FLFF Rug Braiding Workshops

We had a workshop at the festival all day Saturday. The class was full with 15 students, all ended up with beautiful chairpads to take home. Just look at all these happy faces and colorful chair pads.

On Monday after the festival we had a workshop for 15 of the festival volunteers. A wonderful time was had by all.

FLFF, Hemlock, New York

Finger Lakes Fiber Festival was wonderful. Friday evening Letty judged the Fleece Show, about 30 fleeces were entered. The Supreme Champion Fleece was a Natural Colored Romney exhibited by Liz Russell of Alloway, New Jersey. This very clean fleece had wonderfully even crimp, lots of luster and the best handle of all the fleeces.

Radio Interview

On September 5, 2006 Ann was interviewed on a local radio station by the Kentucky Arts Council. Our book will be showcased in the Gallery for the Arts for one month. Ann had received a grant from The Kentucky Arts Council through the Kentucky Craft Market to develop the book.

Getting ready

We are preparing for our next workshop which will be The Finger Lakes Fiber Festival in Hemlock, NY September 15-17, 2006. Letty gets to judge the Fleece Show on Friday evening. Sounds like our workshop on Saturday is quite full. Sunday we will do demos and sign books. On Monday after the festival we will have another workshop for the FLFF volunteers.

Sept. 30 - Oct 1, 2006, Letty will be at the Northern Michigan Lamb and Wool Festival signing books and doing demonstrations in the Hospitality area.

October 7, 2006 will find us both doing a rug braiding workshop with the Nutmeg Spinners Guild in Avon, Connecticut.

October 20, 2006 we will be conducting a rug braiding workshop at the NYS Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY.

Finally October 27-29, 2006 we will be at SAFF in Asheville, NC. Our workshop will be all day Friday. Letty will judge the sheep shows on Saturday and Sunday while Ann and Janice man the booth.

Rugs

Here is a photo of some of the rugs we have made. There are round rugs, oval rugs, rectangle rugs, stair treads, chair pads, and mug rugs. We use natural colored wool roving, as well as wool dyed with natural plant dyes or commercial dyes, to add color to the rugs.
The rug making technique is simple and well described and illustrated in our book.

Our book - Up till now

The Shepherd's Rug was published in April 2006. Our first outing with the book was the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. We sold and signed books from Letty's sheep pens in the sheep barn.

Then we went to the Hoosier Fiberarts Festival in Franklin, IN the first weekend in June. Two weeks later we were bound for The Wool Market in Estes Park, CO where we had a full workshop and a booth to sell/sign books. Mid July we conducted a workshop at Nancy Krohn's in Houston, MN to a group of Shetland Sheep breeders. The end of the July we were in Charlevoix, MI for the Castle Farms Fiber Arts Festival.

The Michigan Fiber Festival was August 19-20. Letty spent Saturday judging the sheep show which included the National Icelandic Sheep Show and a large number of Shetland sheep. On Sunday Letty did a braiding demo and signed books in Pat Terrill's booth.

The Shepherd's Rug

The Shepherd's Rug is a book about braiding a rug using wool roving. We are conducting workshops throughout the country to sell the book and teach others about the process. This blog will describe our experiences, so keep up and braid on...