Mournful Passing

Here at Central Farm Markets, we’ve marked a number of milestones for our vendors—marriages, births, adoptions, graduations, retirements, relocations, and sadly now, the passing of our longtime and very beloved vendor, Annie Kelley of Kiparoo Farm.  We take our weekly ritual for granted, seeing the same faces while sharing updates to our businesses, our lives, and the world in general. But the spot where the Yarn Lady usually was had been empty for the last several weeks.

“I’ve got to get ready for Maryland Sheep & Wool”, she had told me, “Time to fire up my dye pots if I’m going to have anything to sell.”

During those weeks the weather had been crappy; cold and rainy, the type of conditions in which customers don’t linger and shop. Days that would be more productive dipping skeins of white yarn into her signature colors, hanging them to dry, and labeling  all with a simple black and white tag carrying only her name, address, the yarn name, fiber content, yardage and price, the ends fixed together with a pair of staples. That was Annie, no nonsense on everything but her craft for which her creativity knew no bounds. There was yarn from her farm as well as unique yarns in cotton, mohair, and other breeds of sheep she had designed and produced. In addition to yarns, she knitted colorful hats, scarves, blankets, socks, fingerless gloves, mittens, and wraps. There were jewel tones and natural colors, dots, stripes, tassels, and pompoms.

Annie Kelley grew up on a farm in the mid-west and had lived her life among cows and sheep, having been given her first lamb as an Easter present as a child. Livestock and knitting were the foundations upon which she built a life that included her own herd of milking Jerseys and a flock of Border Leicester sheep, renowned for their lustrous fiber.

In 1973, Annie was one of the three women founders of what has become the largest festival of its kind in the country, Maryland Sheep & Wool, drawing both vendors and customers from around the world. She was an anchor at this event for fifty years. Customers who could no longer navigate the crowded event trekked to the Bethesda market to purchase Kiparoo yarns and visit with Annie, always commenting it was a joy to have her all to themselves.

Over the years Annie participated in many regional artisan events including the Smithsonian Craft2Wear Show. She was a member of  Countryside Artisans, a collective who sponsored a free self-guided tour of local artisans in Maryland where Annie invited people to her working farm, studio, and shop that took up several rooms in the old farmhouse with whimsical displays like colorful yarns stashed in nest boxes, old colanders, crocks, and on rocking chairs. Even without an official organized event, her home was always open to visitors. She held instructional knitting groups and occasionally, an ice cream social with ice cream made with milk from her own cows.

Annie hand-dyed wool for historic Colonial Williamsburg which was used in making both period clothing and hand-crafted items. Her knowledge of the dyeing process of wools was unsurpassed. In my own endeavors of natural dyeing, I could show her my failures, and she would immediately assess where I had gone wrong, offering the fix for the next try which always worked.

It wasn’t only questions on dyeing, but just about everything under the sun livestock related that other farmers turned to her for her knowledge and experience. Farming can be an isolating endeavor, but Annie made us feel as if we were never alone telling us those sorts of things happen, things like electric fence charger failures (Her: Did you check the fuse? Me: It has a fuse?), difficult births, flock management issues, dealing with wildlife such as bears, and overall life problems when things felt heavy. She always had a hug and if you were cold, a hat. New market babies were outfitted with knitted booties. Her knowledge was only surpassed by her generosity.

All of us at Bethesda Central Farm Market will dearly miss Annie and Kiparoo Farm. Our sincerest condolences are extended to her son, Kip. May her memory be a blessing.