Workshops
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Rudy Amann
Have you recently learned how to spin and are now ready to try new challenges to increase your skills? If so, this workshop is for you. It is also a great workshop if you have several years of experience and want new ideas to revitalize your spinning. Different techniques of spinning and drafting will be practiced, plus you’ll have time to experiment with fine, medium, and long wool, and different fiber preparations. Spinning singles for use as singles and different ways of plying will also be practiced.
Skill level: Basic spinning skills and familiarity with operating a spinning wheel.
Materials fee: $30 |
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Sarah Anderson
In this workshop you will learn the new wrap-and-roll technique of spinning core yarns. It involves using a spinning wheel and a spindle to create a rolling core instead of a twisting core. With this, you can create soft, balanced core spun yarn with only one plying step. You will explore variations and uses of this yarn construction. In addition to the wrap-and-roll technique, you will also learn to spin boucle, cabled, and crepe yarns with variations in fiber and color. To better understand yarn construction, the class as a group, will create unique larger-than-life models of the yarn before you spin your own samples. Learn the confidence to go forward with an adventurous spirit and create your own novelty yarns.
Skill level: Comfortable spinning a continuous yarn, plying, and ready to explore more advanced techniques.
Materials fee: $25 |
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Nancy Bush and Judith MacKenzie McCuin
Estonia has a lace knitting tradition spanning nearly 200 years. Learn about the history, fiber and yarn, the stitch patterns, and construction of these lovely garments. This workshop will begin with a focus on spinning a fine yarn for knitting Estonian lace. You will learn what fleeces and commercially prepared fibers are suitable for spinning this particular type of yarn. Spinning will be done on the wheel, but you will be encouraged to use traditional spindles as well. In the first part of the class, learn how to spin consistently and to a given lace diameter, how to spin both a single and a two-ply, stable lace yarn. In the second part of the class, learn the techniques for knitting Estonian lace, making the main pattern with some unique stitches, and adding several styles of edges. You will have the skills to make a shawl at the end of class.
Skill level: Able to spin a continuous thread and have intermediate knitting skills.
Materials fee: $50 |
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Maggie Casey
Spider Woman taught the Navajo to spin with spindles of lightening and turquoise. Gandhi encouraged the people of India to spin every day for meditation and economic freedom. Rumplestiltskin spun straw into gold, and Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger on a spindle and fell into a deep sleep. History and fables are full of tales of spinning and its effect on the people who do it. If you have always wanted to spin, have taught yourself a little, or haven’t spun for awhile, this workshop will be just what you need to gain confidence and skill. We will start with a beautiful fleece, learn to card, spin, ply, and set the twist. Then we will spin woolen and worsted yarns, some commercially prepared fibers and discuss wheel maintenance. Spinning straw into gold may be beyond our reach, but beautiful yarn is not!
Skill level: Beginner
Materials fee: $20 |
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Sharon Costello
This workshop will introduce you to a range of effects possible with nuno, also called felt, and fabric laminations. You will be introduced to the variety of surface effects possible when varying the type of fabrics used (experimenting with silk, cotton scrim, polyester, handwoven scraps, and needle-felted yardage). You will also incorporate decorative fibers, such as silk hankies, bamboo, Tencel, and designer yarns and explore variable shrinkage methods for creating ruffles, puffs, and crepe effects in our finished fabrics.
Skill level: All levels are welcome
Materials fee: $30 |
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Abby Franquemont
Looking to gain finer control of your handspinning and the ability to tailor your yarn to various purposes? Learn to tailor handspun yarns for the specific purposes desired through a series of sampling exercises, hands-on evaluation of materials, discussion of goals, and problem-solving methods. Learn to spin to the finished object and have exactly what you want, reproducing your results every time and gaining the control to fine-tune your yarn. You’ll cover fiber selection, equipment choices, preparation options, spinning, plying, and finishing techniques for yarns for various knitting purposes, crochet, and weaving.
Skill level: Advanced beginner and up; comfortable with a spinning wheel
Materials fee: $30 |
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Vivian Høxbro
Learn how to play with color using an unusual combination of primary and secondary colors. You will mainly work with stripes, but Fair Isle, intarsia knitting, and domino knitting are other suitable patterns for this workshop. There is no single class project, but you will have fun creating sample swatches, knitting a color wheel, and finding inspiration through the unexpected fusions of color.
Skill level: Beginner
Materials fee: $20 |
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Sara Lamb
Silk knotted pile is the ultimate in luxury, both to touch and to create. Using simple tools, you will learn this ancient but basic weaving technique and create a small cut pile bag. You will spin silk for the pile, design an image, and begin weaving this sensuous project. Construction and finishing techniques, including a card woven band for a handle, will end the session.
Skill level: No prior weaving experience necessary
Materials fee: $75 |
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Deb Menz
Learn to create your own unique complex and rich multi-colored yarns through a series of demonstrations and hands-on exercises that start simple and build up to the complex. You will start with blending two colors then use the color wheel to understand how and why to choose the colors to create the blends you really want. Next, you will mix several colors together in a painterly fashion to match colors you want. Learn to use proportions, values, and saturations of colors to create the perfect new color. Color theory, as it applies to preparing fibers, will be covered as well as design considerations when creating multi-colored yarns. The final exercise will be to design and card fibers for a hat or scarf.
Skill level: Must know how to spin
Materials fee: $55 |
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Robin Russo
Explore a variety of exotic fibers including yak, camel, cashmere, qiviut, llama, alpaca, silk, mohair, and angora have an opportunity to spin each fiber, blend fibers, and create your own exotic and luxurious yarns.
Skill level: All levels are welcome, beginners too
Materials fee: $45 |
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Patsy Sue Zawistoski
Today’s spinners have an exciting variety of manufactured fibers available for spinning and creating novelty yarns. Learn the fascinating history of manufactured fibers, which started with the human quest to create fiber. Work with the newest: Black Diamond (charcoal bamboo), Silk Latte, Optim, Ingeo, bamboo rayon, soy silk, and Tencel fibers, plus the standby rayons, nylons, polyesters, and shiny Lurex/Mylar fibers. Create your own comparison chart and learn why, when, and how you might want to spin or blend these exciting fibers with a variety of textured yarn styles in this techniques class.
Skill level: Should be comfortable spinning a continuous yarn, plying, and ready to explore more advanced techniques
Materials fee: $25 |
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