Biologist stitches together new life

June 10, 2005

LYNSEA GARRISON/Frontiersman reporter

Vera Obeso's children don't like to wear sweaters, yet they are cursed with a seemingly endless supply of them.

Their mother owns miles of yarn and is both quick and handy with a pair of needles. Her favorite hobby is knitting, and her favorite things to knit are sweaters. From her children's point of view, it's a lost cause.

"Yeah, they don't like to wear sweaters," she said with a smile. "They're uncool."

Obeso, 41, owns and runs Fantastic Fibers, a bright-blue house on Cobb Street in Palmer. Obeso started the business when she moved to Palmer in 2003.

Inside the house is a small maze of rooms and hidden niches with colorful walls of stacked yarn, needles, books and hand-knit creations like hats, slippers, and scarves. It's a friendly setting with cozy corners, a rocking chair, dogs and her five children, ages 2 through 12, running up and down the halls.

Obeso said she first started knitting when she studied abroad in Ireland at 19.

"Back then, not a lot of people in America knitted," she said. "But in Europe, lots of women knitted. I saw lots of women knit in train stations and different places."

Since then, Obeso has learned how to knit lace, knit felting, crochet, weave, spin and dye yarns. She has made slippers, hats, gloves, socks, animals, pillows and her favorite, Aran sweaters, an Irish style of sweater. She even provides lessons for these crafts in her building.

But Obeso didn't always plan on owning a fabric store or becoming a talented knitter.

She originally wanted to be a veterinarian. Born and raised in Raynham, Mass., Obeso attended Colby College in Waterville, Maine, right after she graduated from high school. Because money was tight for veterinarian school, she majored in biology and graduated in 1985 with a bachelor's degree in the field.

Obeso then moved to the West Coast, where she did contract work for the National Marines Fisheries Service. She worked on foreign fishing vessels as a fisheries biologist in the Bering Sea.

"I was a foreign fisheries observer when the government was Americanizing fishing," she said. "All foreign boats used to fish in the Bering Sea, but now all fish 200 miles from the shores are called 'American fish.' My job was to monitor the fish people caught."

During her time in the West Coast, Obeso attended Western Washington University in Bellingham for three semesters to pursue a master's degree in environmental journalism, but when her work took her to Dutch Harbor in 1985, she decided to stay in Alaska.

In the 18 years Obeso lived in Dutch Harbor, she continued to work as a fisheries observer until 1991.

She then worked as a reporter for the Dutch Harbor Fisherman for three years.

Finally, she became a police dispatcher for the city of Unalaska and helped open the first shelter for women in the mid-1990s for Unalaska Against Sexual Assault and Family Violence.

It was also in Dutch Harbor where Obeso met her husband, Greg Obeso, who works for Lynden Transport Inc. Still living in Dutch Harbor, the two bought a cabin in Palmer in 1991 because they liked the area.

In 1993, Obeso gave birth to her first child, Ryland, whom she referred to as "number one." Number two was a girl, Morgan, who came a year after. Two years later, she had another son, Mallory, and in 1999 adopted number four, Emmalyn. When Obeso was pregnant with her son, Griffin, in 2003, she and her family moved to Palmer.

"We bought a house here and fixed it up in May," she said. "I started Fantastic Fibers in November because there were no other yarn shops around."

Obeso also continued to home school her children in the rooms of Fantastic Fibers.

"People ask me how I socialize my children," she said. "And I tell them I just don't send them to school, that's how. It's a lot of fun."

Along with a house full of children, Obeso also has the company of animals, including a llama, dogs, cats, ducks, chickens, turkeys and soon to be sheep on her three-acre plot.

Obeso said she would like to use the wool from her llama for knitting, but right now it is "more of a pet." However, she still has sheep's wool saved for undetermined projects.

For the future, Obeso plans to buy the entire building in which Fantastic Fibers is located and expand the rooms. She also plans to keep up her hobby of knitting while devoting herself to her family.

"My kids are here all day long and they are even learning how to weave and knit," she said.

"I plan on staying here until something else happens. You know, we're having fun doing what we're doing, she said.

Lynsea Garrison may be reached at 352-2250.