Creativity crackles across the room as 40 members of the Fiber Guild, the sister guild to the Weaver's Guild of Kansas City, meet at Old Mission Methodist Church in Fairway. They're planning their spectacular pre-Thanksgiving weekend event, the Creative Hand Show and Sale.

Lolly Buxton, 70, of Overland Park, and her daughter, Deb Youngdahl, sit together feverishly finishing their show pieces. Unlike most business meetings, nearly everyone in attendance is working on a hand-crafted item as she listens, wrapping or hooking colorful threads, glancing up at convenient intervals. You'd think it might offend the speaker—but it's hard to find her. Even president Laura Mayes, executive assistant at a financial institution by day, works on a hand-knit washcloth while she deftly guides the evening's agenda.

"Many of us have demanding careers, and our fiber projects bring balance," she smiles, looping red cotton yarn around her needle.

Youngdahl, a systems analyst in a high-pressure business, says with a grin, "I ride the bus to my office so I'll have time to knit socks!"

The Creative Hand Show is almost too much to behold—an explosion of color, texture, and natural yarn smells. It occurs the weekend before Thanksgiving, running Friday evening and all day Saturday. More than 1,200 enthusiastic followers watch for the familiar logo in their mailbox, and before the show opens on Friday a line snakes through the lobby. Most people bring at least one friend and go both days to make sure they haven't missed that perfect gift or special treasure calling their name. For many, the event has become part of the Thanksgiving holiday, like the guys look forward to football.

Every exhibitor—there are 61 this year—must be a dues-paying member of the sister guilds, and the items are juried by board members before being included in the show.
"Each piece must be an original," said show director Sandy Cahill. "Our customers expect high standards."

Guild members are passionate about preserving the ancient craft they love. Buxton won several ribbons on projects she entered in the Johnson County Fair. A teacher and actress, dressed in long skirt and using her bare foot, she pumped the clackety pedal to activate her spinning wheel, fascinating a circle of 10- to 15-year-olds. They'd probably never seen the magic of a clump of fibers pulled out of a wad of sheered sheep wool becoming sweater yarn.

"My great-great-uncle traveled through Pennsylvania in the 1850s, hauling his big loom in a horse-drawn wagon," she said. "He went village to village, weaving blankets from yarn spun just like this that came from each family's own sheep."

From the beginning of Kansas City's Renaissance Festival in the 1980s, the guild was involved. The organization has its own tiny Medieval cottage made from wood shingles, a pointy-roofed delight. It's managed this year by Jeanne Miller, who sits in costume on the little front porch. She's surrounded by rustic baskets piled with yarn skeins, clacking looms, and whirring wheels, and racks of colorful shawls.

"Sometimes the heat is stifling," Buxton said. "But one year on a Saturday a cold wind whipped through, and before the day was over, we'd sold all our sweaters!"

The Weaver's Guild, formed in 1954 with 43 charter members, met once a month during the day. Then in 1973 a few members formed the Fiber Guild, a sister guild for people also interested in spinning, combing, carding, and dying and many other techniques such as knitting, crochet, and felting. In those years, many women began working at jobs or careers so the new group met in the evening. Each guild now has about 80 members, and many attend both meetings.

The members' skills are historic, as are the emotional needs they meet. For centuries, women have nurtured each other in groups, lifting some of their drudgery into a time of camaraderie and passing vital knowledge to younger girls.

These guild members have close ties, like women in earlier times. Some have known each other through many life stages. Yet they don't function in cliques.

"A new person fits in before the end of her first meeting," Mayes said. "We're just here to help one another."

Their love of this craft, with all its variety, makes them all speak the same language.

One of the group's most popular activities is an overnight retreat at a lodge.

"We work on projects all day in our pajamas and cook a group meal," Buxton explained. "But we each have to bring our own wine and chocolate to share!"

Monthly meetings often provide rare opportunities to see experts up close. Recently Carol Leigh, a Navajo weaver from Columbia, Mo., started with an Indian wood flute playing softly in the background. She gave a museum-quality presentation on her rugs, describing techniques and demonstrating her secrets.

If you're attracted to these activities, you'd probably fit right in. For information, call 913-709-1923 or visit www.creativehandkc.org.

Creative Hand Show and Sale
4:00-9:00 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19
10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 20
Ramada Inn
7240 Shawnee Mission Parkway, Overland Park
(Northwest corner of Metcalf and Shawnee Mission Parkway)

Fiber Guild
Meets at 7:00 p.m. each second Wednesday
Old Mission Methodist Church in Fairway
Shawnee Mission Parkway, just east of
Mission Road

Weaver's Guild
Meets at 9:30 a.m. each second Thursday
Loose Park Garden Center
5200 Wornall Road, Kansas City, Mo.
Annual guild membership fee: $25
(covers both groups)