Nancy Ellison

Sitting Cozy

12” x 12” x 1”

Weft of hand spun wool yarn and locks of unspun fleece from gray, black, brown, and white sheep.

$125

Bio: While a home economics teacher Nancy Ellison took her first weaving class while spending a summer in Norway in 1968. She returned to Norway in 2005 with a textile tour from Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. She has also taken classes at Vesterheim taught by weavers from Norway. She has been at Ellison Sheep Farm near Zumbrota, Minnesota since 1996 and has taught spinning, weaving, and felting and sells new, used, and antique spinning wheels and looms.

Description: In 1989 I did my first shaggy weaving incorporating locks of wool from Lincoln and Karakul long wooled sheep I had in my flock at that time. In 1999 I added Icelandic sheep to my flock when they became available. In 2018 I took a class at Vesterheim taught by Marta Klove Juuhl from Norway in weaving the Icelandic varafell technique which has been done in Iceland for hundreds of years to make capes with locks of wool to shed rain and snow for shepherds to wear in all kinds of weather. I had previously taken a coverlet class from her. I made my own warp weighted loom from small trees out in my pasture which I used in both classes. I enjoy selecting wool from sheep in my flock. The shaggy weave has the look and feel of a sheep skin, except the sheep gets to live to grow more wool to be sheared year after year.

http://www.ellisonsheepfarm.com