Spinner's Flock Fleece Fair Set For Weekend

When Karen Armbruster, owner of a 74-acre farm on Jerusalem Road in Lima Township, was in her teens, her mother gave her a spinning wheel for Christmas. The gift ignited a passion for spinning that has lasted for more than three decades.

Armbruster, who helped to found the Spinner’s Flock in 1980 with a group of fellow spinners in Ann Arbor, is getting ready for the Spinner’s Flock 25th annual Fleece Fair from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday at Beach Middle School, 445 Mayer Dr. in Chelsea. Admission is free, and facilities are wheelchair-accessible.

The event will offer unprocessed wool and fibers from alpaca, angora, mohair, cashmere, llama, camel, bison, dog, silk and cotton. Items for sale will include yarns hand-spun by Spinner’s Flock members as well as finished garments, accessories, dolls and toys. Spinning tools and supplies will also be available, including wheels and spindles, quilt batts, weaving tools, felting supplies, dyes, books, magazines and patterns.

Spinners will also demonstrate different spinning techniques.

Spinner's Flock members hail from southeastern Michigan, northern Ohio and parts of Indiana. Many of them raise various breeds of sheep, angora goats for mohair, llama, alpaca and angora rabbits.

Member Rebecca Hermen was introduced to the craft by her mother and has been spinning for about 30 years.

“I originally learned to spin because I wanted to make yarn for needlepoint,” she said. “I’ve since learned to use hand-spinning for other fiber arts, like knitting.”

Ann Arbor resident Rose Owens, guild president and member for 12 years, learned to spin fiber using fur from her Shetland sheepdogs. She now spins various types of fiber, she said.

Local resident Deb Cline and her husband expanded their dairy farm to raise 200 Angora goats and 150 sheep.

“Now we have about 55 ewes getting ready for lambing this spring,” she said. “We travel to fiber art fairs around the country to sell our wool, yarn, Lendrum spinning wheels and other products.”

Chelsea resident Kathy Moskal and her daughter Leslie got involved with the Spinner’s Flock after moving to the area and raising two llamas. Moskal has taught at the Chelsea Center for the Arts and also gives demonstrations of spinning, felting and weaving at the Waterloo Historical Farm Museum.

“I love to work with fibers, including spinning, felting, weaving and dying fibers,” Moskal said. “I also love to work with people and watch them get excited to create a wearable or usable item from animal fibers.

"It’s amazing to see the creativity after the students learn the basics," she said. "It’s also exciting to use fibers from my small farm and follow the process from animals to finished, stunning work of art.”

The Spinner’s Flock meets on the second Saturday of each month at the Washington Street Education Center in Chelsea, and it offers basic instruction in hand-spinning. Participants may bring their own equipment or use guild-owned equipment. For more information, call 475-7922, or visit facebook.com/spinnersflock.