Deer Trace Farm

Deer Trace Farm

Spinners and weavers of fine yarns that are hand dyed
with a shimmer of colors and may include exotic fibers

Deer Trace Farm

Carole and Gary Runyon operate Deer Trace Farm in Fayetteville, Tennessee where they grow and import fibers.

Carole hand dyes the fibers with rich shimmering colors on or under the deck of her studio during the warm months. Some fibers will then be sold, others she will spin into thread or yarn for weaving on one of her looms during the colder months of the year.

loom

Gary builds some of the spinning wheels in his shop below Carole's studio. He also restores the older spinning wheels and looms.

Carole occasionally demonstrates spinning, and sometimes weaving, at area museums including the Lincoln County Museum in Fayetteville, Falls Mills in Belvidere and Constitution Village in Huntsville. What she really loves, however, are the fibers themselves, their colors, qualities and textures. "I have a whole wall of inventory you can pet," she says, referring to tubs stacked along one wall of her studio and cuddled full of soft skeins of yarn she has spun and tied in thick braided coils.

  • Deer Trace Farm Quill Wheel
  • Deer Trace Farm Quill Wheel
  • Blue Wool w/Kid Mohair
  • Merino/Angora
  • Brilliant Violet w/Sari Silk
  • Green Wool w/Kid Mohair
 

In an interview for "The Weavers Friend" (Fall/Winter 2011) Carole says: "I love weaving rugs on the old barn loom! We are slowly rebuilding our Reed-Cambridge Loom. I'm looking forward to making rugs with four shafts whenever it is complete. I no longer keep angora rabbits. After 20 years we decided we wanted to do more traveling so I found a good home for them."