Aimee Abernathy is a knitter, spinner and weaver. Aimee has been knitting for 8 years, learning 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. Aimee is located in Charlotte, NC, where she enjoys teaching at Yarnhouse in NoDa and meeting new people. She has been lucky enough to take classes from such fantastic knitters as Wendy Johnson, Cookie A., Anne Hanson and Charlene Schurch. Aimee can also be found at fairieknits.com and on Ravelry as funfairiegirl.
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.
Vicki Bennett lives part of the year in Asheville, NC, where she teaches feltmaking 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. Her website is tan When not tangled up with wool (her website is tangledupinwool.com), she works with raptors in permanent rehabilitation.
Joan Berner 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, her hand dyed fiber business, Cloverleaf Farms, has been operating for over ten years. 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 on exhibit at the Folk Art Center, Main Gallery until mid July.
Jacey Boggs is known for her entertaining and instructive DVD Sit & Spin, for her monthly workshops around the world, and for spinning fantastical textured yarns with a technical hand. She is a contributing editor for Spin Off magazine and is regularly featured as an author. She is on the board of Handwoven magazine. She blogs and podcasts at www.insubordiknit.com, homeschools her three children and knits like a maniac. Her first book, Spin Art: Mastering the craft of textured spinning, with Interweave, is due out this fall.
Ann Brown lives on a farm in central Kentucky that has a cow/calf operation and raises Dorset, Karakul, Cotswold 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 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.
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 about 18 alpacas, 2 parrots and 4 cats, all of which end up in some of her projects, intentionally or otherwise.
Ginger Clark has been a fiberholic since learning to spin 30 years ago. She had a farm where she raised fiber animals, processed and dyed their fibers, and spun about one pound of worsted yarn daily for use in knitting, crocheting, and weaving. She is particularly fond of yarns that seamlessly grade from one color to another so the cloth knit or woven from them shifts colors smoothly. Rovings and batts with sharply contrasting colors present a special challenge for spinning a predictable yarn, a challenge that Ginger enjoys. She has developed methods of dealing with these rovings so the yarns she gets are predictable and not an unpleasant surprise.
Vickie Clontz‘s love of fibers, wool and folk art shine through in each of her classes and the 70+ patterns she has designed for her company, Annie’s Keepsakes, which celebrated its 20-year anniversary in 2010! Vickie’s projects have appeared in magazines across the nation and abroad, and she brings an easy-going style and award-winning expertise to each of her classes and workshops. See more of Vickie’s work, on her web-site at http://www.annieskeepsakes.com
Pat Cothran is a North Carolina Adoption Coordinator, and past member of the Board of Directors of Southeast Llama Rescue. She and her husband own Soggy Bottom Farm in western North Carolina, which is home to llamas, alpacas, a horse and a donkey, and five dogs. At an early age, Pat got involved in sewing, knitting, cross-stitch, needlepoint, ceramics, and other creative endeavors. Her current fiber-related interests include needle-felting, repurposing wool, and creating items from raw materials using the Taravia. She enjoys participating in the annual pack llama trials near Asheville, NC, as a member of the Pack Llama Trial Association (PLTA).
Linda Sue 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 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
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 30 years and has raised silk worms for silk for the past 20 years.
Tina Feir 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 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 creates felted and woven works of art from her studio in Tennessee. Geri teaches fiber arts classes regionally, nationally, and internationally to both children and adults, is the recipient of an Artists-In-The-Schools grant, and is the dynamic force behind Tennessee Does Textiles, a fashion show comprising the works of both up-and-coming and seasoned fiber artists. A member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild, Geri cherishes the old traditions and skills while using fibers in innovative ways to push the boundaries of weaving. You can find out more about Geri, her art, her studio, and her classes at www.weavingschool.com.
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. In the Spring of 2011 she has been requested to teach at the John C Campbell Folk Art School and has been a teacher at SAFF for 4 years.
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.
Ruth Howe 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, dyeing, bobbin lace, knitting and rug hooking, and and several youth programs. Ruth is a returning weaving instructor for SAFF.
Robyn Josephs Robyn is a multi-media artist living in Black Mountain, NC who reuses, recycles and works with found and discarded objects as often as possible, which she considers ideal materials allowing creativity to be expressed without monetary constraints. She has taught hundreds of people of all ages to spin, weave, knit, crochet, embroider, and work with fiber for paper and book arts. She has been weaving fiber, words and soul for a long time.
Galina Khmeleva Owner of Skaska Designs and author of Gossamer Webs: The History and Techniques of Orenburg Lace Shawls and Gossamer Webs: The Design Collection, Galina is a respected and knowledgeable lace knitting instructor. A former clothing and costume designer who worked with the ‘aristocracy’ of St. Petersburg, Russia’s music and theater society, Galina was a pioneer in breaking down barriers in the ‘new’ Russia that allowed Russian women to own private companies. As the principal student to Orenburg’s lace knitting elite, Galina brings the classic style and traditional knitting techniques of Russian lace to her classes. Her unique, inspiring and fun-loving teaching style has made her the guru of lace enthusiasts across the US.
Claudia Lampley 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.
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.
Bev Larson 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.
Emolyn Liden 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
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.
Debbie Rapp learned from her grandmother how to to knit and crochet. From there, she went on to discover how to spin, weave and needle felt. She’s always looking for new uses for wool from the family farm including wreaths, needle felted form animals, yarn hair accessories, handwoven rugs and bird nesting balls. Debbie is a juried artisan at Tamarack and the Alleghany Highlands Arts and Crafts Guild.
Jenny Raymond picked up needles and a hook in 1996 but came to them nearly full time in 2007 when she started designing and teaching to combat the insanity of being a stay at home mom. She lives in Charlotte, NC with her husband, 3 children and dog.
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 Aussie Threads and Fibers, 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 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 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.
Tracey Schuh 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 making some kind of art/craft for the past 25 years, working lately with fiber (needle felting and crochet), watercolors and sewn clothes. Born in Miami, FL, she migrated to the WNC mountains, adventured through fine Swiss art museums and galleries, and is now exploring the Southeastern US with her family doing arts and craft show. Christina’s newest toys are a 1950s Brother knitting machine, and a 90’s Swiss-made Elna 9000 embroidery sewing machine. Christina lives in Asheville,NC with her family, of 2 sweet kids and their dad, 2 white satin rabbits, and 1 Angora rabbit who believes herself to be a princess.
Stevens Susan Stevens (also known as fleegle) has been spinning for 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.
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.
Amy Tyler was once a dancer, then a neuroscientist and professor. Now she’s a fiber artist living in Interlochen, Michigan. She has taught spinning and knitting at venues throughout the midwest and beyond. Her handspun yarns and knits have won regional and national awards, and her work has been published in Spin Off, Fiberline Magazine, and Knit Lit the Third.
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.
Nancy Weaver-Hoffman 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.
Kathrin Weber 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.
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.
