Annikki Marttila - Finnish weaving

Master: Annikki Marttila, Frederick
Apprentice: Kelly Knispel, Groton
Art Form: Finnish weaving

Annikki Marttila is well known in Aberdeen and surrounding communities for her skill as a weaver and knitter, arts she learned as a child growing up in Finland. She is a generous teacher and an active member of the Prairie Fiber Arts Guild, which is where she met Kelly Knispel of Groton. Kelly and her mother raise sheep for wool and have a fiber arts shop in Groton, and she had done some weaving on a small table loom, but never on a large floor loom. Kelly worked with Annikki to learn how to read a weaving draft, or pattern; warp the loom in her shop; weave poppana, a Finnish style using bias-cut strips of fabric; and make a rag rug on one of Annikki’s looms at her studio in Frederick.

Kelly Knispel’s loom in her shop in Groton, with a weaving in progress.

Kelly Knispel and her mother own a weaving, spinning and yarn shop in Groton, featuring the wool of their own sheep.