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Deborah Prescott is a traditional textile artist who spins yarn from locally-sourced wool and alpaca fibers. She will conduct spinning classes for children during a Little Lambs Fiber Arts program in April and May at William King Museum of Arts in Abingdon. A new adult spinning class also will kick off this spring, meeting on four Saturdays in March.

Deborah Prescott uses many weeds around the farm to make dyes for the finished yarn. She likes goldenrod for the bright yellow colors it lends to the fibers. Jewelweed creates a copper-colored dye. Ragweed, burdock, comfrey, and stinging nettle leaves lend green colors to the fibers.

Deborah Prescott models one of her hand-knitted sweaters made from yarn she spun on her spinning wheel.

MENDOTA, Va. — A Mendota, Virginia, woman is keeping Appalachian traditions alive with every turn of her spinning wheel.

Deborah Prescott is a traditional textile artist who spins yarn from locally sourced wool fibers — she used to raise her own sheep — and turns the naturally dyed fibers into yarn for making everything from sweaters and socks to table runners, scarves, dish towels and pillow covers.

Prescott is among an increasing number of people who are bringing back the practice of spinning, nearly a lost art. Practicing the old ways of life have brought her joy for almost 30 years, not to mention a sense of satisfaction as the smooth feel of the fibers run through her hands, accompanied by a methodical rhythm of the wheel.

The spinner devotes hours to her craft from her country home nestled on farmland where native trees and a quiet stream of water provide solitude.

“Working with your hands has a very restorative impact,” said Prescott. “It’s relaxing, meditative, and you just feel a whole lot better doing it.”

Prescott will pass along what she has learned about the traditional methods of spinning yarn to the younger artists in the area during “Little Lambs Fiber Arts,” a sheep-to-shawl youth fiber arts program held during April and May at William King Museum of Arts in Abingdon. A new adult spinning class will kick off this spring, meeting on four Saturdays in March.

According to Charlotte Torrence, director of youth and family education at William King Museum of Art, Little Lambs Fiber Arts was launched in 2022 with funds from a grant from the Francis R. Dewing Foundation.

“It’s exciting we’re able to offer these classes because it allows us to share this traditional craft from our region with a new younger generation,” said Torrence. “Art doesn’t have to be about being able to draw. You can express yourself in a lot of different ways.”

Prescott, a self-taught spin artist, grew up in the suburbs of Chicago where she learned to sew at an early age, making many of her own clothes. It’s that inclination to make something rather than to consume that energizes her creative spirit.

“Today, there’s a maker’s movement to learn how to knit and weave and be more conscious of where our clothes come from,” she said.

“I think if the younger generation learns to make their own clothes, it may actually be a way to help reduce the impact our factory-made wardrobes have on the climate.”

Prescott can trace her love of textile crafts back to her great, great grandmother who was a weaver, making rugs from strips of rag fabrics.

“I guess it’s just in my blood,” she said.

Though she’s not a native Appalachian, Prescott appreciates the rich heritage this region offers to artisans.

“The value of hand crafts is so important. They help us to slow down and to be open to what is real. If we have relationships with what is real, we find more satisfaction in life and it leads us to putting less priority on things and more emphasis on relationships,” she said.

“Very few fiber crafts are done in isolation. They almost always involve other people.”

Generations ago, it was a way of life to spin yarn, she said. “When people practiced this craft, it was part of them being self-reliant and self-sufficient — making the most of what they had.

“It was the children who combed the fibers in the evenings while the mothers spun the yarn and the fathers read to the family.”

The artist became addicted to spinning yarn in her early thirties after visiting a yarn shop and spotting spinning wheels on display. The thought of making her own yarn and learning to knit were new skills she was eager to learn.

Prescott said she and her husband were searching for a relationship with the land when they moved to Southwest Virginia in 1996 and began raising Romney and Cheviot breeds of sheep and harvesting the natural fibers.

She has continued her love of spinning yarn even after she and her husband retired and sold their flock of sheep in 2008.

A visit to her home studio reveals a collection of tools of the trade — bundles of natural fibers she calls “bird’s nests,” spindles for twisting yarn, and spinning wheels, some of them vintage.

She spins on a drop spindle and spinning wheel and weaves on a rigid heddle loom.

Her spinning wheels come in different sizes and shapes, but they each serve the same purpose of twisting fibers into yarn.

“A lot of people give their spinning wheels names,” said Prescott, with a smile.

“This is Polly. She was built by John Dancer, a Damascus woodworker. I named it Polly because it seems like every other person in the Appalachian region has an aunt named Polly,” she laughed.

“This type of wheel was used in this region until the middle of the 20th century.”

According to Prescott, the wheel is modeled after an authentic spindle wheel, also called a walking wheel. Wool is turned into yarn when the wheel moves in a turning motion. Twisting causes the fibers to bind together, creating a strong yarn.

“This wheel is named Lavinia,” said Prescott, as she moved around her studio. “She is named after a doll that belonged to my grandmother’s grandmother, and I still have the doll. And, the wheel is at least 200 years old.”

Using her spinning wheels, Prescott prepares yarn from wool and sometimes alpaca fibers she buys from neighboring farms.

She describes the process of preparing the yarn as an arduous task at times, but one that she enjoys.

After harvesting the fibers from the animals, the fibers are washed, combed or carded for smoothness, and then spun into yarn.

The artist collects wild plants on the farm for making dyes for the yarn she uses to knit garments.

She likes goldenrod for the bright colors it lends to the fibers. Jewelweed creates a copper-colored dye. Ragweed, burdock, comfrey, and stinging nettle leaves lend green colors to the fibers.

“Sumac leaves give the fibers a beautiful gray with a rosy tone,” she said.

When the weather becomes warm, Prescott will move her spinning wheel to the front porch where she can work as she feels the warmth of the morning sun and listens to the sounds of the spring birds.

“If we have a relationship with the natural world, that gives us the ability to cope with changes better,” said the artist.

“I never really felt I belonged anywhere until I moved here,” she said. “I always thought something was missing. Moving here was like coming home.”

To learn more about the dates and times of the Little Lambs Fiber Arts classes, visit www.williamkingmuseum.org or call (276) 628-5005.

Carolyn R. Wilson is a freelance writer in Glade Spring, Virginia. Contact her at citydesk@bristolnews.com.

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Deborah Prescott is a traditional textile artist who spins yarn from locally-sourced wool and alpaca fibers. She will conduct spinning classes for children during a Little Lambs Fiber Arts program in April and May at William King Museum of Arts in Abingdon. A new adult spinning class also will kick off this spring, meeting on four Saturdays in March.

Deborah Prescott uses many weeds around the farm to make dyes for the finished yarn. She likes goldenrod for the bright yellow colors it lends to the fibers. Jewelweed creates a copper-colored dye. Ragweed, burdock, comfrey, and stinging nettle leaves lend green colors to the fibers.

Deborah Prescott models one of her hand-knitted sweaters made from yarn she spun on her spinning wheel.

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