Meet the Instructors
We are proud to offer weekend workshops from a diverse lineup of fiber educators, teaching on a wide range of fiber art topics.
Read a little more about our teachers below.
Vivien Wise is a fiber artist living in the Pacific Northwest. She received an MFA in Fibers and Material Studies from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, and a BFA in Fibers from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Originally from Chicago, she is an avid quilter, bicyclist, and lover of breakfast. In her art practice, she centers materiality, community, and environment.
Vivien has taught workshops at The Works Seattle, Sew Expo, Chicago Public Library, Vox Populi Gallery, Fabric Workshop and Museum, Tyler School of Art, and Baltimore County Community College, among others.
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Donalee Rodger began 200 lb/month customer processing for Fantasy Fibers in 2012 and opened her own mill with her daughter and husband in 2017. Rodger Family Farm & Fiber Mill LLC. processes over 300 lbs/month for over 350 customers – leading to experience that now includes more than 25,000 lbs of milling experience over a wide range of fiber types (sheep, goat, camelid, bovine, canine, and various other exotics). Donalee has firsthand knowledge of Belfast and Brothers milling equipment, as well the benefit of having met all of the regional mill owner/operators over the last 11 years.
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Una Walker is a Fiber Artist from La Grande, Oregon whose fashion and artwork has been exhibited nationally to rave reviews. As a sought after fiber arts teacher, her classes range from beginning to advanced techniques in a variety of mediums. Una grew up in her parents’ craft supply store where she gained experience in a wide range of crafts as both an artist and teacher. An example being her appearance on HGTV’s ‘That’s Clever’ in 2009, making a pair of shoes! She got started punching over a decade ago at a craft show “make and take” where she first worked with the Oxford Punch Needle. Combining unique materials is Una’s most inspiring challenge in her work; she loves “figuring it all out”. From raw wool, to sewing the finishing stitch, she is always looking ahead to new and creative approaches. Una’s latest fiber experiments include explorations in dyeing and seeing how the color and texture bring life to her designs. Una’s work has been exhibited at craft shows across the country where she also sells under her business name of Wooly Walkers.
Una has completed her Advanced Oxford Punch Needle training and has been teaching punch needle for the past 10 years. She has taught at Estes Park Wool Market, Toas Wool Festival, Oregon Flock and Fiber, Black Sheep Gathering, Fiber in the Forest, Stitches West and SoCal.
She teaches with both patience and an attention to detail, that combined with her easy-going sense of humor results in a fun and rewarding experience for all. Una thrives on problem solving and she loves working with beginners. She can be reached through her website www.woolywalkers.com.
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Kitty Bryan is a knitting designer whose work focuses on showcasing hand-painted yarn and exotic fibers. She is captivated by Gestalt design principles and incorporates visual perception effects into her designs. Retired experimental engineer and yarn shop teacher, Kitty travels the United States and Canada to teach design techniques where students learn to create their own fabrics making the most of a yarn’s unique fiber, color, and stitch behavior. Her designs, available on Ravelry, have featured The Yarns of Rhichard Devrieze, Jacques Cartier, Alexandra – The Art of Yarn, Rows and Roses, and the Aberdeen Wool Company. Her work has appeared in the Stitches United 2018 Fashion Show in Hartford, CT.
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Heidi Leugers has over twenty years of needle felting experience and sells her own needle felted and other wool creations through her zero-waste business, Reclaimed Wool, to specialty retailers and fine craft galleries across the USA. Her work has been carried at The American Folk Art Museum in New York, Timberline Lodge, New Seasons Market, and Chihuly Garden & Glass. She can also be found at sheep and wool festivals and juried art shows in the Pacific Northwest, and online at www.reclaimedwool.com.
Sarah Starr has been passionate about photography since middle school, but at the start of covid, was excited to find a more forgiving artform -- needle-felting. She has enjoyed exploring new techniques and creating "paintings." All of her designs are originals, many based on her photographs.
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Ened McNett, DVM is a mixed animal veterinarian with a particular interest in small ruminant medicine. She is also a producer of Clun Forest sheep. For the last two years she has has had the pleasure of teaching the FAMACHA training at OFFF.
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Kira Dulaney has been teaching fiber arts classes and hosting crafty events in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond since 2002. As a teacher, her focus is on providing valuable information in a stress-free environment, and supporting students through the learning process. She is also the designer behind Kira K Designs, a line of original knitting and crochet patterns and kits featuring clean lines and intriguing details that are both interesting to make and easy to wear. Kira has taught at Estes Park Wool Market, Interweave Yarn Fest, Lambtown Festival, the Natural Fiber Fair, Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, Red Alder Fiber Arts Retreat, Stitches events, and TNNA, as well as at numerous guilds and yarn shops.
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Lauralee DeLuca has been spinning, dyeing, teaching, felting, and occasionally knitting, since the 80's. After living a wild life for 32 years in Alaska, raising and homeschooling two children alone, life brought her down to the Olympic Peninsula where she is still reveling in the amazing fiber arts scene in the Pacific Northwest. For fun, she spins yarn and takes walks.
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Terry Mattison is an award-winning spinner and weaver who thinks being able to dye her own fibers and yarns gives her work more personality. She designs and weaves for Jane Stafford’s School of Weaving and was selected as an Invitational Artist for 2023 at Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. She has over 30 years as an industry professional, matching color for clients nationwide. She works with both synthetic and natural dyes creating her own unique designs in her studio in Washington state.
Shelia January has been a knitter since she was eight years old and growing up on a farm in Oregon, following on the heels of learning embroidery and crochet a couple of years before. Knitting saved her sanity while attending college, while working for 28 years in the financial services industry, and finally while preparing to retire to her own farm in Oregon, where she lived with yaks, sheep, cattle, chickens, cat and husband. She became a spinner 18 years ago, has studied extensively in the US and Canada, and now collects spinning wheels as well as yarn. She knits and designs with her handspun yarn as well as with commercial yarn, and has taught spinning and knitting at retreats, shops, conferences and fiber festivals worldwide. Her writing and patterns have been published in The Knitter’s Book of Yarn, Fiber Gathering, The Knitter’s Book of Wool, Spin-Off and Ply Magazine.
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Anna Anderson lives in Superior, Montana with her husband on a hobby farm. She raises Pygora and Angora goats, has several rescued fiber animals, a few horses, chickens, cats and dogs. Anna has been involved in the fiber art community since 2006 and has taught classes since 2010. This year she plans to add a studio to the farm where she can teach classes locally. She enjoys sharing her skills and passion for fiber arts in the fun and unique classes that she offers.
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Kira Dulaney has been teaching fiber arts classes and hosting crafty events in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond since 2002. As a teacher, her focus is on providing valuable information in a stress-free environment, and supporting students through the learning process. She is also the designer behind Kira K Designs, a line of original knitting and crochet patterns and kits featuring clean lines and intriguing details that are both interesting to make and easy to wear. Kira has taught at Estes Park Wool Market, Interweave Yarn Fest, Lambtown Festival, the Natural Fiber Fair, Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, Red Alder Fiber Arts Retreat, Stitches events, and TNNA, as well as at numerous guilds and yarn shops.
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Amelia Garripoli's purchase of a house with two llamas in 2001 began her incredible journey of fiber-discovery: spinning, spindles, rare breeds, weaving, dyeing, nalbinding, circular sock machines, and revisiting her roots of knitting, crochet, needlepoint, and sewing. Her collection of fleeces grew to well over 100 when she had a fiber mill, and her love of discovering new/old tools has kept her spindle collection growing! The bright spot of Covid was teaching e-spinning over Zoom, leading to more discovery. Amelia teaches at Black Sheep Gathering, OFFF, and other shows, shops, and guilds. She wrote Productive Spindling, Power Spinning, and published two spindle videos with Spin-Off, and has written for Spin-Off, Ply, and Knitty as well as blogging as askthebellwether.com. These days you can find her "fibering" across America as a full-time nomad.
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Lisa Ellis is a freelance knitwear designer, owner of a wholesale pattern line and traveling knitting instructor in the Pacific Northwest. Lisa has two publications with Leisure Arts and is also a contributing designer to more than a dozen other books and magazines. In addition to her designs, she has written numerous articles on “knitting techniques”. Her passion is taking knitters to the next level.
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Elise Webb began by working in a lovely local yarn shop where customers would come in and ask if anyone knew how to fix old precious sweaters. She said "yes" and more and more sweaters appeared. Soon enough she had more mending projects than time, so Elise quit at the yarn store to mend full time! She has been working out of her home in Beaverton Oregon for over 3 years with the help of her husband.
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Teresa Waldo combines her passion for teaching with her passion for crafting. She is a retired elementary and special education teacher and has taught adult crafting classes for fifteen plus years. Teresa has been knitting since age five and has fallen down other fiber related rabbit holes (spinning, weaving, crocheting) in the last 20 years. Teresa loves sharing her excitement for anything fiber related with others and has a keen ability to break a skill down into manageable steps. She makes sure all her students are successful and leave with a new skill. Teresa has taught various knitting, spinning, little loom weaving, and crocheting classes in shops around the Pacific Northwest and at regional conferences. She resides in Auburn, Washington and is a member of NwSFA, Arachne Guild, Moonspinners’ Guild, ANWG, ANWG Tapestry Group, Yarning for Community, and Covington Knitworms.
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Tammy Jordan is a fourth-generation fiber artist who enjoys sharing her passion with everyone she meets. She has a fiber-arts business, Goldieknots Montana, specializing in Montana-grown wool, yarn, spinning fiber, and Made in Montana gift items. Prior to moving to Montana, she lived in Southern California and the Pocono Mountains where she was a former Humane Education specialist for the SPCA. Her teaching style is fun, creative, and interactive. When she’s not traveling and teaching or in her studio creating, spinning, knitting, or felting, you can find her spending time with her dogs, sheep, horse, and other barnyard critters.
Diane McKinnon has been an avid hand weaver for longer than she cares to admit. As a happy accident of the punch card based enrollment process, she studied weaving during college. McKinnon did additional textile, color, and weaving studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. Attending fiber conference classes, working for two years in a weaving shop, doing production weaving, and teaching have increased her skills and knowledge over the years. She teaches regularly at regional fiber events such as The Black Sheep Gathering and the Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival. She also holds regular fiber classes in the Thistle Patch Fiber Studio at her home just outside of Forest Grove, Oregon.
McKinnon specializes in color and texture in her weaving. She often mixes many types of yarns and multiple colors, making each item unique. As the ‘keeper’ of over 50 looms, she is able to keep many different projects such as rag rugs, shawls, scarves, placemats, and dish towels, to name a few, going at once. Boredom is never a possibility. She loves the rhythm and structure that loom weaving offers. Within those seemingly restrictive confines, the endless possibilities of creating art seem to grow for her. McKinnon is also an accomplished hand spinner and she often uses her handspun yarns in her woven wearable creations.
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LeBrie Rich is an artist who has been exploring the visual possibilities and emotional resonance of felted wool for the last 20 years. Her work has appeared internationally in a variety of settings including museums, galleries, storefront windows and art-vending machines. She has been teaching people to felt since 2006 and is known for facilitating fun, upbeat workshops with a high level of individualized attention for each student. LeBrie has just landed back in Portland, OR after living the last year and a half in Amsterdam.
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Casey Newman is a naturalist and a botanical print and natural dye artist who incorporates nature into her work in a variety of ways. With a masters degree in ecology and an interest in fiber arts that began in childhood, she loves that natural dyeing blends both science and art. She is known for explaining the “why” of natural dyeing in clear, easy-to-understand ways, while embracing the unexpected - the magic, if you will - that occurs when co-creating with nature. Casey’s botanical printing work is centered around northwest native plants and she is inspired by living and working at Cedar Dell Forest Farm on the outskirts of Gresham, OR. There she raises a small flock of Shetland sheep, grows a variety of dye plants, wanders the woods in search of treasures, and teaches classes for curious and creative people of all ages.
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