Karen was raised on a farm in Mt. Gilead, Ohio and grew up tending animals and learning domestic skills from her parents. She always had a love for music, and her mother very ably guided her through many years of piano lessons until she finally mastered the craft. She also taught Karen to love fiber crafts, and had her designing clothes for her dolls when she was quite young.

After graduation from high school, Karen trained as a teacher and then specifically as a Suzuki Piano teacher, and has spent the last 30+ years teaching budding pianists the tricks of the trade. She has also spent some classroom time in a private Christian school teaching art, music, drama and Bible. Every year her art students learned how to process wool and make it into felt! They also learned to weave.

Karen's parents purchased a small flock of Icelandic sheep from Susan Mongold of Tongue River Farm in 1996, and they have had lots of fun learning how this marvelous fiber can be processed. Karen's mother, Eadie, is quite the fiber artist - turning the wool into wonderful hooked roving rugs, lovely needle felted pictures, exquisite ornaments and pin cushions, etc.

After a trip to Prince Edward Island for a vacation in June of 2003, Karen and her husband "stumbled" on The International Spinners/Mini Mills and took a tour of their facility. They were so impressed with the quality of the processing that they investigated the possibility of beginning a new business specializing in the processing of Icelandic sheep wool and Alpaca. Karen is in charge of running the mill and scheduling fleeces for processing.

Ed Christensen - Mill Operator

Ed is Karen's father-in-law, and an energetic member of this three-generation business. Born and raised in South Dakota's farm country, Ed still leads a very active lifestyle though in his late 80's. He loves gardening and the surrounding Amish country which highlights the horse-drawn farming methods of his childhood.

"J.C." Christensen - Mill Operator

"J.C." (Jerry Christensen) is the latest addition and youngest generation at Morning Star Fiber. He graduated from Toledo University where he attended under a full ride Division I football scholarship for the Toledo Rockets. He, his wife, and five children live in a home that borders the mill property. Most of his career has been in some form or another of full-time ministry as well as some assistant football coaching at the high school level. Presently, he is finishing his seminary degree at Master's Seminary, and training to be an alpaca fiber shearer. His education and abilities as a leader has already precipitated increased throughput at the mill as well as improved efficiency.

Jerry Christensen - Webmaster

Jerry Christensen (the husband of Karen, son of Ed, and father of "JC") helps in his "off" hours working on the website, keeping the computers and network going, and other odd jobs. He works full-time at The Akron Brass Company as Sr. Electrical Engineer.

Ed, Karen, and J.C.