Nancy Liebrecht is a landscape architect with an addiction to the fiber arts. She has been knitting for over fifty years and is continually investigating other fiber techniques (felting, crochet, spinning and weaving) to produce a wide variety of items. Experimentation with different and unusual materials using traditional means of fabrication is a hallmark of Nancy’s work. Her work has been shown in exhibits and galleries throughout the Northwest. Nancy is also a former art teacher and painting instructor who believes that the design and production beautiful items enhances life.
Aimee Abernathy
Charlotte, NC, based Aimee Abernathy learned to knit from a book shortly after being diagnosed with Lupus and credits knitting for keeping her sane in doctors’ offices, lines at the post office and long conference calls. Creator of GaugeMaster, which calculates yardage and pattern changes based on your gauge, she has never been satisfied with just knitting and broke into crochet, spinning, weaving, teaching and designing. Recent appearances include SAFF, Unwind Retreat, Friends and Fiberworks retreats, Arkansas Fiberarts Extravaganza, Carolina Fiber Fest, DFW Fiber Festival and Wool Over Your Eyes, Greenville, SC. She is a regular teacher at YarnHouse in NoDa. Aimee recently became a certified yoga instructor, teaching at Charlotte Family Yoga Center. Aimee can also be found at fairieknits.com and on Ravelry as funfairiegirl.
Kelly Agrue
Kelly is a middle school science teacher from Dade City, Florida. While her Process-Oriented Left Brain gets a workout with her students, she is happiest when she is able to unleash her Artistic Right Brain! Whether she is spinning yarn from her wedding dress or felting a couture quality jacket, Kelly has many creative opportunities on the farm where she lives with her family and a plethora of furry friends: alpacas, angora, pygora, and nigora goats, as well as a fluffy giant angora rabbit. She has been felting, dyeing, spinning and weaving for a number of years and has a blog dedicated to her fiber art exploits http://sunshinefelter.blogspot.com and an Etsy site http://www.feltingsunshine.com/ where she sells her hand dyed fiber and art batts.
Phylleri Ball
Phylleri Ball, a fiber artist for 30 years, specializes in dyeing fiber and yarn, spinning, knitting, crocheting and weaving. Her passion for dyeing results in the gorgeous palettes of Steam Valley's dyed fiber and yarn. As a shepherdess, her focus is raising fine-fleeced Angora Goats & sheep using sustainable farming practices. Dedicated to utilizing all grades of Mohair has resulted in the production of fine knitting yarns, Core Spun rug yarn, roving and mill-spun & knitted socks from Steam Valley's Mohair.
Patti Barker
Patti is an award-winning, full-time American fiber artist who enjoys incorporating hand-dyed silk and fibers, as well as handspun art yarn into her unique felted accessories and garments. She makes her home in the Pacific Northwest where she teaches felt making and exhibits in fine art shows.
Jennifer Bennett
Jennifer Bennett has been spinning all kinds of interesting yarns for nearly 30 yrs. She has taught at the JCCampbell Folk School, Convergence, and various other fiber conferences. She has been an alpaca breeder for 19+ yrs, and raised National Grand Champion angora rabbits, owned a carding mill and spun miles of soft yarn.
Vicki Bennett
Vicki lives 8 months of the year in Asheville, NC, where she teaches feltmaking, exhibits at the Sam Reynolds Design Gallery and works in the garden of her mountain home. She lives the rest of the year in St. Petersburg, Florida where she teaches at the Morean Arts Center, exhibits and sells her craft at Florida Craftsmen Gallery. When not tangled up with wool she works with raptors in permanent rehabilitation. Her website is TangledUpInWool.com
Joan Berner
Joan enjoys incorporating hand dyed fibers into woven and felted fabrics for her unique, one of a kind garments. Originally trained as a home economist and an expert seamstress, she became enchanted by weaving and felting classes and has recently graduated from the Professional Crafts Program at Haywood Community College. Joan has exhibited at several Handweavers Guild of America (HGA) Convergence Conferences, a number of HGA fashion shows, Gallery 86, and the Peters Valley Gallery Art to Wear Show. Her work is currently carried by Desert Moon Designs in the River Arts District in Asheville. She is a current member of the River Arts District Artists and the Southern Highlands Craft Guild.
Gwen Bortner
Gwen Bortner is a Craft Yarn Council Certified Teacher, teaching at venues throughout the country and is the author of, Entree to Entrelac. Her designs can be found in a variety of knitting magazines and through her business, Knitability, LLC. Education is probably the most important component of the Knitability business plan as all efforts focus on the company motto of "Taking Knitters to the Next Level". Whether teaching at a local yarn shop or at a national knitting convention, meeting new people and sharing the love of knitting is one of her greatest joys.
Gwen's teaching philosophy can be summed up in the following quote, "As a teacher, my goal is to help students increase the size of their knitting 'tool box'. Although I may have a preference, experience has shown that my preferred way is rarely the only way. My mantra is 'knitting is fun' and if class isn't fun, then I am not doing my job."
Ann Brown
Ann lives on a farm in central Kentucky that has a cow/calf operation and raises Dorset, Karakul, and English Leicester Longwool sheep. She bought her first flock with money she made selling her interest in a needlepoint/knitting/gift shop, and then had so much wool she needed to find something to do with it. Ann makes and markets braided, felted wool rugs and chair pads, wrote THE SHEPHERD'S RUG in partnership with Letty Klein and now travels the country doing workshops and festivals.
Angie Buchanan
Angie Buchanan is a fiber artist living in Greer, SC who raises alpacas and angora goats and incorporates their fiber into her work. She is a weaver, felter, dyer, and crocheter... pretty much all things fiber. She started drawing and painting at an early age, and in 2005, got hit with the 'fiber bug' and began learning and using it in all of her work. Professionally, she is a private tutor for children and young adults with dyslexia. By teaching fiber arts classes, she has found a way to combine her love of fiber with her love of teaching.
Joyce Carpenter
Joyce is a Master Hand Knitter certified by The Knitting Guild Association. As a retired aerospace engineer, she loves the technical details of knitting. As a teacher, her goal is to help knitters improve and polish their skills in classes that are comprehensive and enjoyable. After all, knitting isn't rocket science!
Susannah Carter
Susannah Carter has been spinning for over 30 years, and teaching whenever she can get somebody to sit still long enough. She has her own flock of BFL, Finn, Shetland, and a Corriedale/Merino that looks like Lionel Ritchie.
Jean Castle
learned to crochet from her grandmother when she was 5. In later years she began raising fiber animals to supply the kind of materials she wanted to work with when the local stores carried ONLY acrylic yarns. She has taught crochet at SAFF and other venues for many years and currently lives in Candler NC with three, sometimes 4 cats and two parrots. At this time, all my fiber animals are gone but she still has an abundant supply of fibers.
Mari Chiba
Mari Chiba learned to knit while serving in Armenia as a Peace Corps Volunteer. She began designing while teaching English in China. She now designs from the desk in her dining room in Raleigh, NC. Her obsession for detail and need to create have made her a passionate knitwear designer. She focuses on classic silhouettes with customized fitting and elegant details. Her patterns have been published in Knitscene, Twist Collective, and Clotheshorse magazines. You can find more of Mari’s work at her website: www.mariknits.com and on Ravelry as MariChiba.
Anna Clark
Anna Clark lives in Pensacola, Florida where she runs The Spinning Seahorse out of her home, teaches spinning and dyeing workshops, and loves to create uniquely dyed fibers as well as artfully spun yarns. Anna, a working chemist, feels that Acid Dyes give some of the best results and can be used very easily when coupled with some experience, education and tips for making them easily available and safe for the home dyer.
Previous to Florida, Anna owned and ran a farm in Oregon, where she raised Shetland and Romney sheep, Cashmere and Angora goats, sold and worked the resulting fiber, and spun and knit creations, all under the watchful eye of her Llama “Bobâ€. She has spun for over 10 years, but has been a color and fiber enthusiast for nearly her entire life, sewing, knitting and painting from an early age.
Linda Sue Davis
Linda Davis is the owner of The Tail Spinner, which is located in Eastern North Carolina. She has been active in the fiber arts all of her life, and teaches spinning, weaving, felting, dyeing, crochet, knitting, and other fiber related crafts.
Rita de Maintenon
Rita de Maintenon is a retired educator, speaker and business owner who moved to Asheville in 2009. She was raised in Germany and learned all dimensions of fiber arts while growing up. She has taught workshops for many years to encourage participants to create their own heirloom treasures and now concentrates on crochet heritage techniques like broomstick and hairpin lace, Tunisian, Aran and Irish crochet. Rita is a member of the Southern Highland Guild, HandMade in America and a Blue Ridge National Heritage Artist. Her business is Heirloom Treasures and her website is: www.heirloomtreasuresfiberarts.com
Sue Dial
Sue Dial got her first spinning wheel in 1989, and has been working with polymer clay since 1995. She teaches both polymer clay and fiber related classes regionally, and sells her work in several area yarn shops and galleries. She works as a regulatory entomologist by day, and lives in Little River with her 2 sons, 2 dogs, 2 cats, 3 angora rabbits, 8 chickens, and a few class pet rejects.
Cassie Dickson
A member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild, Cassie Dickson is a traditional pattern weaver who specializes in the weaving of coverlets and the processing of the flax plant to linen cloth. She has been spinning, weaving and natural dyeing for over 35 years and has raised silk worms for silk for the past 22 years.
Dawn Dolpp
Dawn Dolpp owns and operates Mada Vemi Alpacas in Axton, VA where she has a full time fiber studio aptly named Plyed and Dyed. A fiber addict for over 10 years, Dawn processes raw fiber into yarn and finished products. On any given day, she can be found in her studio skirting, washing, dying, carding, weaving, spinning, wet felting, needle felting, and/or crocheting. She has taught wet felting, needle felting, and spinning classes at fiber events, farm events, and in her fiber studio. You can find her work online at www.madavemi.etsy.com or follow her blog at http://plyedanddyed.blogspot.com
Jolie Elder
Jolie has explored a wide range of needle arts after learning to cross stitch at age four. She designs, teaches, and stunt knits in the Atlanta area where she demystifies the obscure. Her knitting skills do not extend to avoiding nominating committees, as she is a past president of both Atlanta Knitting Guild and North Georgia Knitting Guild. Her published patterns accentuate geometric structure and feature meticulous techniques. She blogs her knitting experiments at jolieaelder.blogspot.com and posts on Ravelry as "Jolie."
Carin Engen
Carin is an award winning fiber artist and workshop instructor who has been using her experimental, playful nature to explore felting and color seriously since 1992. She maintains a studio in Garberville, California where she produces a line of hand dyed wool fabric and fiber as well as her felt art. She is an enthusiastic teacher who encourages innovation in her students work.
Tina Feir
Tina learned crochet from a favorite aunt at the age of 13. Her fiber obsession bloomed in the late ?90s and has now grown to include ownership of Gate City Yarns in Greensboro NC. While Tina knits, crochets, weaves and felts, spinning is her passion. She is currently in the master spinners program at Olds College in Calgary, Alberta.
Carla Filippelli
Carla Filippelli has been weaving baskets and sculpture for over 20 years. She and her partner Greg have developed a free form style of weaving known as random weave and their fluid designs and shapes have evolved into functional baskets for homes and sculptural art for the wall. Represented by galleries and exhibitions nationwide, Carla and Greg are exhibiting artists in the US State Dept Artists in Embassies Program, available for private lessons and teach group workshops to area school students and craft schools. Cranberry Creek Studios, their business of over 25 years, is open by appointment.
Geri Forkner
Geri Forkner creates felted and woven works of art from her studio in Tennessee. She teaches fiber arts internationally to both children and adults and is the recipient of an Artists-in-the-Schools grant. A member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild, Geri cherishes the old traditions and skills while using fibers in innovative ways. In 2005 Geri began using found items to make one small woven square per day, and there is no end in sight. Find out more at www.weavingschool.wordpress.com.
Abby Franquemont
Abby Franquemont, author of Respect The Spindle, is steeped in the fiber arts since birth. The daughter
of field anthropologists studying textile production, she was raised largely in the rural Andes of Peru,
where she learned to spin, weave and more starting at the age of five. In 2006, she left a successful
career in information technology in order to write and teach full-time about the fiber arts, particularly
spinning. Why spinning? Abby says it's the most fundamental of the fiber arts – the one upon which the
most others depend – as well as the most at risk of being lost and the hardest to pass down in any way
other than hand to hand. Abby is technical, passionate, inquisitive, and informed; she has taught
individuals and groups of all ages, skill levels, and combinations thereof. Her classes sell out wherever
she goes, her book, instructional DVDs, magazine articles, and blog are widely recommended, and her
down-to-earth approach is empowering for students of all levels.
Abby has taught and lectured at large events including The National Needlearts Association (TNNA),
Golden Gate Fiber Institute, the Spin-Off Autumn Retreat (SOAR), Sock Summit, the Taos Wool
Festival, and New York State Sheep & Wool (Rhinebeck), not to mention many of the finest fiber,
knitting, and crafting shops in the USA, along with weaving, spinning and knitting guilds nationwide
and a select group of private retreats, seminars and workshops. Her writing has appeared in Spin-Off,
Spindlicity, Interweave Knits, Twist Collective, Entangled, SpinKnit, Knitty, and more.
Melissa Gray
Melissa Gray is a Needlefelting artist and mother of 3 living in SE NC with her husband, where she raises Fine white Corriedale sheep and horses. Her work will be displayed in the booth for East Carolina Corriedales and is currently in 2 galleries in the Southeast in Wilmington and New Bern NC.Her work was also displayed at Vogue Knitting live in Chicago in October 2012, and at The Butler Museum of American art in December 2012. In the Spring of 2013 she has been requested to teach at the John C Campbell Folk Art School and has been a teacher at SAFF for 6 years.
Franklin Habit
Franklin Habit
Franklin Habit is the author of It Itches: A Stash of Knitting Cartoons (Interweave Press, 2008–now in its third printing) and proprietor of The Panopticon (the-panopticon.blogspot.com), one of the most popular knitting blogs on the Internet. On an average day, upwards of 2,500 readers worldwide drop in for a mix of essays, cartoons, and the continuing adventures of Dolores the Sheep.
Franklin’s other publishing experience in the fiber world includes contributions to Vogue Knitting, Interweave Knits, Interweave Crochet, Yarn Market News, PieceWork, Twist Collective, and regular columns for both Knitty.com and Lion Brand Yarns.
As a much sought-after teacher and speaker, he travels nationally and internationally to conduct lectures and classes on a variety of knitting-related topics.
When he’s not on the road, Franklin knits and spins in Chicago, Illinois–sharing a city apartment with an Ashford spinning wheel and colony of sock yarn that multiplies alarmingly whenever his back is turned.
Chad Alice Hagen
Chad Alice Hagen has been a felt maker since 1979 and exploring and teaching the resist dyeing of hand felted wool since 1990. Richly dyed colors and multi-layed surface markings are the trademarks of her years of intensive explorations on Art pieces, hats, scarves, jewelry and currently stitched and beaded books and brooches. Her work with hand made felt can be found in major collections and has appeared on the covers of Surface Design Journal, Fiberarts and Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot Magazines. She is the author of three books; "The Weekend Crafter: Feltmaking; "Fabulous Felt Hats" and "The Fabulous Felt Scarf". She has her BA and MS from University of Wisconsin and MFA from Cranbrook.
Eileen Hallman
has been spinning cotton on the charkha for over 20 years, and has been teaching for 9. She released her video "Spinning Cotton on the Charkha" in 2004. She also teaches point spinners how to spin fibers other than cotton on the charkha.
Lyn Harris
A returning SAFF instructor, Lyn is a professor and fiber artist from Jamestown NY. Her proposals have been accepted at the Rochester Weavers Guild in Rochester NY and Chautauqua Institution. Her felted works are on sale in Pawleys Island SC and local galleries around Lake Chautauqua in western New York and Erie PA.
Marilyn Hastings
More information coming.
Kathy Hays
Kathy Hays is a self taught fiber artist. Her experiences are numerous, but dressmaking and feltmaking have been her focus for the past 15 years. Manipulating fiber whether it be fabric or fiber, Kathy has enjoyed the discoveries.
Kathy has taught fiber related topics at Convergence 2008 in Tampa, John Campbell Folk School, Florida Tropical Weaver Guild 2004 and several classes for Tampa Bay Surface Design guild. She is an instructor at Morean Art Center and Dunedin Fine Art.
Participating in several local art shows in the Tampa Bay Area rounds out Kathy's experiences.
Ruth Howe
Ruth has been enchanted by fibers since a very early age. She started weaving in the mid 1970?s, and is currently Education Coordinator for Heritage Weavers & Fiber Artists in Hendersonville, NC, a fiber arts center teaching weaving, spinning, bobbin lace, rug hooking and knitting. Ruth has taught many fiber arts classes including sewing, knitting, felting and weaving. She taught an "Introduction to Weaving" class at SAFF in 2008, 2009 & 2011.
Jane Jones
Mimi Kezer
After 20 years pursuing music and worship arts, Mimi has spent the last 6 years as a knitting instructor, designer, and encourager of fellow-knitters. She is hopelessly addicted to making colorful, beautiful things.
Lisa Klakulak
Lisa Klakulak is an internationally recognized artist and educator of the felt medium, who happens to reside in Asheville, NC! Klakulak's teaching focuses on studies for technical understanding, resulting in finely crafted works and the empowerment of the maker. Her work has been featured in publications such as: Surface Design Journal, Fiber Arts, Shuttle Spindle Dyepot and 500 Felt Objects and her teaching sought at Penland, Arrowmont, Surface Design Association and Handweaver's Guild of America Conferences and abroad. www.strongfelt.com
Roo Kline
A graphic artist by trade, Roo Kline became involved with alpacas in 2006 and shortly after purchasing her own herd in early 2007, the 'Moonwood Farm' fiber studio was launched, gathering a following of spinners and fiber artists who fell in love with her luxuriously handcrafted spinning fibers and supplies.
Since 2010 Roo has been teaching her personal techniques and style to students, especially those who love and/or raise alpacas. She is the co-founder of Alpaca Fiber Solutions and teaches at Magical Farms, fiber festivals and alpaca shows, local yarn shops, has been featured on several episodes of The Knit Girllls videocasts, has proudly provided her fiber creations for the students of art yarn teacher Jacey Boggs, writes how-to articles for American Livestock Magazine, and is featured in the 'Mail-Order Dyers' article in the Spring 2013 issue of Spin-Off Magazine.
Claudia Lampley
Claudia started rug hooking in 2000 and began teaching in 2005. She is a member of the Tarheel Ruggers and Merrie Mountain Hookers guilds and a juried member at Dogwood Crafters in Dillsboro, N.C. She has tried many other needlecrafts, but rug hooking has become her passion. She loves seeing a simple drawing come to life as it is hooked.
Bev Larson
Bev has been weaving since 1988 and teaching since 1999. She loves to share the joy of basket weaving with those around her and has done so by teaching in Indiana,, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Kentucky, and Oklahoma. Making basket weaving fun ,relaxing, and inspiring is her goal. She came in first place in the Eideljorg Weavers Challenge.
Kate Larson
Kate Larson is the sixth generation of her family to live and work on their Indiana farm. Her fiber journey has led her to a year of study in the north of England, a degree in Environmental Soil Chemistry, an apprenticeship on a grassfed organic farm in Vermont, and on a tour of textile traditions in Estonia. She teaches regularly in the Indianapolis area and at fiber arts festivals. A former SOAR scholarship recipient, she has served as Chairman of SWIFT (Spinners and Weavers of Indiana-Fiber and Textiles). She modeled techniques for Teach Yourself Visually Handspinning (McCuin, 2007) and has been published in Spin-Off Magazine. When Kate isn't teaching, she can be found in the barn with her ever growing flock of Border Leicester sheep.
Crystal Lawrence
Susan Morgan Leveille
Emolyn Liden
Emolyn is a homegrown North Carolina craftswoman. She learned to knit without patterns, and designs knitwear inspired by local fiber and yarn. She loves natural fibers and blending colors to create a 'light up your day' kind of feeling. Emolyn has taught at the John C Campbell Folk School and also spins and enjoys natural dyeing. See her work on www.etsy.com/shop/EmolynKnits, or visit http://emolynknits.blogspot.com
Patty Lyons
Pam Mac Gregor
My life as an artist has taken many turns over the years. Artist as student, artist as teacher and now retired teacher as felt artist. Since my retirement, the discovery of felt making has charged me with a new artistic energy. I find the versatility and engineering possibilities for each project both mentally and physically stimulating. At the end of the day, there is usually a sweet surprise, an ah ha moment of inspiration giving me insight for future felt works, bringing with it new and unique possibilities.
Nancie McCraw
Nancie McCraw (BadFaerie) comes from a long line of talented women who were also fiber artists. She learned at a young age how to sew and tailor garments which gave her a foundation for how fabric acts and how garments go together.
She started spinning over 15 years ago answering the siren call of fiber. Every day she learns more about how fiber acts and reacts to make yarn.
Although she learned to knit as a child, it was after her decent into spinning that knitting took on a passion. Combining her knowledge of fiber and yarn from spinning with her garment structure knowledge from sewing allowed her to understand knitted items and how to develop and modify patterns.
Today she lives in Weaverville, NC with her husband, 2 cats, 2 angora rabbits and a healthy fiber and motorcycle obsession. By day she programs computers, but at night and on weekends you will find her spinning, knitting, weaving, dyeing or following whatever new fiber art that has called her.
Suzanne Morgan
Kristen Nicholas
Kristen's creative spirit, and love of color, texture and the smell of wet wool naturally led her to fiber arts and the world of spinning. She's been spinning for six years and never tires of the simplest way to make yarn; on a drop spindle. Taking a raw fleece, washing it, dying it, and spinning it brings her great joy. She readily admits the process is what excites her, not necessarily the finished product (as in actually knitting something from her many skeins of hand-spun yarn!). She and her partner Vicki Bennett started Tangled Up In Wool a few years ago, and they've been tangled up in the many uses of wool ever since.
Mary Nichols
Mary Nichols is a fiber artist who has been knitting since childhood. She spins and dyes fine yarns and knits them into lace shawls and scarves often incorporating beads to enhance their delicate lace patterns. She is a member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild and Western North Carolina Fibers/Handweavers Guild. She participates in the East of Asheville Studio Tour and is a regular demonstrator on her great wheel.
Sallie Pollock
My name is Sallie Pollock, I am a retired English teacher living in middle Tennessee with my husband of 41 years on a Angus farm. We have one daughter who is a Family Nurse Practitioner. I spin, weave, knit, crochet, embroider, rug hook, sew and love to shuttle tat. I belong to a group of tatters called The Southern Belles Tatting Society. We meet regularly year round. We go to Georgia each fall to the Palmetto Tatters conference. Our group tats ornaments to fill 2-4 Christmas trees in the antebellum homes that are on tour in Maury County each Christmas season. We support and teach tatting where we meet and also do demonstrations at various events all year long.
Debbie Rapp
I learned from my grandmother how to knit, weave and crochet. From there, I went on to discover spinning, hand dyeing and needle felting. I am always looking for new uses for the wool from our family farm including wreaths, needle felted farm animals, yarn hair accessories, handwoven rugs and chair pads, and bird nesting balls. I am a juried artisan at Tamarack The Best of West Virginia and the Alleghany Highlands Arts and Crafts Center.
Margo Raymond
Melissa Ricks
Melissa Yoder Ricks has been crazy for yarn and fiber since learning to crochet from her great-grandmother when she was a preschooler. She’s been knitting since elementary school and spinning since 1990. In addition to earning a BA in fine art/design from Duke University, she’s taken spinning classes from Rita Buchanan, Lexi Boeger (pluckyfluff) and Jacey Boggs (insuboridknit). Since 2008, Melissa has pursued her love of fiber arts full time as the owner/fiber artist at Wild Hare Fiber Studio (http://www.wildharefiber.com) and by teaching classes and workshops, particularly in creative spinning and fiber preparation. Her knitting designs and handspun yarns have appeared in ‘Knitters’ magazine and ‘Spin Off.’
Pat Riesenburger
Pat Riesenburger is a former trial attorney who learned it is much more fun to play in the art studio than fight in the courtroom. She currently owns Urban Stitch Studio and distributes luxury fibers and embellishments throughout the country. She also has a popular blog, The Crafty Retailer, which focuses on marketing for the independent craft retailer. Pat teaches from her studio in Lutz, Florida.
Esther Rodgers
Esther Rodgers is a fiber artist who lives in Mebane, NC, though originally from Chicago IL. She is inspired by everyday life- through music, nature, television, she?s always thinking ?how can I spin this into a yarn?? Esther loves to play with color and texture, and her one of a kind art yarns and art fiber batts continue to prove it. She?s spun yarn that includes shredded money, cassette tape, sequins, beads, sparkly pom pom?s, flowers?nothing is off limits! Her most was featured in the Winter/Spring 2011 issue of Knitscene magazine and the Fall 2010 issue of Spin Off.
Kathie Roig
Kathie started weaving in 1980 after her husband gave her a small table loom as a wedding present. Nearly 30 years later she's still weaving, although now weave on several different looms, including a Swedish drawloom, which allows her to create original woven designs. She enjoys weaving functional items for everyday use (like kitchen towels, baby bibs, placemats, tote bags and scarves). A member of the Southern Highlands Craft Guild (2007), Handweavers Guild of America, and Surface Design Association, Kathie looks for ways to express her creative self through the craft of weaving.
Leslie Samson
Leslie holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Her area of specialization was metalsmithing and jewellery. Although a profitable endeavor, she found it to be an unhealthy occupation. She searched for an alternative medium of expression.
Leslie rushed headlong into the fibre world when she bought her first pair of angora rabbits in 1980. Soon Leslie’s life was full of rabbits and spinning wheels.
She is the co-author of Completely Angora, a reference book on angora rabbit husbandry and fibre use that has sold in over 45 countries.
While researching different applications for this unique fibre, Leslie came across felt making. Felting offered her the freedom of expression that she enjoyed. By applying a jeweller’s sense of detail to this natural fibre medium, she continually challenges herself to create innovations of feltwork.
For the last 25 years, Leslie has taught felting and angora rabbit care classes across North America. She has taught in Germany and Japan. Her work has also been shown in Scotland and France.
She has been featured on a news program in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia as well as Town and Country Ontario and CBC radio. She has written for Spin-Off Magazine as well as many others.
A founding member of the International Association of German Angora Rabbit Breeders (IAGARB), Leslie has kept herself busy developing a North American angora yarn co-op and a performance testing system for registration by merit. She works within her association to collect data which is used to improve management of angoras on this continent.
When Leslie is not living out of a suitcase, she enjoys a peaceful life on a small farm outside a tiny village outside Brantford, Ontario.
Tracey Schuh
Tracey owns and operates Interlacements Yarns in Abrams, Wisconsin. A multi-talented fiber artist, Tracey started as a weaver, is passionate about color and texture and loves working with found objects.
Christina Serra
Has been involved in creative handmade learning for over 20 years. In the past 5 years Christina has been working primarily with animal fiber and watercolor paintings. She combined her experience in watercolors with the unexplored potential of dyed wool roving, to create an art form which is free in form and color as painting, yet retains the natural tactile qualities inherent in fiber. Born in Miami, FL, she migrated to the WNC mountains early on in life, adventured through fine Swiss art museums and galleries, and is now exploring the Southeastern US with her two children, vending at art/craft shows and helping to spread the Fiber Love through her workshops.
Nancy Shroyer
Nancy Shroyer knits, spins, weaves, dyes, designs, teaches, and invents in Cary, NC where she lives and works with her husband Bob. They own Nancy�s Knit Knacks. They develop, manufacture, and sell tools for fiber artists.
Susan (fleegle) Stevens
Susan Stevens (also known as fleegle) has been spinning for more than 40 years on every conceivable spinning instrument and with every imaginable fiber. Her specialty is spinning for lace, because she knits a lot of it. She is the inventor of the fleegle heel, a variety of knitting tricks, and the coordinator of the Heirloom Knitting Queen Susan project?a re-creation of a magnificent lace shawl that heretofore only existed as a photograph in the Shetland Museum.
Diane Sullivan
Heidi Sunday
Pattern designer
Kathleen Taylor
Kathleen Taylor is a wife, mother, grandmother, spinner, knitter, designer, and writer. Her knitting books include: Knit One, Felt Too; Yarns to Dye For; I Heart Felt; The Big Book of Socks; and Fearless Fair Isle Knitting. She lives in South Dakota, and absolutely loves coming to SAFF to teach.
Vasanto Vasanto
has been working with wool and color since she learned to knit as a child. She has been spinning dyeing, knitting, crocheting, weaving and felting it. She says, 'wool is one of the first man-made fabrics. It is soft, rich, and extremely versatile.' She began to felt by learning to make hats from Beth Beede, creator of the hat-on-a-ball technique.
Vithard Villumsen
Vithard is a Danish knitwear designer and textile artist. He started knitting at the age of 10 and has worked professionally as a knitwear designer for the past 8
years. Heavily inspired by traditional Scandinavian knitwear patterns, Vithard loves the way that simple geometric shapes accentuated by different colours or different knitting techniques evoke incredible beauty and tell so many stories. As an experienced teacher, Vithard approaches his students with respect, patience and enthusiasm. He is currently working on his first two books; the first of which
is planned for a January 2013 release.
Nancy Weaver-Hoffman
Nancy fell in love with spinning about 20 years ago, which led to owning her own sheep, then to a shop in downtown West Jefferson NC where she taught many folks to love fiber as much as she does! Nancy spins both on a flyer wheel and off the point and especially loves teaching children who totally embrace the magic of the yarn making process.
Heather Weber
Heather Ford Weber (aka Yarngineer) is an optimistic Alaskan girl surviving in the hot, hot South. She is a former engineer and MBA turned knitting instructor and designer. As a self-taught knitter of 10 years, she understands how to find what works for each individual because not everyone learns the same way. She is passionate about teaching others, and has been teaching for 3 years at workshops and local stores. Visit her on Facebook at Yarngineer LLC, or contact her at yarngineer@gmail.com.
Kathrin Weber
Kathrin has been dyeing, weaving and living in the NC mountains full time since the late 70's. Her fabrics demonstrate good technique, color flow and texture and she thinks of woven items as Comfort Food for your home, blankets to wrap up in, pillows to live with, linens to support and frame your meals. Her work is sold through shows, galleries, shops, and custom orders. Kathrin teaches dyeing and weaving at Penland School of Crafts, Arrowmont School of Art and Craft, John C. Campbell Folk School and at other crafts schools, fiber guilds and symposiums in far flung places.
Gail White
Owner of Ozark Wool mill
Julie Wilson
Julie Wilson and her family own a farm in Fines Creek, North Carolina. In 1990, two sheep came to the Wilson?s family. Since then, Jehovah Raah Farm has grown to Shetland sheep, alpacas, llamas, Angora goats, Angora Rabbits, and Scottish Highland cattle. Julie has been spinning since 1990, and has retired from teaching high school Special Education for over 30 years. Julie has been with SAFF since its beginnings in Winston-Salem and has taught the spinning class since instruction was offered. Satisfaction guaranteed by Julie.
Patsy Zawistoski
Patsy Sue Zawistoski, master handspinner and teacher, enjoys achieving full design potential in her handspun work by creating yarns for use in knitting, weaving, and crochet.
A widely-traveled international lecturer and teacher, Patsy has taught classes and presented programs for various guilds, shops, community arts programs, and conferences, with many inviting her back multiple years.