Saturday, April 6, 2024 | Country Acres South • Page 1 PRSRT STD ECR U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT #278 Madelia, MN 522 Sinclair Lewis Ave Sauk Centre MN 56378
SOUTH Saturday, April 6, 2024
Focusing on Today’s Rural Environment
Volume 2, Edition 20
Fiber
artistry PHOTOS BY AMY KYLLO
Nancy Ellison spins Feb. 23 at Ellison Sheep Farm near Zumbrota. Ellison does spinning, weaving and felting.
through cross breeding. spinning, weaving and more. Ellison uses wool from flock for her craft breedsEllison works sheep into the design “Anything I teach somebody can viduals that are (your) pets.” Ellison’s flock of sheep support her ZUMBROTA — On a farmstead extensive fiber art work. She does spinning, weaving and felting. Much of her near Zumbrota lives a fiber artisan medium comes from her own flock. who is surrounded by the animals “To me, it’d be boring to not do which provide her with their natural it,” Ellison said. “I like doing things by bounty. Nancy Ellison owns Ellison Sheep hand.” The artist’s sheep are a mix of ShetFarm, where she cares for 50 chickens, land, Icelandic four goats and her collection of 12 and Gotland, sheep. plus “They can be like your cats other and dogs,” Ellison said. “IndiBY AMY KYLLO | STAFF WRITER
of many of her pieces. She is skilled at Scandinavian weaving techniques, some of which, she said, are complicated. “There are so many kinds of weaving you can do that you can weave all your life and never explore all the possibilities,” Ellison said. “If I had to do a whole lot of one thing, I would be bored and wouldn’t want to do it. I like always learning something new.” Ellison taught many classes around the area in the past. “I’ve met lots of interesting people through the years,” Ellison said. “That’s been fun.” In the last few years, she has stopped teaching classes, but she does teach occasional individuals. She hosts visitors at the farm a couple times a month by appointment for those who are interested in learning about sheep, Sheep stand in their pen Feb. 23 at Ellison Sheep Farm near Zumbrota. Nancy Ellison’s sheep are a mix of Shetland, Icelandic and Gotland, plus other breeds through cross breeding.
ST R
Publications bli ti The newspaper of today is the history of tomorrow.
live on, especially (if I) teach a younger person,” Ellison said. Ellison does most of her fiber art work inside her home, but she also has converted part of the bottom story of the old dairy barn on her property into a space she can work or host visitors. The other side of the barn houses goats. In the arts area, the space has been painted white, and the gutters have been filled in with cement. A lone stanchion, which is partially hidden, stands as a testament to its earlier use. The area is inviting, with a table and chairs, a place to heat hot water for tea, woven wall hangings hung up here and there, a small stained-glass gracing the back wall, and a bank of spinning wheels as well as different sizes of looms, some of which Ellison uses. Ellison is a dealer of spinning wheels and looms and keeps her stock in various places on her farmstead. Recentaly, Ellison made a shawl out of gray, black, brown and white wool she has saved from favorite sheep. “I don’t plan too far,” Ellison said. “I just (do stuff) sometimes on the whim of the spur of the moment to get a new idea and get interested in doing it.”
Ellison page 2
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