My name is Mary Berry.
It’s okay to laugh; everybody does. It’s a name that can’t help but make people happy.Nobody calls me Mary. Even my mother called me Mary Frances! Now it’s MaryBerry, all one word, all the time. That makes me smile!
A bit of personal history…
My fiber arts history did not begin until I was in my 20’s. I was the one girl in a one-girl office. Fortunately, the neighboring office included a girl who was my age and from Denmark. She taught me to knit and crochet, which explains why I knit Continental style. (Try it! It’s a fast way to knit.)By the time I was in my mid-30’s…
I was bored with knitting and decided to learn to weave. My husband and I were stationed in San Diego (USN). There was a large group of weavers in southern California, so it was pretty easy to get, and stay, involved with weavers and weaving classes. In my early 40’s, with husband now retired, I came back to Dallas and joined the Dallas Handweavers & Spinners Guild. You know what happened next, right? I had to learn to spin!Once you learn to spin…
There is only one more aspect of fiber arts to experience: raising fiber animals. In my early 50’s, we moved to Farmersville, and the Fancy Fibers Farm was born. For 12 years, we raised Shetland sheep, Angora goats, and Suri alpacas for their beautiful fleeces.
I decided to hit the road!
In my early 60's, I traveled all over the United States teaching fiber arts classes at major festivals. You or one of your friends might have taken a class from me at Rhinebeck, New York; Asheville, North Carolina; Vicksburg, Mississippi; or here closer to home at the DFW Fiber Fest in Irving, Texas.
