About Rachel

 

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Rachel began building ontheround by selling hand felted bangles in her etsy shop. She then began dyeing her own fiber for spinning and felting, which lead her to buy a spinning wheel, an Ashford Kiwi. After learning to spin Rachel began selling her handspun yarn in her etsy shop. Rachel sold handspun yarn in her etsy shop and at local craft shows until she had her second child in 2012 and then added hand dyed yarns to her offerings. In 2015 Rachel left etsy and began selling hand dyed mill spun yarns exclusively through her own website. 

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Rachel is a process maker. She draws inspiration from everything around her, especially nature and her feelings. Playing with color and making is often how she makes sense of the world around her. Rachel specializes in dyeing superwash merino wool yarns in complex colorways. She has developed a variety of creative dyeing techniques over her decade-long indie dying career. 

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Rachel is a knitter at heart. She was initially taught to knit somewhere around the age seven by her maternal grandmother, Nana. After some hard years in college called for creative meditation she returned to her needles and hasn't put them down since. Rachel especially loves knitting sweaters and find garment making a radical act of self love. 

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Over the years Rachel has grown ontheround from her home kitchen to a 1,300 sq foot studio in the Lincoln Street Building in Rockalnd, Maine. It is the creative space of her dreams. She works every day adding yarns to the yarn walls, filling wholesale orders to local yarn shops, and in between spinning yarn for her personal stash, knitting and crocheting swatches and samples, and more recently weaving on her ridged heddle loom and sewing linen. 

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In her personal time Rachel enjoys spending time with her three children and cat, cooking, gardening, collecting books, and knitting.