Meet Lorrae and Lewis Moon | Owner operators of Yampa Valley Fiberworks

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lorrae and Lewis Moon and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lorrae and Lewis, can you share a quote or affirmation with us?
The Future of every community lies in capturing the passion, energy, and imagination, of it’s own people.

I feel like having a community think out of the box is progress

Coming together is power

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
We have always had a passion for sustainability for ourselves and our family, in that motion of providing, making and repurposing, came our art. Lorrae excelled at providing all our food and keeping our budget as minimal as possible. We both have been very prideful at all projects that we made that made our life easier.

Our herd of sheep have been a part time job and we have been developing them over the years to make them a duel purpose herd. With that being said we want to provide a wonderful experience eating lamb, and having a wool that you can make a garment out of that you might know the name of the sheep. This is a wonderful industry of producers of wool and other fibers.

Once we bought the mill and trained a summer on how to make this product, it was transported to our home and placed.
We started to work instantly being behind and running to caught up from day one. A good problem to have.

We get to help our customers and friends have their dreams come true as well. A lot of what we do is product develop with them to high light what they will be selling. If they are successful we are successful. As the store front came to be we get to show local artisans and promote them. At the same time we get to show our finished product of hand dyed yarn from our herd of sheep. Lewis knits hats and scarves on a knitting machine and Lorrae hand knits and weaves product for the store.

We have worked long day and lots of weeks with no time off but we feel very accomplished each day that we have gave it our all to make our yarn as soft and spun to perfection as we are able and will be very proud to offer it to a customer with pride.

Lessons we have learned taking our art to a business format is that to continue to support your community and give yourself a coffee break. We have sections of the business that we handle and respect one another enough to do the job, as well as keep each other in the loop. Always entertain new ideas of how to keep the business and art fresh and still want to do it each day. Take time to freshen your space (studio, store front, office).

Our brand Yampa Valley Fiberworks LLC . comes from an abundance of pride in what made us the people we are today and that came from parents that were hard working honest and took time for us our whole lives. The community has embraced and supported us. Customers have stopped in from all over the world and and greeted us with smiles and hugs.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would first give them a home cooked meal using home grown food from ourselves and the area. I would love to show them the Down town and try some of the new shops we are getting. The brewery is a wonderful atmosphere and crafted right there. The gift shops are really fun to pick up some great gifts. The museum of northwest would be on the list of places to visit. I of course would give them a tour of the mill and show them the sheep. Dinner at Gino’s and a drive in the country. I would love to get them on a working ranch and or farm to see crops and animals. Lunch at JW snacks and a fire and lake side at Freeman hopefully a canoe ride. A bike ride on the bike trail. Hike on Cedar Mountain.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Dale Camp / Great Divide Cleaning He runs a wonderful business. He is professional and Works hard everyday , calls people back does the job timely and charges fairly.

He has been a role model for Lewis and myself.

Website: yampavalleyfiberworks.com

Instagram: yampavalley_fiberworks

Facebook: yampvalleyfiberworks

Image Credits
Lorrae Moon Lewis Moon