Fiberarts Festival set for Saturday
Hand spinner to share talent
Jennifer Rogers - Intern Writer

On Saturday, June 18, there will be a Hoosier Hills Fiberarts Festival at the Osgood Fairgrounds from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Cara Randall, a hand spinner from Elrod, and her friend Amy Jackey, have arranged the event after attending shows in other parts of Indiana. This will be the first year for the festival at Osgood, which they hope will be a big success.

There will be over 30 booths at the festival, including hand spinners, quilters, rug hookers, beaders, hand weavers, chair caners, a wool processor, and fiber art techniques. Most booths will be offering demonstrations and mini classes so people in attendance can learn more about each art.

"This will be a really good event for the whole family," said Randall. Not only will the booths interest adults, there will be a section for children, where they can learn basic spinning and weaving techniques.

Also attending the festival will be medieval re-enactors who will sheer sheep and show the entire process, up to the spinning. This will demonstrate to people how textiles were manufactured and used in the old days.

Randall has always been interested in the process of hand spinning. She has visited Conner Prairie many times to learn more about the process. She is fascinated by hand spinning because "you can make yarn from any fibers you want, in any color." She first learned how to hand spin when the Weavers Loft in Dover, Indiana,
offered a class and she learned the techniques there.

Randall is presently taking nursing classes, so she does hand spinning as a part-time business. She attends many craft shows throughout the year, and as she gets older she hopes to turn hand spinning into a full-time business. Randall won first place in the hand spinning contest at the Indiana State Fair in 2004.

Cara Randall, with her husband Randy have three children, Holly 13, Sarah 7, and Katie, 4.

SUBMITTED PHOTO

Cara Randall of Elrod, practices hand spinning. She will be one of the artists at the Hoosier Hills Fiberarts Festival this Saturday at the Osgood Fairgrounds from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.