FARMINGTON – During her first winter after moving to Maine three years ago from Oakland, Calif., Judy Tollefson needed some mittens. Already a knitter, mostly sweaters “because you can wear sweaters in California, you can’t wear mittens,” she remembered seeing some interesting designs in a book titled “Magnificent Mittens.”
That Christmas, almost everyone in her family got a pair of the large-cuffed mittens, each pair with its own distinct colors and patterns. She now knits to fill orders for the mittens.
“I love putting the colors and patterns together,” Tollefson said. “You start with this narrow pattern, and it expands out, and you try to see how many ways you can put the patterns with how many colors.”
She uses wool from Norway because the color palette was developed at an art school, and “all 40 colors go together,” she said.
Tollefson’s mittens and the work of other Maine fiber artist will be on display at the Maine Mountains Heritage Center in the Church Street Commons during Wool Works: Fiber Art in the Mountains of Maine from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Aug. 4-6. The exhibit is part of the Maine Fiberarts Open Studio & Farm Weekend. Maine Fiberarts has produced a map that includes 144 fiber studios, farms, galleries, shops and spinners that will be open during the open studio and farm weekend. Visit www.mainefiberarts.org or call 721-0678 for more information about the statewide event.
Also on display at the Maine Mountains Heritage Center will be the work of Mary Isham of Albany Township. A spinner and dyer for more than 10 years, she has a background as a watercolorist, which is evident in the seamless shade transitions in her hand-knit fiber art, including sweaters and altar pieces.
The exhibit will feature raw fleece and roving from Amy Grant of Good Karma Farm in Kingfield and a hand-knit sweater by artist Mary Chaisson from Good Karma yarn. A felted hat and vessel by Heather Kerner from Spiralworks in Canaan, shawls by Lorinda O’Brien of Down Home and Co. in Bridgton, hand-woven rugs by Carol Hedden of Vienna, and needle felted llamas, bears, sheep and loons by Kathy Lehto of North Anson also will be in the exhibit.
The Norlands Living History Center is providing wool-working tools, and Bartlettyarns of Harmony, the oldest continuously operating spinnery in the United States, will loan examples of machine made yarn, for a display about wool production in the Maine mountain region.
Wool Works is the product of a collaboration between Christine Macchi, director of Maine Fiberarts, and Bruce Hazard, director of Mountain Counties Heritage.
In the past, Hazard was a festival producer. Among his projects was the Maine Festival, an outdoor summer arts event.
“Christine Macchi came to us with the idea of a fiber arts tent, and it was a big hit,” Hazard said. “She and I have been collaborating ever since. It wasn’t until we had the space that we had a way to collaborate on this.”
If you are unable to see the exhibit Aug. 4-6, Wool Works will be on display in the Maine Mountains Heritage Center until October.
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