bookheimer looking to become more advanced by studying under masters in the field, the partners are planning to hold classes and create a community space, with events being posted on their website as they become available.

“We want to help people tap into their own personal creativity and help them express their own story,” Lopez said. “It’s fun to create things, mixing fun and functional. I’m digging my own personal experience with it. We just feel blessed to be able to expand and share.”

For more information about Fleece & Thank Ewe, visit its website at fleeceandthankewe.com or Instagram at instagram.com/fleeceandthankewefiberworx/.

Trumansburg Connection appears every Wednesday in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@VizellaMedia.com.