In 2007, I purchased 3 alpacas and a spinning wheel.  By 2009, I was a regular vendor at the Jonesborough Farmers Market, selling the hand-spun yarns created from the fleeces harvested from my small herd.  In 2010, I partnered with two other local alpaca farms to launch Only the Finest: A Tennessee Alpaca Fiber Consortium. With more fleeces to choose from, the consortium could pick and choose the fleeces we processed into our small-batch yarns and spinning fibers; hence the brand name “Only the Finest.”  

Over the next 10 years I added hand-dyeing, weaving, and felt-making to my fiber arts “repertoire” and started adding color and variety to the Only the Finest product line.  In 2019, ten years after setting up at my first farmers market, I left my career in higher ed and opened my solo studio, Nuttle Fiber Art & Design.  Now the sole proprietor of Only the Finest Yarns and Fibers, I continue to design and create small-batch natural and hand-dyed yarns and fibers from locally grown fibers, while also offering individual and small group classes in spinning, weaving, and felt-making in my home-based studio.