As she recalls, “It was such a fun event that I thought, ‘We could do this in Cedarville.’ It’s not the same, but it’s a smaller version.” The Woolgathering is a four to five-day event in September. The idea was sparked after Bonnie attended the Trailing of the Sheep Festival in Idaho. Around the same time that Warner Mountain Weavers opened, Bonnie launched the now annual Woolgathering Festival. While her studio was independent, Bonnie’s interest in fostering a communal space hadn’t diminished.
Moving to Cedarville and having her own studio/store was a big leap from the cooperative and collective models Bonnie worked within the Bay Area. I learned a lot more about dyeing that I would’ve on my own being self-taught.” I ended up learning a lot from the customers. “Whenever someone had a spinning, weaving or natural dye question, they’d ask me.
This, combined with her other fiber work skills, meant Bonnie was a trouble-shooting resource for customers. Her position at Dharma was contingent on learning to knit, so she took a beginning knitting class at the College of Marin. While there, she helped found the cooperative Black Mountain Weavers (now Black Mountain Artisans) and worked for Dharma Trading Co in San Rafael. In the mid-1980’s Bonnie moved to Point Reyes Station, inspired to be in an area with so many fiber artists. I bought my own loom, and it just went along with raising the sheep and spinning and dyeing.” “It was a wealth of knowledge, and I loved it. Then, from the late ’60s through the ’80s, I raised sheep, natural dyed, and was a beekeeper in Washington state.” To add to those skill sets, Bonnie took weaving classes at the Oregon School of Arts and Crafts in Portland. Her introduction to fiber work began in the late 1960’s “I started out spinning before I did anything. Bonnie is a gentle but persistent catalyst for building fiber communities. Listening to Bonnie share her history, this shift from personal studio to studio and store seemed inevitable. As people started knocking on the door and coming in, I realized that if I was here, I might as well be open.” Like so many niche shops, the store has become more than a business - it’s now a gathering place. Smiling at this transition, Bonnie says, “I didn’t set out to open a yarn store in Cedarville. While there are still looms warped and rugs displayed on walls, surrounding them are shelves of yarn, baskets of notions, and a second floor of roving and wool fabric. Walking through Warner Mountain Weavers twenty years later, it’s apparent that the function of the space has shifted. After two years of remodeling, Warner Mountain Weavers opened up as a weaving studio and showroom in 2000. “I needed a place for my looms, and I thought this (building) would be my studio.” Having helped her father build a house, Bonnie wasn’t intimidated by the time and labor this century-old building would ask of her. “We were looking for a place out of the Bay Area to retire to, and we found Cedarville,” Bonnie recalls. Once the Deep Creek Schoolhouse and then a Masonic Lodge, the building caught the eye of Bonnie and Richard Chase shortly after they moved to the area. Located on South Main Street in Cedarville, the Warner Mountain Weavers sign hangs in front of a two-story building set back from the road.
To the west of these mountains is Goose Lake, and to the east is Surprise Valley, the town of Cedarville, and a shop that bears the name of that range: Warner Mountain Weavers. In the northeastern corner of California, the Warner Mountains run north through Modoc County into southern Oregon.
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