Instructors

Georgia Alpaca FiberFest Instructors

September 13-15, 2013

Varian Brandon

Varian has been knitting since she was 8 and has been almost continuously working with yarn and needles since a trip to Scotland after college. Recently, she was the top American winner in an international design competition sponsored by Jamieson and Smith Woolbrokers. She lives in Atlanta where she uses her needles (and graph paper and computer) to design hand-knitted sweaters.

Click to see classes and to register:
One Round, Two Colors: Stranded and Fair Isle Knitting
Colors: From Thievery to Theory

Janet Brani

Janet’s fascination with crochet began at the age of eight when her grandmother introduced her to yarn and hooks. She works and instructs for Lovin’ Knit Yarn Shop & Studio in Marietta, GA. Her printed patterns, produced as OneLoopShy Designs, are available online and to retailers through Deep South Fibers. Most content when pushing the boundaries of traditional crochet, Janet loves to stitch with luxury fibers and unusual yarn combinations. She has been published in Interweave Crochet, Interweave Crochet Accessories, Crochet! Magazine, and Crochet One-Skein Wonders: 101 Projects from Crocheters Around the World (Storey Publishing March 2013).

Janet Brani / OneLoopShy Designs
oneloopshy@gmail.com

Click to see classes and to register:
Enhance & Embellish with Crochet Edgings/Trims
Crocheted Sweet Potato Twist Cowl (looks and drapes like knit!)

Veronica Carey

Veronica Carey has been spinning for 16 years and has demonstrated for thousands of school children, Girl Scouts, and visitors to historic sites in Georgia and Florida. She has taught spinning to young and old, often starting on the drop spindle, and sometimes directly on a wheel. She holds a monthly spinning group at her home where fellow spinners freely share their enthusiasm, knowledge, tools and fiber. Beginners are always welcomed and encouraged!

Veronica has studied extensively with nationally known teachers such as Deb Menz, Norman Kennedy, Patsy Zawistoski, and Elizabeth Johnston from Shetland, as well as workshops sponsored by the Peachtree Handspinners Guild. She is also a volunteer seamstress and docent for a 19th century House Museum where she helps outfit historic interpretors in mid-19th century dress.

Click to see classes and to register:
Beginning Spinning on a Drop Spindle

Anna Clark

Anna Clark lives in Pensacola, Florida where she runs The Spinning Seahorse out of her home, teaches spinning and dyeing workshops, and loves to create uniquely dyed batts as well as artfully spun yarns. Anna, a working chemist, feels that Acid Dyes give some of the best results and can be used very easily when coupled with some experience, education and tips for making them easily available and safe for the home dyer.

Previous to Florida, Anna owned and ran a farm in Oregon, where she raised Shetland and Romney sheep, Cashmere and Angora goats, sold and worked the resulting fiber, and spun and knit creations, all under the watchful eye of her Llama “Bob”. She has spun for over 10 years, but has been a color and fiber enthusiast for nearly her entire life, sewing, knitting and painting from an early age.

Click to see classes and to register:
Hand-Painted Creations
Artful Plying

Jolie Elder

Jolie has explored a wide range of needle arts after learning to cross stitch at age four. She designs, teaches, and stunt knits in the Atlanta area where she demystifies the obscure. Jolie is a past president of Atlanta Knitting Guild and the current president of North Georgia Knitting Guild. She has also completed Level 1 of TKGA Master Knitter. Her published patterns include "Serpentine Short-Round Scarf" and "Tetra Stadium Blanket." She blogs her knitting experiments at jolieaelder.blogspot.com and posts on Ravelry as "Jolie."

Click to see classes and register:
Now How Do I Finish?
Waste Not: Shawls
Waste Not: Scrap-Busting
Waste Not: Socks

Neal Howard

Neal is female and a native of North Carolina. She is an experienced, talented weaver who has taught, exhibited, won awards and judged weaving. In early childhood, her experiences set the stage for her becoming a fiber artist. Her experiences in later life compelled her to feel that it was divine intention that she become a fiber artist! Neal's fiber education is from Haywood Community college in production of fiber/arts. Penland School for the Arts instructor's studio assistant 1985, 2004, and 2008. She has also studied under the fiber mavens: Catharine Ellis, Diane Itter, Heather Allen Swarttou, Liz Spear, Suzanne Gemandt, Susan Levielle. and others. Neal also has a BA from Guilford College and has also gone to University of the South school of Theology, Education for Ministry. In her own words, she has a "wicked sense of humor" and always has fun!

Click to see classes and to register:
Dye a Yarn Skein and Silk Scarf

Mimi Kezer

After pursuing music and worship arts for 20 years, Mimi Kezer has spent the last six years teaching, encouraging and empowering knitters in their own creative pursuits. From instructing in local yarn shops to fiber festivals to her own video tutorials, this self-described “technique maven” relishes making the complex simple and enabling knitters to walk in new places of confidence in their work. Mimi also designs for her own knitting line, Pastiche Knitwear, and is addicted to making colorful, beautiful things.

pasticheknitwear@gmail.com
Pastiche Knitwear
pasticheknits.blogspot.com

Click to see classes and to register:
Knitted Bead Cuff Bracelet
Wire Knitting with Beads
Knitting with Beads Sampler
The Chinese Waitress Cast-On and Other Curiosities

Jennifer Lambert

I am a farmer. My life revolves around my angora goats and rabbits, my shetland sheep, and my countless chickens. Life is good and if I can share a bit of that through my farm products than that makes life all the sweeter.

angoraacres.com
angora-acres.blogspot.com
www.etsy.com/people/shopangoraacres

Click to see classes and to register:
Mixed Media Wet Felting
Nuno Felt a Scarf

Susan Morgan Leveille

Susan was weaving by the time she was 9 or 10 years old, encouraged by her great-aunt Lucy Morgan, a supporter, educator and promoter of mountain weavers. Not a competitive person, Susan has chosen to teach and for more than 35 years she has shared her weaving knowledge with members of her own community as well as at many schools and guilds throughout the southeast including community colleges, John C. Campbell Folk School, and Penland School of Crafts. She has focused on her craft, her shop, her community, and her passion: teaching others to weave.

Susan’s philosophy on weaving: Acquire the basic principles of making cloth so that you can then play with color, texture and structure and make each of those strands move through the cloth exactly the way you want it. Then you have the ability to create the piece of textile that is in your imagination with the touch and feel that you were sure it would have, perfect for its intended purpose --- just like other weavers have been doing for thousands of years.

Click to see classes and to register:
Little and Big Projects All on a Small Loom
Mug Rugs and Inkle Bands

Margaret Higgins Pendley

While rummaging through the family home place in Auburn, Ga, I came across a box with some snippets of lace, both knitted and crocheted. And something else I had never seen…something with little rings and lacy little loops. My grandmother told me it was something called “tatting”, and that “her mother did some of that.” In the box was also a tiny tortoise-colored shuttle. Intrigued by the intricacies of the little snippets of lace, I determined to master this lovely art. My grandmother introduced me to a friend of hers, and I learned to tat the summer I turned 16. That was over 35 years ago, and I can still hear the chatter of my grandmother and Ms. Mary McAlister while I tangled myself into knots with white Cro-Sheen. One of the things I love about tatting is the amazing diversity and intricacy of patterns that can be created from just one basic stitch. The variations truly are endless, and well worth the effort. If you’ve been frustrated by the textbook illustrations, I will share with you Ms. Mary’s simplified “over-hand” tatting method, and you’ll never tie yourself in knots again.

Click to see classes and to register:
Beginning Tatting (Shuttle Only)
Intermediate/Advanced Tatting
Needle Tatting Basics

Denise Prince

Click to see classes and to register:
Saori Weaving

Stephanie Stratton

Stephanie has made her world fiber and yarn filled. From knitting to felting to spinning to crochet to dying and more, Stephanie is truly immersed in fiber arts. She is the owner of LunabudKnits and is well known for her hand dyed fibers & yarns, custom carded batts, books, patterns and fun notions, as well as carrying Louet wheels and Strauch Fiber Equipment. In addition to being the Independent Dyer in charge of LunabudKnits in Nicholasville, KY, she has recently opened a yarn shop, A Tangled Yarn, to help spread the joy of all things textile to her local community. She enjoys collecting antique spinning wheels, has a tendency to be distracted by bright sparkly objects, and has frequently been known to pounce on knitters wearing hand made & lovely creations.

Websites: http://www.LunabudKnits.com & http://www.atangledyarn.com

Click to see classes and to register:
Fabulous Fingerless Mittens
Core Spinning
Felt a Flock
Foundation of Acid Dyes

Charlene St. John

828-200-0264
charlenestjohn@hotmail.com

Click to see classes and to register:
Block Weave a Shawl or Scarf

Nicole Taylor-Morelli

Nicole Taylor owns Adonai's Alpacas. She has a degree in Animal Industries from the University of Connecticut and is a certified teacher. She has been active in both adult and elementary education for the past 15 years. Nicole specializes in handling and training animals and is committed to working with both adults and children interested in the alpaca industry. Nicole has worked with a fiber mill and is very knowledgeable about alpaca fiber and processing.

Click to see classes and to register:
Preparing Your Fleece for Processing

Kristina Tucker

Hi, my name is Kristina Tucker, and I have been knitting for 9 years. I am “young” in the fiber world at the age of 22, but I don’t let that hold me back. I began knitting when I was 13, and I have hardly stopped to put my needles down. I love knitting just about everything, but lace, entrelac, and sweaters tend to be my favorites. I have worked at two local yarn shops: Main Street Yarns in Watkinsville while I lived in Athens and attended the University of Georgia (GO DAWGS!), and more recently at Lovin’Knit in Marietta. Knitting and fiber are a passion of mine and I love sharing and teaching any chance I get.

Click to see classes and to register:
Intro to Entrelac
Reading Your Knitting
Sweater Finishing Techniques
Ravelry 101