Last year’s Quilcene Fiber Festival set records as one of the largest gatherings in South Jefferson County so expectation are running high for its third year.

“Every year, visitation to the festival has increased,” said Brian Cullin, who handles communications for the Quilcene Historical Museum, which hosts the free festival.“This is one of the largest annual events in South County.”

Almost all the acreage of Worthington Park, including the restored Hamilton-Worthington mansion, the Linger Longer Outdoor Theater, the meadow and the museum building, will be used.

As tribal members conduct weaving demonstrations in the mansion, wool waulking — consisting of traditional Scottish singing and fiber working — will be featured among this year’s on-site musical performances. That includes bagpipers, fiddle players and storytellers.

“Where else can you stand in one spot and witness a sheep being sheared, a Celtic harpist and jazz guitarists strumming rich melodies, and a Skokomish tribal weaver creating Salish art?” asked Cullin.

He also noted that the Olympic Peninsula Alpaca Rescue will return, bringing not only the sheep to shear, but also alpacas for adoption.

Weavers from the Skokomish Tribe will demonstrate the Salish style of hand-weaving blankets and shawls in the restored Worthington mansion, while all of last year’s spinning demonstrators are expected back. They will represent different methods of spinning, from great wheels, spindles and traditional treadle wheels to electric spinning wheels.

Visitors have the opportunity to learn fiber arts in workshops throughout the day, from knitting and crocheting to needle felting and weaving. Cullin declared the latter two among the most popular last year, in part because “everyone can take their creations home with them.”

While fiber artists demonstrate and sell their craft, both inside the restored Victorian mansion and outside in tents by the stage and across the meadow, the Linger Longer stage is slated to showcase even more musical artists than last year.

The Wool Waulkers will again grace the Linger Longer stage, singing songs while beating cloth.

Such songs were developed purely to accompany the work of waulking and are traditionally sung in Gaelic by groups of women, rhythmically beating newly woven tweed or tartan cloth, to lightly felt it and shrink it, to better repel water.

“Simple, beat-driven songs were used to accompany the work,” Cullin said. “A waulking session often begins with slow-paced songs, with the tempo increasing as the cloth becomes softer. Audience members will be invited onto stage to participate in the waulking.”

Local storyteller Mitch Luckett will also return to the Linger Longer stage, telling Ozark Mountain tall tales, singing narrative songs, and offering Olympic Mountain parables and extended yarns.

Celtic fiddler Derek Stallman, who’s also a knitter and spinner from Port Angeles, will play old Scottish tunes by way of maritime Canada and beyond, while harpist Deb Knodel loves playing folk and Celtic music, and enjoys exploring blues and jazz with her harp as well.

Guitarists Ryan and Jessica, recent transplants to Port Townsend from the Seattle jazz scene, are even expected to play Hot Club-style swing jazz, Chanson Francais and Musette.

A food court will offer regional fare from the Curbside Grill food truck and Brinnon’s Halfway House restaurant, and the newly refurbished Quilcene Historical Museum, founded in 1991, will open its doors during the Festival, serving culinary class cookies.

This year’s Fiber Festival runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 12, for free to the public, with fiber artists from across the Olympic Peninsula setting up in the mansion and outside in the meadow.