Member Profiles

	Colleen Arnold	Colleen Arnold (Kyabram, Vic) handspins Wool, Alpaca and Mohair into yarn for sale, producing small items to sell, such as, scarves and beanies. A small Knitter’s Loom is used for weaving scarves, and felted articles are being introduced. Most items are handmade from handspun yarns, but commercially processed natural fibres are also used. She currently attends the Girgarre Farmer’s Market on the 2nd Sunday of every month, and will be attending the Nagambie Market on the 1st Saturday of every month from April to October. Some of her stock will also go on the Echuca Wool & Craft Stall at the Steam Rally on the Queen’s Birthday long weekend.
	Graham Carson	Pauline and Graham Carson live in the beautiful Wooragee Valley in North East Victoria and run a small flock of coloured Corriedale sheep. Pauline has enjoyed “doing things” with her fleeces such as spinning, knitting and of more recent times, felting. She enjoys the natural colours and soft handle of the Corriedale fleeces. Graham supports the association by making all kinds of items to assist at markets - portable panels, umbrella stands, folding tables.
	Pauline Carson	In addition to the flock described above, Pauline brings to the group her organisational and administrative skills. She records market activity, works out the distribution for joint projects, books markets and undertakes many tasks that help to make our natural fibre products available to all.
	Adele Davies	Adele has a small flock of English Leicester sheep, both black and white. She dyes fleece for use by felters, spinners and doll makers. She likes to spin, felt, dye and create all kinds of articles from fibre. She ejnoys Tunisian crochet in addition to knitting and standard crochet. She lives at Everton Upper in the North East of Victoria and loves being part of the Wangaratta Stitched Up Textile Festival in July each year.
	Suzanne Kleefman	Suzanne has been spinning for 20 years and is proficient in spinning silk and alpaca. Suzanne’s fine handspun yarns result in her knitted and crocheted shawls being in demand. She has recently acquired a weaving loom and looks forward to adding weaving to her craft skills. She is also experimenting with felting.
	Madeline Larkin	Madeline has a passion for art and craft and has her hand in a variety of craft with the latest being felting. She has been doing this for approximately 5 years. Her interest initially came from Marj Larkin, her mother inlaw, who breeds alpacas. Madeline uses a mixture of wet and dry fleting along with needlefelting and embellishing. Her small old daughter inspires her to create special garments and interesting trinkets for children.
	Marj Larkin	Marj is a breeder of alpacas and produces alpaca fleeces in a wide range of colours. Her skills in transforming this elite fibre into saleable products are extensive. She produces hats, bags, scarves and toys in knitting and felting but her forte is needle felting. She lives at Gundowring in the Kiewa Valley.
	Cyril Lieschke	Cyril has had a life-time involvement with the breeding of coloured sheep from his property in Henty, NSW. Through extensive travels overseas he has sent coloured fleeces to craftspeople in many countries including England, USA, Japan. His knowledge of sheep husbandry, wool classing and judging of sheep and fleeces has generously been shared with other breeders of coloured sheep.
	Kate Martin	My mother and grandmother introduced me to craft. Through ppttery, lead lighting, spinning and traditional patchwork quilts contemporary art quilts., my first love has always been sketching. Through Goulburn Ovens Institute of TAFE I achieved Certificate IV in Design in 2007 and a Diploma in Visual Arts in 2009. Introduced to felting in 2005, I am constantly learning and experimenting with techniques in felting and embellishing and love working with beautiful merino and silk fibres to produce scarves, wraps, vests and jackets. I love to use used mixed media techniques in my work - printing, painting, felting, hand and machine stitching to obtain exciting and interesting textural surfaces. My most recent direction has been experimenting with eco dyeing, with all dyes and mark making being derived from plants, mainly eucalypts and other natives. One of the joys of my involvement in the textile arts has been networking and sharing with other artists.
	Jan Milhinch	Jan is a vigneron from Rutherglen with a passion for coloured sheep. She enjoys the company of her flock of coloured sheep who share the property with her vines. She produces and markets a select line of wool accessories available at her cellar door at Scion Vineyard & Winery. These hand knitted articles are made using both hand spun and mill spun yarns.
	Marie Nash	A lifelong interest in knitting and crochet was greatly expanded when a lifestyle change found Marie and her husband in the country, with a small flock of coloured sheep and cashmere goats. Utilising fleece from her own animals became paramount and a spinning wheel joined the family. Marie prefers knitting with naturally coloured yarns, both hand and commercially spun, which has originated from her own animals. An introduction to felting has resulted in a passion for this craft. Marie enjoys felting boots and slippers from coarser fleece, through to creating finer garments from Merino and silk.
	Julie Pfeiffer	Julie lives in NE Victoria in a country village called Granya. It is a lazy little hollow close to the National Park and the Murray River. It is a great place to raise coloured sheep - Merinos, Corriedales and Romneys who provide great fleeces. They are more like family members than lawn mowers. Julie dabbles in spinning but her great passion is felting - mainly small items such as hats and bags. She desperately wants to develop into making tailored jackets. Her belly dancing activities have given her a passion for colours - rich purples, hazy pink, velvety greens and all sorts of blues - Landscape dyes and food colouring.
	Gay Pritchard	Gay Pritchard is well-known in North-East Victoria as a breeder and exhibitor of coloured sheep. Gay runs a flock of coloured sheep on her property in the Tallangatta Valley. She spins and knits a range of garments in natural colours.
	Liz Salmon	Liz Salmon is a spinner and the owner of a small flock of sheep. She enjoys producing yarns from her own fleeces but also works in other natural fibres. She has a passion for the colour purple and seems to be able to incorporate this colour into all aspects of her wool craft work which includes spinning, knitting, weaving and felting.
	Marion Stewart	Marion is a breeder of coloured sheep and runs a flock of coloured Corriedales at Wangandary, near Wangaratta. She produces fleeces for craft use in a wide range of natural colours. Her craft interests are spinning and weaving. She uses natural fibres in her weaving and incorporates handspun yarns in her fabrics.
	Barbara Tatterson	Barbara is a very skilled craftswoman in many fields but has a particular love of spinning. She works with natural coloured fleece and combines this with hand spun yarns dyed with natural materials to produce knitted beanies with multi-coloured patterns.
	Marree Vinnicombe	Marree Vinnicombe is an experienced breeder, exhibitor and judge of coloured sheep. She has an extensive knowledge of wool and specifically the suitability of various fleeces from various breeds for craft use. Her own flock of coloured Corriedales produces high quality fleeces in a range of colours for the craft market.
	Erin Whitford	Erin’s passion is for hand felting and her skills result in superb nuno felted articles using exotic fibres on silk. She uses combinations of alpaca, silk, possum and merino in her work. Her flair for colour and design ensure that her one-off shawls and scarves are fashion accessories.