Mat-Su Fiber Festival July 23 at fairgrounds

Think Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival (OFFF), Black Sheep Gathering, and any other fiber festival that fiber arts enthusiasts love to attend. They all started out with an idea and a small venue.

Now, 42 years later, Black Sheep is one of the most widely attended Fiber Festivals in the country.

OFFF’s misson is to exhibit and demonstrate the full spectrum of natural fibers (plant and animal) from beginning to end, from the animal or raw fiber to the finished product.

We will strive to do the same.

The Mat-Su Region of the Alaska Natural Fiber Business Association (ANFBA) is starting it’s inaugural year at the Alaska State Fairgrounds Livestock Barn. July 23, 2016 fro 10am to 5pm

This is not a craft sale. It is a Fiber Festival, with demonstrations and classes. Fiber enthusiasts around the area will be gathered to show each other and YOU, the public, what it takes to ply our craft.

Have you seen the ladies spinning wool at the fair in the Irwin building? For 10 days people walk by, fascinated, asking questions about what they are doing.

At the Mat-Su Fiber Festival, for an entire day, we will be concentrating on the entire process, from raising the various animals, to shearing, processing and spinning, weaving or knitting the wool.

Learn what it takes to raise a fiber animal. Watch and interact with the folks as they clean the wool, spin it and weave or knit it into a scarf or shawl. Talk to the gentleman who creates fiber tools from wood, so we can have beautiful things to work with.

There will be classes on cord-making with lucet and kumihimo tablets.