FIBER ARTISAN

Dixie grew up in Washington, but retired to beautiful central Oregon where she could enjoy her horses and the fishing. Dixie has a lifelong love for horses she attributes to her mothers influence. As a young woman, Dixie competed in cutting horse competitions and barrel racing, as well as being part of performance drill teams on horseback. She still enjoys riding her horses.

Dixie began knitting in her early 20s after she got married and started a family. She says her husband wanted a pair of boot socks, so she got some needles, yarn and a book, and taught herself to knit. That was her first project....and her husband loved them! She kept on handknitting for her family and the neighbors, and then one day, she read about a knitting machine in a magazine. She thought how neat that would be, and eventually came across a used knitting machine at a garage sale. Dixie has developed her talents at the knitting machine over the years, and in fact, has a whole studio full of them where she enjoys teaching others the skills of knitting. Dixie has been teaching machine knitting for almost 20 years. Dixie did production knitting for Nordstroms at one time, but most enjoys the freedom of being creative. She says shes been known as the "What If Girl!"

Dixies desire to knit her own handspun yarns led her to pursue all aspects of fiber preparation and use. She is accomplished at all of them, from washing and preparing the fiber to dyeing, blending, spinning, weaving and of course, knitting. Dixie loves using locally grown wools, and believes we have a wonderful array of fibers in central Oregon. She feels all wools have a place, and feels one of her strengths is in working with wool samples to determine what that type is best suited for. Dixie loves working with natural wool because of the "life" the fiber has in it. Beginning with "raw" wool and doing the processing herself, allows her to capture the most character in the fiber. Dixie lives near Prineville with her husband and the horses!