Market Vermont Artist: Carol Johnson Collins

See items for sale from Carol Johnson Collins

carol1 Carol grew up on a large sheep farm in southern Vermont, and began knitting under her mother’s guidance at the age of 10. She gained a love of wool helping her father bale up the wool at shearing time. She also helped at lambing time. In 1973, Carol learned to spin from a young friend, who had just returned from Colombia.

She spun for almost 10 years using a French Reproduction Flax Wheel built by her husband before developing a business in 1982 called Singing Spindle Spinnery. There, she teaches students of all ages to wash, dye and card wool from local sheep, then dye, color-blend, spin, knit, crochet, felt and weave. She sells spinning wheels, carders, looms, books, yarn, knitting needles, fiber for spinning, four different craft kits which she designed, dyes and finished products from hand spun yarn. Her work is displayed at shops and festivals in Vermont and North Carolina. Several Vermonters of all ages, work with Carol to produce the crafts that she markets in the region. It is important to remember when you handle these items, a great amount of time has gone into the washing, dyeing, carding, spinning or selection of the yarns we have used. Many are hand spun, some are exotic fibers from Vermont raised animals which have been machine spun.

carol_shop Also in 1982 she, with a friend, founded a local spinners’ guild called The Valley Friendly Spinners, a group which meets in different members’ homes, or at Carol’s shop/school/studio monthly, to share their work in a wide variety of fiber arts.

Spinning for 36 years, and actively teaching for 27, Carol and her family live in So. Duxbury, Vermont. Locally she is known as “The Spinning Evangelist”.

Artist’s Statement

“Since I was very young, I liked to make hats.

I remember early on that I was attracted to fabrics that felt soft or smooth or that flowed beautifully. I have always loved to work with color.
Essentially my work combines all of these loves. Spinning is very satisfying because you begin with a fluff of fiber which has no use except as insulation, for example, and by spinning you can turn it into a yarn which can be knitted or crocheted or woven or felted into a useful and/or beautiful form. It is an exciting process.

I love teaching all of these skills to my students who come from many states to learn from me. I also love to make beautiful hats by combining soft, colorful and warm yarns to create a one-of-a-kind hat. The custom hats I make are like a kind of blessing to the wearer. I often say “Wear it in good health.” when someone buys one from me at a craft fair. They have told me that they had cancer and lost their hair and wanted a special hat for their head, or they wanted to give it to someone who had lost their hair because of chemo.

For all the years that I spun and knitted or crocheted hats for my family, they never truly LOST their hats. They would leave them here and there, but they would always find their way back to our home, because no one else had hats like these, and all of the community knew who these hats belonged to.

In all of my work ‘I play with color’ as a recent customer in Nova Scotia commented about my baby hats. I also play with color as I create all the fiber kits, booties, soaps and balls.