July Classes

Hand dyed nylon yarns

I'll be teaching two classes on Saturday, July 16 at White Violet Center at St. Mary of the Woods, Indiana.  [Just west of Terre Haute]

These are some of my favorite classes of the year.  Great place, great people, great fun.   I hope you can come!   Register at the link above. 

From their website:
9 a.m.- 12 p.m.: Color Basics and Harmonies.
1 p.m. – 5 p.m.: Dyeing Animal and Protein Fibers

Color Basics and Harmonies:
Take the mystery out of putting colors together. Learn how to combine colors in beautiful ways from a master colorist. Topics will include basic color theory, using color tools, wheels and books, classic color combinations, etc. Spend time making your own color notebooks. Expect to get a lot of practice putting colors together and using your new skills. This class is indispensable for anyone who works with color–artists, quilters, knitters/crocheters, sewers, interior designers, even gardeners!

Dyeing Animal and Protein Fibers:
Explore the use of acid dyes to turn your stash of ‘boring’ protein yarns and fibers into designer yarns and fibers that you will be excited to knit, weave or spin. Using safe and mild acid dyes, students will learn how to put several colors onto a skein to make variegated yarns. Students may bring their own wool, mohair, alpaca, soy silk, or silk fibers and yarns to work with. White or light colors work best
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June Color and Dyeing Classes

There is still time to sign up for a class with me this month.

Saturday, June 27, 2015
9am - 5pm
Includes lunch!
White Violet Center
St. Mary of the Woods, Indiana
[just west of Terre Haute]

Morning:   Color Harmonies
Afternoon:  Dyeing protein/animal fibers

You can register for one or both classes here:  http://spsmw.org/event-details/color-basics-and-harmoniesdyeing-animal-and-protein-fibers/

These are some of the most fun classes I teach all year!  In the morning we do a review of basic color theory, then talk about common color harmonies and learn about using color tools and then we start our own color notebooks!   It's a great time - full of laughter, learning and friendship.

In the afternoon, I take you step by step through the dyeing process so that you can learn to dye your own fibers at home.   We focus on protein/animal fibers in this class, using safe and easy-to-use acid dyes.    It's a great time and you'll go home with an armload of your own hand dyed yarns for projects. 

Details and registration information at the White Violet website here: http://spsmw.org/event-details/color-basics-and-harmoniesdyeing-animal-and-protein-fibers/

Come for one class or come for all day!  I hope to see you there!

White Violets

This was a good year for violets.   They bloom at slightly different times.  The weather was perfect for the white ones in the woods down the way this year.

White Violets

This is the time of year for the white violets. 

They bloom after the blue ones.  They're a bit taller, a bit free-er in form, a bit easier to see in the gloom of the woods.   They come on at the same time the trees leaf out in the spring.  

We have several places where they've formed large loose colonies over the floor of the woods where it occasionally floods.  

Tiny White Violets

Way back in our squishy meadow, I found a little colony of this teeny tiny white violet.  I tried to find out more about it but couldn't find a thing online.

Notice the little beard on the two side petals.  Notice the lanceolate leaves - more like a johnny jump up than a true violet. 

 It's tiny - 3/16th of an inch at the most.


If anyone knows what the specific species is, shout it out in the comments.

Class: Spinning 201, Intermediate Spinning

Look at those beautiful hands spinning that beautiful yarn.    I love watching people spin. 

I'll be teaching Spinning 201 - Intermediate Spinning  at White Violet Center, St. Mary of the Woods College just outside Terre Haute, Indiana on Saturday, March 2nd.    9 am - 5 pm.   $110.

This class is for people who have already learned to spin.   It's OK if you're a bit rusty.   We'll be reviewing whatever skills you need, then we'll do some plying [2 ply, 3 ply and Navajo plying]  and then hit a bunch of new fibers for you to practice on. 

You can bring your own wheel and your own fibers if you like.   There are wheels available at White Violet if you don't have your own.   

Check out the link above for details.    Email me with questions about what we'll be doing.  Email White Violet Center with questions about registration, etc.    I hope to see you there!

Learning to Spin

Spinning looks effortless.

Quiet, steady treadling.  Even, regular pulling.

Twisting, drafting, twisting, drafting.

It's mesmerising and very very calming.

It looks so easy.

And it is.  Unless you've never spun before.   Then it's not easy, it's a lot of other things.

Like frustrating.   And terrifying.   And frustrating.  And difficult.   And frustrating.

It's really frustrating.

This is what you have to do to spin yarn:  with your hands, draft only as much fiber as you want for your yarn,  let it twist exactly as much as you want,  let the yarn go onto the bobbin without breaking the yarn,  draft quickly enough that the yarn isn't getting overspun before it goes onto the bobbin.  And while you're figuring that out, you have to treadle with your feet at exactly the speed you need for your yarn.

At the Fiber Frolic at White Violet Center at St. Mary of the Woods College [near Terre Haute],  four brave women gathered for three days to learn how to spin.    Three of them had a little experience with a wheel or spindle.  One had never tried to spin at all.   I was their teacher.

There are several stages that one goes through when learning to spin.   Most people come to the wheel thinking that it can't be too hard.   Spinning looks easy.   

Five minutes at the wheel sends them straight to the 'Why did I think this was a good idea??' stage.   This stage lasts for many hours of practice.    A lot of people quit during this stage.   My experience is that the only people who never 'get it' are the people who quit during this stage.

Anyone who is willing to stick to it long enough to get to the other side of the 'Oh, crap' stage, is going to learn to spin. 

This is when I remind people that no one sits down at a piano for the first time and plays a sonata.   It takes time to learn the instrument.   It takes patience and practice.


The next stage is the Aha!  stage.     After fighting the wheel, the treadle and the roving for what seems like years, and after having to wind yards and yards of overtwisted rope onto the bobbin by hand, suddenly the new spinner drafts only a small bunch of fibers and makes a finer yarn.   Fine yarn takes a lot of twist and when you spin fine yarn, everything slows down.   With fine yarn, you have time to think and draft and treadle and let it go on to the bobbin.     Fine yarn is your friend.
   

The first Aha! moment lasts approximately a nanosecond, but I promise you that there will be more Aha! moments.   And sooner than you believe, the Aha! moments will be coming closer together.   And then, you'll have an Aha!  that lasts a whole 5 minutes.


At which time, the spinner catches a glimpse of the 'Oh, this is what I do when I go like this' stage.  It takes a few more hours of practice to fully achieve the 'Oh, this is what I do when I go like this' stage, but only a few.


It's important to take a lot of breaks when you're learning to spin.    Just standing up and getting away from the wheel can help.   Often beginning spinners say that they had a very hard time at first, but after taking a long break of a few days or weeks, they can sit down and everything clicks.   They are able to make great strides in finessing their skill.  

Our spinning newbie was one of the most patient and even tempered new spinners that I have ever seen.    She persevered and by the end of the retreat, she had this beautiful skein of plied yarn to show for it.


Congratulations to all of my new spinners!

Spinning

This is my spinning wheel.   I love it.

It's an Ashford Traveller, double drive, single treadle.  

I bought this wheel in 1990.  We finished it with tung oil and I love the glow. 

I bought a sterling silver orifice hook for it a few years ago.   You can just see it hanging from the tension knob by a blue ribbon. That orifice hook makes me happy.






 I've spun some nice yarn on this wheel. 

This weekend I'm teaching a spinning class at White Violet Center at St. Mary of the Woods College, just outside Terre Haute, Indiana.     The girls and I are headed up there this afternoon.   It's one of our favorite places to be.