Get Ready for Red Alder Fiber Festival 2026!
Keeley Richardson
Founder and Chief Fiber officer
The first Puget Sound fiber festival of 2026 begins in just over two weeks, and there is no better time to begin planning your visit. Red Alder, a “boutique fiber festival” launched in 2021, takes place each February at the Murano Hotel in Tacoma. There is something for every fiber artist at Red Alder – it’s an opportunity for spinners, weavers, knitters and crocheters to learn a new skill, shop in the curated marketplace and find their community. I was excited to connect with Amy Snell, local designer, instructor, and one of the event organizers to discover what we can enjoy at this year’s event.
Sharing fiber skills is at the heart of the Red Alder Festival. Classes run from Thursday through Sunday and you will find a wealth of opportunities to level up your fiber toolkit and maybe find a new passion. A carefully curated class schedule has been put together to offer taster sessions for people at the start of their chosen fiber adventure through to fiber experts looking to do a deep dive into one particular craft or technique. Spinning, weaving, garment design, knitting and crochet techniques are just a few of the offerings. A total of 92 classes will take place across the four days of the festival, led by world renowned experts in the fiber field.
Amy explains, ” Visitors should take advantage of the fact that we have world-class instructors like Lily Chin, Kim McBrien Evans, and Kate Atherley here all in one place. They, as well as a number of our other instructors, are very seldom in the Pacific Northwest. Red Alder is a rare and special opportunity to learn from these folks who are truly the best at what they do.“
You can find the complete class schedule on the Red Alder website. Places are still available, but hurry, here at The Woolpack we suspect they will fill up fast!
The Red Alder Vendor marketplace is a great way to spend a day. It’s open to the public from Thursday through Sunday and here you will find some of the very best offerings from our PNW fiber community. The marketplace gives you the chance to meet over 30 vendors selling equipment, tools, fiber and lots of beautiful yarn to satisfy your creative needs.
“Our boutique Marketplace is carefully curated to invite attendees not just to shop, but to browse, to visit multiple times, to engage in conversation with the vendors, and to really immerse themselves in the varied offerings from sellers who are the cream of the Pacific Northwest and beyond.” Amy told The Woolpack.
The Hotel Murano has great spots for lunch, so you can relax in-between learning and shopping. A great way to spend the day with fiber friends!
There is also a great social side to the festival. Opportunities to gather and meet fellow fiber enthusiasts take place throughout the weekend. Some of the highlights include a Saturday evening banquet with Kate Atherley as keynote speaker, and a Thursday evening teacher meet and greet. Taking your latest project and finding a place to sit a while is also highly encouraged, you are sure to start up a conversation and a new friendship will be made.
This is the first year that Amy and her business partner, Karen Heitkamp have been at the helm of Red Alder, and they are delighted to introduce some new opportunities for attendees to get the most from the festival. For the first time in 2026, visitors can attend a “Welcome Wednesday’ gathering, where newcomers and festival returnees can get together in the hotel’s lobby bar. There will also be a fun rubber duck hunt in the marketplace – all festival goers are invited to enter a competition to design an outfit for a duck! If you are a fan of light hearted competitions, grab your friends to form a team for the “Shear Genius” trivia night on Friday.
An online Red Alder merchandise store has opened for the first time this year. Attendees can choose from t-shirts, aprons and embroidered patches to wear and show their festival spirit throughout the Red Alder weekend and beyond.
The weekend will be wrapped up with a Sunday Seminar from Kim McBrien Evans and Britt Garber who will be talking about how hand dyed yarns behave in knitted and crocheted projects. The festival ends with a Sunset Sunday Sendoff – a chance to say “until next time” to all of your new friends.
Finally, I asked Amy what she was most looking forward to at this year’s Red Alder, “Of course, this year is the first year that Karen and I are the organizers of the whole event, so I’d be lying if I didn’t own up to my excitement of seeing how the whole event plays out. You can envision something and walk through it in your head, but until that first person walks through the door, it’s not quite real. Walking the Marketplace for the first time, welcoming new vendors, showing our new instructors their teaching spaces, handing out those first packets at the registration desk when the students arrive, and raising a glass for the first time as we welcome everyone in on Wednesday afternoon … If our past experiences organizing knitting events is anything to go by, these are going to be unforgettable experiences. I can’t wait!”
Red Alder is a great way to celebrate all that we have to enjoy in our rich and varied fiber community here in the PNW. I for one am very excited to head back and immerse myself in this very special festival again this year. To plan your Red Alder visit, head over to the website. Hope to see you there!
