Family lore has it that weaver Cindy Long has played with yarn since the day she was born. At age 20, she bought her first loom. It was waiting for her at a thrift shop, sporting a handwritten tag that read “this funny-looking thing, $50.” Cindy started weaving and was hooked for life.
Jump forward a few decades, and you’ll find this accomplished weaver living in the mountains of North Carolina. She’s worked professionally as a weaving designer for other companies and now has her own logo: Woven by Design. Cindy says that her work is actually “woven by design and spirit inspired.” She believes “all of us are woven into the tapestry of life.”
Cindy’s focus now is creating unique scarves that feature yarn sourced primarily from her state’s Carolina Mills. Her scarves also use beautiful wooden buttons from The Buttonwood Corporation of Brooklyn, NY – the only remaining wood button factory in the United States. There is a true craft heritage in the yarn and buttons Cindy uses, and she takes it to the next level in her work.
For Cindy, it always starts with studying the colors and textures in her yarn stash and visualizing what’s possible. She loves having it all come to life on the loom, inspired by “looking out my large picture window as I quietly weave, observing the strength and beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains.”
No question, Cindy’s scarves are gorgeous. They’re also versatile – wear them draped and twisted in various ways, adding your own creativity to what’s already there.
