News Photos by Darby Hinkley Gretchen Diffin turns shorn, washed wool roving into yarn on a spinning wheel.

ALPENA — When you look at a sheep, what do you see? These women see a world of opportunity.

From the moment the lamb is born, to the day the sheep is shorn, the animal produces joy in woolen form.

That wool is taken to be washed and sometimes dyed, then the fun begins. It’s time to make yarn!

Last month at the Alpena County Fair, a group of women of all ages enjoyed spinning wool into yarn on good old-fashioned wooden spinning wheels.

They talked about why they do it, and they expressed excitement about the upcoming festival next weekend.

Mary Centala holds up shorn, unwashed wool that will eventually be turned into yarn on a spinning wheel.

The Northern Michigan Fiber Festival is coming to Alpena on Saturday, Sept. 24 and Sunday, Sept. 25 at the APlex, 701 Woodward Ave. The festival will feature free admission, over 50 vendors, shopping, classes, workshops, demonstrations, door prizes, an activity booth, and more. It will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sept. 24 and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sept. 25.

Gretchen Diffin, of Posen, is the president of the Northern Michigan Fiber Festival. She raises her own sheep, then makes yarn, then knits warm hats, scarves, socks, blankets, and more.

“I’m spinning yarn from my sheep that I raise,” Diffin said. “We have an 80-acre farm, and I have about 35 sheep, and a llama. We’ve had sheep for 30-plus years, and I’ve been spinning that long.”

She said you get about 8 to 12 pounds of raw wool from one sheep. She then takes it down to Zeilinger’s in Frankenmuth, and they clean it and it is processed into what is called roving.

“It gets all the vegetation and dirt out of it, so it’s very clean to spin,” Diffin explained. “It’s 100 percent wool.”

Pegg Thomas does what she loves ­— spinning yarns. The fiber fanatic is also an award-winning Christian author.

She will have a booth at the fiber festival.

“I’ve probably been selling either raw wool or knitted items for 25 years or better,” she said.

She’s doing what she loves.

“I love it all,” Diffin said. “I love raising the sheep, I love having the babies. I love when the sheerer comes … I like the whole process. I like the dying, the spinning, and then the knitting. It’s all a good journey.”

Nicole Shubert takes a short break from spinning to talk about why she enjoys the craft.

“It’s so peaceful,” Centala said. “You talk to these people who are so high-strung and it’s like, ‘You need to be spinning.’ And to sit and watch the sheep in the pasture. That grounds me. It gives me peace.”

Centala is the secretary on the board for the fiber festival. The board consists of four women: Diffin, Centala, Treasurer Jane Fortner, and Tech Guru Elizabeth Grabow.

Centala likes taking things from funky to functional.

“I think it’s so cool to take something from an animal that smells and make it into something that’s functional,” she said. “So, to me, this is functional art.”

At the county fair under the same tent, Pegg Thomas was spinning yarn on an antique wooden spinning wheel. Thomas, of Ossineke, is also an award-winning Christian author, so she surely enjoys spinning yarns.

Above, Mary Centala shows Danielle Jirasek how to hold and pinch the wool roving to make yarn using a wooden spinning wheel.

“I am a spinner of yarns,” Thomas said. “And I refurbish antique spinning wheels. The wheel I’m spinning on today is circa about 1830, so she’s pushing 200 years old. It’s made out of quarter-sawn oak. She’s as sturdy as it comes … beautiful craftsmanship.”

Nicole Shubert, of Ossineke, started spinning about a year-and-a-half ago.

“I began with knitting and crocheting,” Shubert said. “And then we became interested in raising our own sheep and I wanted to utilize everything from the animal, so I wanted to learn how to process and use the wool for my projects.”

She was spinning some roving she bought at last year’s fiber festival in West Branch.

“I’m very excited and looking forward to it,” Shubert said of next weekend’s festival. “I think it’s a great thing for Alpena.”

Joyce Rottmann weaves a guitar strap using a tablet weaving loom.

She said the festival will have raw fiber, processed fiber such as roving and yarn, fiber tools like knitting needles and all the notions to do the projects, as well as finished products such as hats, scarves, mittens, socks, sweaters, felted and knitted toys, and more.

“There will be lots of awesome gift options for Christmas shopping, too,” Shubert said.

Wearing a shirt that says “I knit, therefore I swear,” Joyce Rottmann was using a tablet loom to weave a guitar strap under the tent at the fair.

“This form of weaving has been in existence since the third century B.C.,” Rottmann said. “It’s called card weaving or tablet weaving.”

She’s been weaving for about eight years. It takes her two days to complete a guitar strap, “if it behaves.”

She finds peace in weaving.

“It relaxes me,” she said. “And I create.”

Rottmann, of Tawas, will be at the fiber festival selling homemade soap.

“I’m a busy lady,” she said. “And I have fun.”

For more about the Northern Michigan Fiber Festival, visit fiberfestival.net or email nmfiberfestival@yahoo.com.

Gretchen Diffin shows what the wool roving looks like before she spins it into yarn with a spinning wheel.

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