Real People: Local woman turns passion into business venture
Gail White owns White House Yarn and Fiber
By Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
Monday, February 18, 2008 10:41 AM PST
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| Gail White, owner of White House Yarn and Fiber, Ontario, shows some of the color yarn she has available. Fibers and working with them are a real passion for her. |
ONTARIO — Gail White, Ontario, started spinning fiber at the encouragement of her sister, and it eventually became a passion and a business through which she shares her love of fibers with people in local community and the region.
In fact her shop, White House Yarn and Fiber Shop, 323 W. Idaho Ave., is so busy it keeps her away from her own spinning, she said.
“I started with one spinning wheel,” she said. “Now I have seven or eight.”
“I’m a tactile person,” she continued. “I like to feel and touch fibers. I like fine fibers.”
Walls of the rooms and hallways of the house are lined with yarn in all colors and combinations, and her business also features various kinds of fiber to spin.
White also does a lot of traveling with friends to see what fibers are available around the country and from overseas. She has attended the Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene and other festivals in the state, and she has also attended the New York Sheep and Wool Festival.
“There are shows all over the country,” White said.
While she has many visitors come from the Boise area, she says people stop in from central Oregon.
There are all kinds of fibers available, White said, and she picks the fine ones among her favorites. Besides the familiar sheep wool, there is alpaca, yak, mohair and even bison down.
“I’ve spun dog hair,” she said.
Other fibers that people might not have thought of include bamboo and soy, and there are also a lot of blends. People knit and crochet, she said, and weave rugs using her yarn.
One community project she has started is “Knitting for the Troops,” for people to make either a scarf or a helmet liner. Yarn for troop projects is discounted. To date, 130 helmet liners have been sent, along with 85 scarves, White said.
“It gets the community involved in something worthwhile,” she said.
White does some advertising, but word gets around about her shop, she said.
“There is quite a community of knitters and weavers,” she said, adding she has groups of both meeting at the shop. “I have a lot of classes going on.”
Also, people just drop in the shop during their lunch hour and sit on the sofas or chairs and knit, and it is a place for some to come and meet, White said.
“I’ve met a lot of interesting people,” she said.
White was born in Ontario, but moved away before returning to the community in 1979 to be close to her father.
She has been spinning for about 13 to 15 years.
After looking at all the yarn she had spun, “I decided I had to learn to knit,” she said.
She opened the shop in November 2006.
White is never far from family. Her husband, Richard White, and son Bernt White, have their dentistry practice next door and they share a yard.
“It’s just a passion of mine,” Gail White said of fibers and spinning. “And once you get started it gets you hooked.”
