Thursday, October 5

Full Day 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

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 Approachable Indigo Dyeing   Brooke Sinnes

Are you interested in dyeing with indigo but intimidated by the complexity of the chemistry behind it?  This class is for you!  In this day long class we will learn how to set up a natural indigo vat that can be used with either protein or cellulose fibers.  We will dye yarn, and a cotton drawstring bag during the class.  Additionally we will cover how to “tune up” your indigo vat and keep it for later use. Materials fee $45.

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Clasped Warp on a Rigid Heddle Loom   Robin Lynde

Clasped warp is a clever technique that enables a weaver to begin a warp end with one color and finish with another, placing the join anywhere along the length of the warp.The weaver chooses the location of the color changes, placing them in either a planned or freeform manner as the warp is measured. Direct warping of a rigid heddle loom lends itself beautifully to this idea. You will bring a rigid heddle loom with a 5 or 6 dpi reed  and warp it for a scarf in class using the clasped warp technique. You will learn both clasped warp and clasped weft techniques and finish the day with a unique scarf. Materials fee $30.

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Fair Isle Knitting with Steeks  Sunni Scrivner

Learn stranded Fair Isle technique and how to create and cut a steek (yes, you will cut your knitting!). Students will learn the basics of stranded colorwork including yarn dominance, tension, and carrying floats. Sunni will show you two different techniques for stabilizing your steek before you cut it. Appropriate for confident beginner knitters. Materials fee $15.

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Fiber Prep Four Play  Henry Clemes

Get a taste of four different styles of fiber preparation while working with hand carders, a blending board, a drum carder, and a lock pop. Students will learn how to use each tool and get hands-on experience with each one. Strengths and weaknesses of each tool will be discussed. Students will leave this class with the ability, experience, and confidence to select and use the right tool for any upcoming fiber prep project. Materials fee $50.

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Intro to Tapestry Weaving  Kira Dulaney

Weaving is an ancient art that is easy to learn yet has endless possibilities. We will use a simple frame loom to make an artistic wall hanging while exploring plain weave as well as rya fringe, soumak, and clasped weft weaving techniques. Materials fee: $40.

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Weaver at the Wheel   Stephenie Gaustad

Weavers who spin exercise considerable control over the "building blocks" of their fabrics: the yarns. Their source material, yarn size, amount and direction of twist and complexity of construction can come from a designers point of view, not a cost accountants. This class focuses on your fiber choices, the differences between "warp" and "weft", demonstrating how each choice presents itself in the textile and what to expect from cotton, bast, hair, filament and wool as each makes its unique signature on the finished cloth. Materials fee $15.

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Friday, October 6

Full Day 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Pacific

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Botanical Printing or Eco-Dyeing   Sharon Mansfield

This introductory botanical printing, or eco dyeing, class will teach students basic principles of printing leaves onto pure silk charmeuse scarves. Each student will leave with one scarf and a foundational understanding of how to make prints on their own at home. Materials fee $65.

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Choose Fleece Like a Pro   Henry Clemes

Henry Clemes sees over 4,000 fleece a year – but he only buys around 400 of them. In this workshop, students will learn how to quickly evaluate a fleece and make a purchasing decision. Whether at a ranch or a fiber festival, students will have the confidence and ability to know which fleece to leave and which ones to bring home, and how to select a fleece that they won’t regret when it comes time to prep and spin. Materials fee $0.

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Get the Best from your Wheel   Stephenie Gaustad

Each spinning wheel has its' "yarn range" depending on the wheel's design, dimensions,and capacity. Learn to assess your wheel, find that sweet spot, and discover adjustments that improve your "ride". This is a class in user-friendly wheel modification and mechanics. Materials fee $10.

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Rare Breeds Trek   Amy Ross Manko

Ever wanted to experience ALL the rare breeds ALL AT ONCE? This class will come close! We will start with the finer of the rare breeds and “trek” through the primitive, the medium and the longwools, while discussing their history and applications for today. We will discover new breeds we’ve not worked with before, as well as some new favorites and some fleece that is just begging to be blended with silk or camelid to make an awesome yarn. Our goal is to journey together to explore new-to-you breeds and find a few fiber ‘destinations’ you’d like to revisit! Students can spin, knit, weave, or crochet samples of different rare breeds during this workshop. Materials Fees $25.

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Spinning Braids   Jillian Moreno

How many ways are there to spin a painted braid? You are only limited by how fast you can spin and how many braids you have. This class will give you a better idea of how the braid in hand looks after it’s spun and knit. Students will explore a variety of ways to work with variegated top. You’ll start by learning about about different dye patterns and how to prepare a braid for spinning, and explore from there. Materials fee $35.

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Visible Mending   Kira Dulaney

Visible Mending is a creative way to extend the life of your clothing and household items while embellishing them for a unique look. We will cover woven patches created with a Speedweve loom, decorative embroidery to cover stains and holes, and needle felting to mend woolen items. Bring your torn and stained items to discuss options for artistically mending them. Materials fee $40.

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Weaving Tartans on a Pin Loom  Hazel Spencer

Weaving tartans on the continuous square looms is challenging but fun. We'll adapt tartan patterns to weave continuous squares on a pin loom; some are possible, others not. There is history in this, too. Archeologist have recently found a 500 year old tartan in Scottland. Even if your ancestry is not Scottish, you can find tartan patterns interesting and fashionable, and project ideas will be provided. Materials fee $15.
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Worsted to Woolen in a Day   Jacey Boggs

Are you a worsted spinner but would love to spin woolen? Are you a woolen spinner but would love to spin worsted? Or maybe your a spinner and would love to be a better spinner. This class will start with a short forward draft and end with longdraw but in between, we'll cover all the drafts and how to get more consistent and comfortable with each. If you've had trouble getting into the spin of things with any draft, this class will get you there with all of them. Big promises, I know, but promises none the less! Materials fee $60.

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Saturday, October 7

Half Day 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. Pacific

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Come Dye with Me!  Eva Szabo

Learn the basics of using acid dyes to create your own colorways.  This class will cover intro to color theory, yarn preparation, safety precautions, popular dye application methods, and proper heat setting technique.  Students can choose to dye two full skeins or four half skeins to allow more experimentation. Materials fee $40-43.

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Spinning Circles   Jacey Boggs

Boucle yarns are the ultimate impresser. They take fiber knowledge and hand dexterity, you'll develop both in this class. Using a variety of fibers (including non-wool/mohair for those that struggle with allergies), we'll build a boucle from the base up, spinning each element and figuring out the correct twist amount and direction. We'll also experiment with fiber types, loop size and frequency, It'll be a blast and you'll leave with some loopy yarn. Materials fee $30.

 

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Saturday, October 7

Full Day 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Pacific

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Beginning Basketry   Peeta Tinay

In this beginning basketry workshop students will make a small basket using over under and twining techniques using dyed round reed. All prepared weaving materials, tools to use for the day and an informative handout will be provided. Students will learn hand placement, tension on the weaving materials and the shaping of the basket during the workshop. Hand strength is required. Materials fee. $40.

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Drop Spindle Spinning   Linda Dean

The history of making yarns is a long one, but the basic approach is still the same. Learn how to use a drop spindle to create your own yarn, and in doing so learn what creates various structures of the yarn itself. Learn about fibers, drafting, twist and plying, and become more comfortable in your understanding about why some yarns are your favorites and what makes others more difficult for you to use. Materials fee $20.

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Spinning for Speed   Stephenie Gaustad

We all have the same number of hours in our work day, yet there are choices we make that can result in more yarn at the end of that day. We will discuss fibers, choice and preparation, wheel efficiency, adjustment and drafting styles. Let’s put those choices to work during the class. Materials fee $10.

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Yarnitechture - Building Exactly the Yarn You Want   Jillian Moreno

In this class, we’ll focus on making yarn that inspires you from commercially dyed roving and top. Together we’ll build your yarn from fiber braid up to a knitted swatch. We’ll start by talking about the blueprint for a yarn, the yarn vision. We’ll build your yarn’s foundations by exploring fiber breeds and preparations. The walls – they’re the different drafting and plying methods we’ll work with. Finally, the roof goes on as we manipulate variegated top and roving to get the colors you’ve chosen just the way you want them. All along the way you’ll get tips to keeping your end use in mind and your yarn consistent. Materials fee $35.

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Saturday, October 7

Half Day 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. Pacific

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Spinning Coils   Jacey Boggs

Everybody loves these mysterious little bundles of magic. We'll start with spinning a stable, rhythmic thick-and-thin as a singles yarn, then another that will become the tidiest little bundles coiled magic you've ever imagined. Experimenting with different staple lengths and coils sizes, you'll not only love the yarns you spin but the finger dexterity and fiber knowledge this type of yarn gives you. Materials fee $30.

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Make a "Vegetarian Sheepskin" Seat Pad   Siobhan Harlakenden

Learn how to use wet felting to create faux sheepskin pelts. In this class we will make seat pads but you will leave with the knowledge (and some tools) needed to create full size rugs, scarves, throws, pet beds, and anything else you might see a pelt used for. Materials fee $75.

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Sunday, October 8 

Half Day 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. Pacific

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Demystify Perfect Hats   Linda Dean

Learn all the ins and outs to knitting or crocheting a perfect hat every time. You will gain insight for all kinds of hat construction, such as top down, bottom up, vertically worked and brimmed, as well as how to resize them for any head size. Make it for a man or a preemie, the same concepts can be applied to every size. Understand how your gauge and your tape measure makes a perfectly fitting hat, tam or beanie. The possibilities are endless. Materials fee $0.

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Draft-o-Rama: Woolen and Worsted Prep and Draft   Jillian Moreno

In this class we’ll explore the mysterious and sometimes daunting world of woolen and worsted. You will learn woolen and worsted drafting techniques, how they are different, how they can be similar and what is the key factor for each one (hint: It’s not the direction you draft). You’ll learn how to set up your wheel and the right rhythm between hands and feet to make spinning woolen or worsted easy. As you practice your drafting, we’ll talk about how woolen and worsted drafts change a yarn’s characteristics and what that means to your knitting and other fiber crafts. Working with combed top as well as carded roving and other woolen preparations, you’ll learn how to make each draft work in sync with different fiber preparations, wools and blends and what type of yarn you can expect. Materials fee $25.

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Knitting Comfortably Ever After   Carson Demers

Ever known a knitter who hasn’t said, “Just one more row”? Me neither! I’ll bet they’ve also complained of aches and pains while knitting. In this class, you’ll learn how knitting effects the “fabric that makes the fabric”- your body, and see how your knitting technique impacts your efficiency and productivity. By completing a Risk of Injury assessment in class you’ll learn how nitting contributes to those aches and pains throughout your body. But more importantly, you’ll learn how to reduce them. A little knowledge and some simple changes can keep you knitting comfortably and safely ever after. Students who’ve taken this class have said that it should be “required learning for all knitters regardless of experience level!” and, “it’s as important as the knit and purl stitches!” This class is taught by a passionate knitter who is also a physical therapist. This class is not an individual knitting assessment.  Materials fee $0.

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Ladderback Jacquard   Amy Snell

Once you add this technique to your knitting toolbox, you may never want to go back to any other method of carrying floats. The ladderback jacquard technique will improve the tension of your stranded knitting while allowing you to span much larger areas between stitches. This knitting method adds stretch to the floats while preventing the alternate color from peeking through, and can be applied to nearly any form of stranded knitting. If you're interested in tweaking patterns or developing your own colorwork designs, incorporating this technique means you can design without limits on the space between alternating motifs. Materials fee $0.

 

Medieval Distaff and Spindle Spinning   Siobhan Harlakenden

Spin with an in hand spindle technique and belt distaff as they did in Medieval Europe before the spinning wheel was invented. You will learn how to dress your distaff, draft with one hand, and spin the spindle without the drop. Using a belt distaff allows you to take your spinning on the go. Materials fee $45.

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Sheep to Skein - Processing Raw Fleece for Funsies   Amy Ross Manko

Ever walk through the fleece sale at Lambtown Festival and think "this fleece is gorgeous and so cheap, I should process it myself!" only to shove it in the garage because it was a daunting task and you lost your nerve? Join us as we discuss the what, where, and how of fleece selection, and then practice scouring wool together. We will have fun discussing methods of scouring and getting confident with the process of removing lanolin without accidentally creating felt. Materials fee $20.

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Sunday, October 8 

Half Day 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. Pacific

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Beginning Crochet   Kavitha Raman

Starting at the beginning, we'll learn to do slip knot, chain stitch, single crochet, and double crochet stitches. Once we learn the stitches, we will work on a small beginner-friendly project of a headband/earwarmer. We will talk briefly about  yarn weights, pattern-reading, gauge, and your crochet goals, to help you choose future projects confidently. Materials fee $0.

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Ergonomics at Your Spinning Wheel   Carson Demers

Time seems suspended when you’re at your spinning wheel. Hours melt away but stress and strain can be accumulating in your body. Spinning shouldn’t hurt! In this class you’ll learn what ergonomic risk factors are and where they exist in spinning at a wheel. Most importantly you’ll learn what to do to minimize them and early warning signs that could prevent an injury. Safer strategies for seating, balancing your spinning work, and of course, stretches will all be taught. Materials fee $10.

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Fiber Across the Wheel   Amy Ross Manko

Based on an article written for Ply Magazine, we will explore multiple fibers of all types individually to experience how they behave ‘across the wheel’. In this class we will start in our comfy Merino box and then blast into the world of unusual fibers made by plants, animals, (and maybe even scientists!) discovering the attributes we are looking for to add some zest to our spinning and maybe even to blend with some of our favorite ‘wheelhouse’ fibers. Students are encouraged to bring blending boards and hand cards to experiment with blending fibers in the final portion of the class. Materials fee $25.

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Getting Started Two at a Time   Amy Snell

Socks, sleeves, mittens, wristers... anything you need two of, you can make two at a time. If you've struggled with second sock syndrome or petered out on the second half of a pair of anything, this class is for you. We'll practice various methods for casting on for two items, including methods suitable for top-down and toe-up socks, as well as other projects, and we'll explore different methods for yarn and needle management. Materials fee $0.

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Naturally Dyed Speckled Yarn   Brooke Sinnes

Through direct application of raw natural dyestuffs, also called eco-printing, you can create a speckled skein of yarn.  Every student will explore this fun technique by dyeing a 4 ounce skein of Cormo wool yarn in class.  We will also discuss how to mordant protein fibers during class time but the mordanting will not be done in class. Materials fee $30.

 

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Questions? Email workshops@lambtown.org

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