By NANCY VORIS
Indiana Correspondent

FRANKLIN, Ind. — Activities will be wild and woolly at the third annual Hoosier Hills Fiber Arts Festival on June 2-3 at the Johnson County Fairgrounds.

Festival hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on June 2 and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on June 3. Admission is free.

The gathering of spinners, weavers, artisans and fiber art vendors draws exhibitors and visitors from Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee, said festival cochairs Nancy Talley and Patti Hodge.

More than 75 vendors will fill two buildings at the fairgrounds, offering yarns, raw fleece and other natural fibers along with spinning wheels, tools and related supplies to create wearable and home fashions. Classes and entertainment are also planned.

Talley said the festival not only promotes crafts with llama, alpaca, angora, wool, mohair and similar fibers, but this year is moving into fiber arts such as jewelry made from hand-dyed and embellished cotton paper.

The Fiber Arts Gallery will provide ideas for visitors to take home and re-create. There will be felted bowls and numerous felted and knitted items.

Special guests include Letty Klein and Ann Brown, coauthors of The Shepherd’s Rug – A Braided Wool Rug from Roving. The authors will teach a class based on their book from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Participants will complete a simple chair pad using minimal equipment.

Other classes offered on Saturday include basket weaving, Entrelac weaving, beaded-stitch markers, knitting a shoulder wrap and Knitting the Continental Divide.

For more information on the festival and supplies needed for classes, visit the website at www.hhfiberfest.com

Other activities are planned to entertain the whole family.

A storyteller returns to weave his own magic, while SCA, an international organization that researches pre-17th century Europe, will dress in clothing of the middle ages and the Renaissance to recreate the arts and skills of that time. The Mount Tabor Praise Ensemble will perform at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Talley learned about fiber in a peculiar way.

She moved to the country about seven years ago with two small dogs, and woke one night to the distinct cackle of coyotes. Worried about her dogs, Talley consulted her veterinarian who advised her to get llamas to keep the coyotes at bay, and he just happened to have two to sell to her.

“I just fell in love with the llamas, and bought three more that were all pregnant,” Talley said. Her herd now numbers 21.
She explained that llamas have to be sheared annually or they will die from heat stress. After seeing the sheared pile of llama fiber, she knew she had to learn how to make felt.

“I fell in love with felting, and I’m now teaching felting classes and felting my heart out,” Talley said.

She has also taken up spinning and weaving, and picked up her old hobby of knitting to put her fiber to good use.

For more information on the festival, visit the website above or call Talley at 317-535-2525.