Oh, the tales she can tell after she began to spin yarns. Who knows where a thread may lead? Sometimes, it's home.

Like the unique yarns in her globe-trotting Giant Skein, Lexi Boeger twists the imagination. Her life and fiber seem intertwined.

Released from its cargo box after an appearance in Norway, the Giant Skein now winds around two tanks at her family's Placerville winery. No ordinary ball of yarn, it's an instant attraction for this weekend's Yarnival, celebrating another Boeger dream – her new fiber arts studio.

Billed as the world's largest skein of yarn, it's art as well as handicraft – 10 1/2 miles long and counting. The handspun yarn creates a loop 95 feet around.

That shape represents Boeger's career path, too. She looped back to Placerville and the winery to share her art and inspiration.

"I grew up here at the winery," said Boeger, who recently moved back to the property with her two young children. "I was always interested in wine, in terms of marketing, but I've been an artist my whole life."

Boeger, 37, originally left home for college, although she didn't stray far at first. She got her art degree at UC Davis while also taking "a lot of wine classes, just in case."

Boeger found her niche when she started knitting – not sweaters, but artwork. Adopting the nom de wheel "Pluckyfluff," she also discovered homespun happiness.

"Knitting hit the art world big time," she said. "But I got more interested in the yarn itself. I didn't know anything about handspinning (until) I bought some wool (from a local shop) and there was something about it that was very special."

When she tried to buy more, the shop owner told her she was out of luck; that handspun skein was one of a kind.

Intrigued, Boeger took spinning lessons. Besides wool and silk, she opted to spin whatever struck her fancy – rubber bands, steel wool, shredded money.

"I learned all the traditions," she said. "But I do really unorthodox spinning – big and bulky. That was very difficult to do on a traditional wheel."

So with major fiber arts company Majacraft, she developed the Aura wheel for art-driven spinners.

Now, Boeger – or her Puckyfluff alter ego – is recognized worldwide as a fiber innovator. Examples of her work are in museum collections. She's written three books, including "Intertwined: The Art of Handspun Yarn, Modern Patterns and Creative Spinning" (Quarry Books, $19.99 304 pages), which was recently released in paperback.

"The whole thing really exploded," Boeger said of her revolutionary spinning. "When I started 10 years ago, I couldn't find anything like it anywhere. But people are getting so excited. They see the possibilities."

Boeger travels throughout the United States and Europe to conduct spinning workshops. For an exhibit last year in Lillehammer, Norway, she invited other spinners via her Pluckyfluff blog to send her 1-ounce samples of their work to be part of one great big skein.

Many hands – and the Internet – make quick work. Within weeks, the Giant Skein was born.

"The response was incredible," Boeger said. "The project became a world spinning event – everybody wanted to be part of something big. Hundreds and hundreds of spinners around the globe sent in their skeins, all completely handmade. The yarn started filling up my office; it was insane."

And with every ounce of wool came a personal note about why that spinner spins.

"A 9-year-old girl in Chile wrote that she just learned how and was very proud," Boeger recalled. "An 80- year-old woman in Tokyo shared that her grandmother taught her and she wanted to pass it on to others.

"I pasted all the notes together like wallpaper to show what went into the Giant Skein. Every strand represents an individual, but together we represent a community."

The first time she tried to wind the Giant Skein into a continuous loop, it took three weeks. For the Yarnival, Boeger and friends cut the wind time to three days.

Dozens of spinners traveled to attend this weekend's festivities and will add more yarn to the skein. Boeger invited officials of the Guinness Book of World Records to certify the skein as the all-time largest.

"I know there's nothing else like it," she said.

Her new studio – housed in a Gold Rush-era barn at the Boeger Winery – will be an open art space where spinners and yarn lovers can congregate.

"It's my long-term goal to have a place where people can come and spin," she said. "We'll host workshops and offer lessons, but mostly it's a place to share ideas.

"In spinning, you're making art that's not only functional but beautiful," she said. "What's better than that?"

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