Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 15, 1990 TAG: 9003162719
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Kathy Loan New River Valley Bureau
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Beverly Cobb fashions hand-spun sweaters from the wool and mohair taken from sheep and angora goats raised by her husband in Floyd County.
The couple settled in Floyd 2 1/2 years ago after retiring from jobs in North Carolina. Cobb was one of the Virginians selected from 700 applicants to participate in the New York promotion.
She recently returned from a four-day visit to the New York store to show her sweaters and to demonstrate spinning. Her trip, March 1-4, marked the end of the Virginia promotion, which was done in cooperation with the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs.
Also representing Virginia on the final weekend was James Jones of Bedford, whose specialty is handmade dulcimers.
"It was wonderful, absolutely wonderful," Cobb said the day after her return home. "I made a lot of contacts while I was there which I have to follow through on now."
She specializes in such classic designs as the Aran Isle sweaters, which are heavily cabled, usually one color with patterned stitches, or the multicolored Scandinavian styles.
These two types are her favorites "because these sweaters have been in style for hundreds of years and they will be for hundreds of years."
"This is what I have chosen to knit and try to put on the market because I feel it's a unique thing. It's not a fad. I don't knit any fad colors or fad designs . . . because five years from now, something else is going to be in style. I knit the classics.
"If you have a genuine Aran Isle sweater that's made of good quality wool - now I'm not talking about the acrylic copies - you can hand them down for years and years and wear them if they're cared for."
Cobb was selected to participate in the Bloomingdale's showcase late last year after learning of the promotion and sending pictures of her sweaters to a Bloomingdale's employee. She thought the New York market would be perfect because people in larger cities might find the cost of the hand-made sweaters easier to accept.
"A hand-knit sweater, especially if the yarn in it is hand-spun, is just a long process and therefore a very expensive process. It's not the kind of thing you get away with selling at a craft show," she said.
"I have done very little craft shows around here for that reason. I realize that it's good exposure if people come along and do a lot of admiring, but people don't go to craft shows to invest in something like I make. They go to craft shows to get ideas or to buy something cheap.
"I realized that I did not have a craft market item, that I had something that had to be focused on a market where there were people who paid a lot for their clothes."
The Cobbs raise Corriedale Romney sheep, a breed known for wool of especially long fiber.
"The animal has to be about a year old before we can shear them for the first time," Cobb said. Each sheep provides an average of 10 pounds of wool, which Cobb said can be used to make three or four sweaters, depending on the diversity of the pattern.
"In the last week, we've had eight lambs [born] so we're increasing our flock quite a bit and we expect more as we go along. Of course, we're raising more fiber than I can possibly use, so we do sell the rest of our wool to spinners and weavers in the area."
She has found that mohair sheared from goats takes to dyeing "just brilliantly," but because the process can be very time-consuming, she usually sticks to the natural color of the fiber from their animals and buys commercially dyed fibers from other people.
Cobb took about 25 children's and adult's sweaters to New York, along with three hand-knit dresses and some handmade Santa Claus and teddy bear toys. She also took her spinning wheel so she could demonstrate her technique to shoppers.
"People in New York were fascinated with it because they just don't get to see anybody spin. Now a few knew what I was doing but for the most part it was just an unknown skill and they were fascinated with that, especially children."
While in New York, she made several phone calls to specialty shops and said two Fifth Avenue shops asked her to call back the following week. "I learned too late that buyers for these shops do not work in New York on Fridays and Saturdays," she laughed.
"You have to go and get your feet wet and find out the system and what the rules of the game are."
Cobb also attended Bloomingdale's Feb. 6 reception, which kicked off the two-month promotion. Gov. Douglas Wilder and New York Mayor David Dinkins also were there. Virginia hams and smoked turkeys, along with wines, ciders and other specialty foods made in the state, were featured on the menu.
by CNB