Focus on Workshop Instructor, Nancy Barnett

This year we will have Nancy Barnett teaching four different workshops at festival.  If you are interested in learning new techniques in spinning then check out her workshops before they fill up. 

#322 Spinning Simple Silk  Friday AM
#331 Spin With Some Bunny Friday PM
#421 Amazing Angora Rabbit Saturday AM
#530 Embellish your Yarn  Sunday PM

For complete workshop details and registration forms visit our Michigan Fiber Festival website.
http://www.michiganfiberfestival.info

Nancy Barnett lives in the Missouri Ozarks and has been spinning and raising sheep for 25 years and Angora Rabbits for 22 years.  Nancy raises Shetland,  Border Leicester, and Blue Face Leicester Sheep and French, English, and German Angora Rabbits and sells breeding stock and processed rovings.  She is a popular teacher at several Missouri fiber events throughout the year, The Fiber Event in Greencastle, IN, Southern Indiana FiberArts Festival, Corydon, IN, Shepherd’s Harvest, Lake Elmo, MN,  Fiber Christmas, Kellyville, OK, and Wisconsin Sheep and Wool, Jefferson, WI.   She is the winner of two Sustainable Agriculture Grants, one of which is for her Angora/Wool socks.  She lives with her husband, Bill, in a l935 rock schoolhouse constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

The Original Fiber Producers

When you visit Fiber Festival each year, do you visit the animals who produce the fiber?  The Animal Barns are full of many farms who bring some of their amazing fiber producers to festival for you to see and quite often for you to buy.  The best part is that you have an opportunity to learn about the animal that the fleece you buy comes from.  Here are a few of the gorgeous sheep, goats, rabbits and alpacas that were a part of our 2010 festival.

Make sure that you visit all of the barns at Fiber Fest 2011 including the animal barns.  Ask questions.  Learn about the breed and the breeders.  The farms that raise these animals are a wealth of knowledge to fiber artists.  Stop by their booths and let them know how much you enjoy the products created from their animals.  You may even get to see the actual animal that produced the roving or yarn you just purchased.