Fiber artists mingled with the Park Rapids Farmers Market on Saturday.
The 12th annual Farm to Fiber Festival, held Sept. 12, is organized by the Sustainable Sheep and Fiber Community of Northern Minnesota (SSFC).
“It’s just a wonderful opportunity for us to be with the farmers market,” said Alethea Kenney, an SSFC founding member.
Accompanied by one of her Samoyed dogs, Alethea Kenney spins the canine’s soft, fluffy fur into yarn with a drop spindle.
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Kenney manages Reedbird Farm in Shevlin. She uses handspun, handwoven wool and dog fur to create ponchos, belts and mittens.
Bruce Engebretson, of Osage, spins sheep’s wool on a spinning wheel. “The homespun we think it was all awful stuff, but Henry VIII was dressed in homespun. That wasn’t bad at all,” he said. The wheel, worth about $300, was made Joel Farnham, whose father was starved to death by the British during the American Revolution.
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Jennifer Herbold, proprietor of The Layzee Farmer, peddled wool skeins, cones, skins and roving from her grass-fed sheep. It was the Clear Lake farmer’s fourth year at the festival.
She raises Clun Forest, Icelandic, Shetland and Romney sheep.
“I started because I wanted to know where my food came from. Wool was a byproduct, so I had to learn what I was going to do with it,” Herbold said.
She’s been in the business for a decade, traveling to festivals in Minnesota, North and South Dakota.
Her offerings are popular with crafters, depending upon their interest: knitting, weaving, crocheting or needle felting. “I have different products for all the different types of wool crafts.”
Using natural dyes from her garden, Herbold sells a few handmade wool products, like shawls, scarves, hats.
Laurie Connolly owns Mystic Fiber in Clarissa, Minn. A four-time participant in the festival, Connolly brought a new product this year: felted wool corsages. “You can put them on your hat. You can wear them,” she explained. “They’re in the old style of posies. Kids would always carry bouquets. That’s kind of the styling of those.”
This year, Laurie Connolly introduced hand-dyed, leaf-printed wool covers for photo albums.
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Connolly expanded her collection of hand-felted wool covers.
“I make the felt first, and I do the leaf printing on there,” she explained. “This year, I’ve added yarns and colored instead of white silk.”
She collects leaves from her 2.5-acre property.
Connolly blends dyed, felted wool, with repurposed items, like beads, lace, doilies to craft a corsage-like pin.
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The colorful, removable covers are suited for journals, sketchbooks, watercolor paper pads and photo albums.
“I mix my own colors,” she said of the acid dyes. “I just love it.”
1/6: Engebretson demonstrates spinning wool into thread on a spinning wheel dating from 1790. He is downsizing his collection, so he had several for sale on Saturday.
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2/6: Herbold sells washed, curly sheep locks. “Somebody mght tie this into their weaving, add it into their spinnning for texture. You can use it for felting, weaving, wherever your creativity takes you,” she explained.
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3/6: Wool roving is a 1- to 2-inch rope that is ready to be used for handspinning or other wool crafts, like felting. Herbold’s table was filled with multiple colors of roving.
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4/6: Connolly crafts vibrant hand-felted wool covers for journals and sketchbooks as well.
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5/6: An informal fashion show highlighted wearable fiber art, as seen here by Cherish Duerst.
Contributed/Alethea Kenney
6/6: Philip Duerst, from Two Cabbage Heads Creamery, models one of their products.
Contributed/Alethea Kenney
Other Minnesota fiber artists on hand were Teresa Kukowski with Hollyhock Alpaca Creations, of Grasston; Cherish and Philip Duerst with Two Cabbage Heads Creamery, of Bemidji; and Stacy Dresow with Dresow Family Farm, of Lonsdale.
Shannon Geisen can be reached at sgeisen@parkrapidsenterprise.com.
