JCP
01-30-2006, 12:04 AM
Spinners Unwind at Oxford Fiber Fair
The Chenango Region Handspinners Group celebrated Rock Day, an old English hand spinner’s holiday, January 21st, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Parish House. The members were delighted with the turn out which brought them together for fun, food, and all their favorite fibers. There were baskets of silky, natural colored and hand dyed wool from sheep as well as fluffy alpaca, for sale. Some fibers were ready to spin and others were already twisted into the most beautiful multicolored yarns.
The Handspinner Group’s coordinator is Nancy Morey of Shadeyside Farm. Aside from raising sheep and chickens, Nancy is an expert on silk production, or “sericulture”, and dyeing fibers, and has even raised the worms herself. She had bags of Bombyx mori silk worm cocoons for sale, which looked like small white eggs. Nancy lectures around the country on sericulture as well as fiber dyeing and spinning. She gladly explained at this gathering how the silk is harvested. On display for sale Nancy also had her silk, wool, mohair, and other natural fibers in all forms for hand spinners.
Traveling to Oxford for Rock Day, a diverse group of spinners and fiber crafters came from all over. Some, like Nancy Weiss, were from as close as Guilford, where she has a farm. She said that she’s been doing fiber crafts like embroidery and quilting for years, but spinning is new and exciting for her. Other spinners there were Abigail McEnroe (from Garrattsville), who’s an artist at Coopers Country Crafts in Cooperstown; Jean Wescott (South Edmeston) is a volunteer at the Cooperstown Farmers Museum, and Jacqueline Rayne, who has a sheep, chicken and pig farm in Greene, can be seen teaching the free Songwriter’s Workshop, Feb. 2nd, and future dates at the Night Eagle Café in Oxford.
Most confessed that their hobby has turned into an extremely relaxing pleasure which they indulge in and treat themselves to like decadent desserts. Their stories were similar. Each time they’d spin, they’d experiment with more and more delicious fibers, from wool, to angora, to the sweetest silk. Simple tools like drop spindles, knitting or dry felting needles, might lead all the way to fine, custom-made spinning wheels created by the nationally famous Oxford craftsman, Norm Hall. (Amy Cook, from Triangle, brought her “Norm Hall”, and she loves it.) Not only do the spinners collect skeins and skeins of colorful yarn, but many have their own flocks of sheep, rabbits or alpaca.
Hooked on their crafts, these fiber artists were more than happy to demonstrate what they do and explain how they do it. The simplicity of spinning is part of the attraction, but the relaxing benefits are the key to its growing popularity. Both men and women are spinning, not to create yarn, but just to unwind.
Ann Merriwether of Nyala Alpacas ( http://www.merriwether.org/nyala/ ), joined the Rock Day celebration from Vestal. She is a professor of psychology and human development at BinghamtonUniversity. Ann turned her fiber hobby into something that her whole family can share together when she got alpacas. Now Ann sells alpaca fiber and yarns, felted hats, and needle felting tools.
Many of the visitors to the Oxford Rock Day celebration were already members of the Chenango Region Handspinners Group. They meet monthly on the 3rd Saturday of the month (schedules permitting), from 10 AM to 2 PM, at the St. Paul's Episcopal Church Parish House at 32 Main Street in Oxford. Contact Nancy Morey of Shadeyside Farm for more information about The Handspinners Group, at (607) 843-8243 or shadeyside@citlink.net or at (607) 334-7114.
Caption 1: (Left to right) Nancy Morey discusses silk spinning to Nancy Weiss of Guilford, a novice spinner.
Caption 2: Amy Cook spins wool on her Norman Hall spinning wheel.
Caption 3: Ann Merriwether of Nyala Farm Alpacas demonstrated dry needle felting on an alpaca wool hat.
The Chenango Region Handspinners Group celebrated Rock Day, an old English hand spinner’s holiday, January 21st, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Parish House. The members were delighted with the turn out which brought them together for fun, food, and all their favorite fibers. There were baskets of silky, natural colored and hand dyed wool from sheep as well as fluffy alpaca, for sale. Some fibers were ready to spin and others were already twisted into the most beautiful multicolored yarns.
The Handspinner Group’s coordinator is Nancy Morey of Shadeyside Farm. Aside from raising sheep and chickens, Nancy is an expert on silk production, or “sericulture”, and dyeing fibers, and has even raised the worms herself. She had bags of Bombyx mori silk worm cocoons for sale, which looked like small white eggs. Nancy lectures around the country on sericulture as well as fiber dyeing and spinning. She gladly explained at this gathering how the silk is harvested. On display for sale Nancy also had her silk, wool, mohair, and other natural fibers in all forms for hand spinners.
Traveling to Oxford for Rock Day, a diverse group of spinners and fiber crafters came from all over. Some, like Nancy Weiss, were from as close as Guilford, where she has a farm. She said that she’s been doing fiber crafts like embroidery and quilting for years, but spinning is new and exciting for her. Other spinners there were Abigail McEnroe (from Garrattsville), who’s an artist at Coopers Country Crafts in Cooperstown; Jean Wescott (South Edmeston) is a volunteer at the Cooperstown Farmers Museum, and Jacqueline Rayne, who has a sheep, chicken and pig farm in Greene, can be seen teaching the free Songwriter’s Workshop, Feb. 2nd, and future dates at the Night Eagle Café in Oxford.
Most confessed that their hobby has turned into an extremely relaxing pleasure which they indulge in and treat themselves to like decadent desserts. Their stories were similar. Each time they’d spin, they’d experiment with more and more delicious fibers, from wool, to angora, to the sweetest silk. Simple tools like drop spindles, knitting or dry felting needles, might lead all the way to fine, custom-made spinning wheels created by the nationally famous Oxford craftsman, Norm Hall. (Amy Cook, from Triangle, brought her “Norm Hall”, and she loves it.) Not only do the spinners collect skeins and skeins of colorful yarn, but many have their own flocks of sheep, rabbits or alpaca.
Hooked on their crafts, these fiber artists were more than happy to demonstrate what they do and explain how they do it. The simplicity of spinning is part of the attraction, but the relaxing benefits are the key to its growing popularity. Both men and women are spinning, not to create yarn, but just to unwind.
Ann Merriwether of Nyala Alpacas ( http://www.merriwether.org/nyala/ ), joined the Rock Day celebration from Vestal. She is a professor of psychology and human development at BinghamtonUniversity. Ann turned her fiber hobby into something that her whole family can share together when she got alpacas. Now Ann sells alpaca fiber and yarns, felted hats, and needle felting tools.
Many of the visitors to the Oxford Rock Day celebration were already members of the Chenango Region Handspinners Group. They meet monthly on the 3rd Saturday of the month (schedules permitting), from 10 AM to 2 PM, at the St. Paul's Episcopal Church Parish House at 32 Main Street in Oxford. Contact Nancy Morey of Shadeyside Farm for more information about The Handspinners Group, at (607) 843-8243 or shadeyside@citlink.net or at (607) 334-7114.
Caption 1: (Left to right) Nancy Morey discusses silk spinning to Nancy Weiss of Guilford, a novice spinner.
Caption 2: Amy Cook spins wool on her Norman Hall spinning wheel.
Caption 3: Ann Merriwether of Nyala Farm Alpacas demonstrated dry needle felting on an alpaca wool hat.