2024 Workshop Preview
Workshops will be held at the Dixon May Fairgrounds and at a nearby site in Dixon, CA
Workshop prices are $80 for half-day or $160 full-day, plus materials fee ranging from $0-75
Limited spaces are available for low income students at a 25% discount – code is given on each workshop page
Thursday, October 3rd
Full Day 9a.m. – 4:30p.m.
Naturally Dye the Rainbow with Brooke Sinnes
Curious about how to achieve a rainbow of colors using plants and bugs? In this class we will talk about mordanting, and dye yarn in a variety of colors using both raw materials and extracts. We will also do some color shifting using iron. Each participant will leave the class with a dozen colorful mini skeins of yarn.
Materials Fee: $75
Spinning on Support Spindle with Galina Khmeleva
We’ll start by learning the properties of down fibers such as cashmere and yak, then separate guard hair from the down and use unique combs to put fibers into a parallel position. We’ll spin the prepared fibers on support spindles and discuss how this technique influences knitting in the Orenburg region.
Materials Fee: $20
Visible Mending with 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
Novelty Spinning – Corespinning and Tailspinning with Sheila January
Corespinning and Tailspinning are two techniques used to create unusual and textured yarns. We’ll explore and practice both techniques and will talk about how the final products can be used in knitting or weaving. The yarns will be in the bulky-to-chunky weight range when finished.
Materials Fee: $15
Learn to Knit Brioche Flat and In the Round with Sunni Scrivner
Brioche has become an extremely popular stitch for projects like shawls, hats, cowls and even sweaters because it is squishy, bouncy and completely reversible. For many knitters Brioche stitch seems difficult and confusing,but in this workshop you will learn to knit Brioche stitch both in the round and flat. Participants will begin a 2-color brioche cowl knit in the round, and techniques for how to fix mistakes in Brioche knitting and how different designs like leaves are worked will be shown.
Materials Fee: $25
Power Spinning Masterclass with Amelia Garripoli
We learn the range of yarns our e-spinners can make and we can make with them; in the morning we explore the relation of speed, tension, and drafting to spin different yarns, and how thickness changes twist and speed needs. In the afternoon we will explore plying techniques and yarn construction, including the value of resting singles, speed plying, and the use of S-spun singles in yarn construction. Along the way we will discuss e-spinner topics of interest to the students in spinning such as fiber choice, blends, playing with color, and different flyer or quill use
Materials Fee: $10
Exploring the Drum Carder with Henry Clemes
Drum carders are a mystery to the average fiber artist: fiber is fed into the carder, ends up on the big drum, and something magical happens in between. Students begin the day by learning the history of drum carders, how they work, and why they function the way they do. The fun goes hands-on for the rest of the day as we delve into the differences of woolen and worsted carding, explore the many tools that make drum carding more efficient, and crank out four different batts. The first batt will be hand cranked before switching over to Electric Drive for the duration the day. All materials, carders, and tools will be provided by the instructor.
Materials Fee: 45
Dyeing Gradient Yarns with Terry Mattison
Design your own gradient of knitting yarn, either a range from one hue to another, or a depth of shade gradient. Students will then formulate their dye recipes and dye up to ten 60 yard mini skeins of fingering weight wool. We will be handpainting the skeins and steaming them to set the dye.
Materials Fee: $45
Drop Spindle Spinning with 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
The Shepherd’s Rug with Letty Klein
The Shepherd’s Rug is a braided wool rug or chair pad from roving. This day-long workshop is for the fiber artist with a closet full of fiber or the shepherd wishing to make something from their own wool sheep or fiber animals. The techniques use simple equipment and easy techniques. Students will learn how to braid roving, felt the braids, and sew the braids into a functional heirloom. We’ll braid in the morning, instructor will take the braids to a laundry mat over lunch, and the afternoon will be spent sewing the braids into a chair pad. The techniques learned can then be used to create beautiful rugs at home.
Materials Fee: $25
Let’s Get Fancy with Rigid Heddle Weaving with Robin Lynde
Participants will explore finger-manipulated techniques including Danish medallions, Brooks bouquet, Spanish lace, rya, leno and clasped weft . Each of these techniques has the potential for infinite creativity depending on variables of yarn choice, scale, and position. Students will weave samplers to learn the basic techniques and to whet their appetites for continued exploration. By using two colors in the warp this project becomes not only a sampler of these techniques, but of color interaction for each structure. These finger-manipulated techniques may also be used on traditional table and floor loom weaving, adding to any weaver’s repertoire.
Materials Fee: $0
Friday, October 4th
Full Day 9a.m. – 4:30p.m.
Botanical Printing or Eco-Dyeing with 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
Fundamentals of Orenburg Knitted Lace with Galina Khmeleva
This class is designed to provide knitters with an extensive overview of Orenburg-style lace knitting. Students will be introduced to the elements of lace knitting design: the ten basic elements that provide the very foundation of Orenburg lace knitting (lace patterns such as mouse print, cat’s paw, honeycomb, etc…) will serve as your guide. A unique cast-on, distinctive shaping using a modified short row method, and a grafting technique that “seams” almost magical in its simplicity and versatility will provide the necessary tools to achieving lace knitting bliss. And, as always, a class with Galina Khmeleva is an unforgettable cultural experience!
Materials Fee: $15
Intro to Tapestry Weaving with 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
Beginning Spinning – The Magic of Adding Twist with Sheila January
Here’s your chance to spend a day learning the basics of spinning on a wheel, from fiber characteristics, to how a spinning wheel works, to seeing your own first yarn on the bobbin! We’ll start by examining our wheels and ensuring that they are all tuned up for spinning success. Then we’ll spend time learning to treadle, draft fiber and adding the twist to make yarn. The basics of plying will be covered and we’ll practice as time allows.
There are many types of fiber that can be spun, and while we’ll concentrate on some of the many types of sheeps’ wool we’ll also look at what other fibers are available and popular to spin – such as alpaca, silk, cotton and mohair. This class is designed to provide a solid foundation on which you can build further spinning skills while having fun with other fiber folks in a low-stress environment.
Materials Fee: $35
Let’s Make Lace on a Pin Loom with Hazel Spencer
Weaving lace with your three-pin looms is both fun and easy. You can make your own or use any of the patterns that will be included in the class. It’s an interesting process, either way. What to do with your pretty squares is a wide field. A lace panel for your favorite summer top, a doily for your side table, a decorative edging for a baby blanket, or a project bag, or a light weight wrap for a summer evening or a wedding! The list goes on!
Materials Fee: $10
Blending Board Start to Finish with Amelia Garripoli
Blending boards have opened up a world of possibilities for interesting yarns. Let’s explore what sorts of yarns we can create with these fun tools. Texture, marl, stripe, pop — why yes, we can have it all! We will create a variety of rolags with these fun fiber prep tools in the morning, and spin our rolags to see the impact of twist on our creations in the afternoon. We will address how to spin to bring out colors and provide the yarn we want from our rolags.
Materials Fee: $12
Adventures in Drum Carding with Henry Clemes
In this class, we continue to de-mystify the drum carder. Batts will be prepared both semi-worsted and woolen. Students will learn different techniques to create an art batt, prepare batts for spinning sock yarn, and learn to add silk or bamboo into woolen batts. Students will also learn to remove fiber as rolags and as pencil-sized sliver through a diz. An ambitious goal of five batts produced during class means students will have ample carded fiber for spinning samples and small projects after class. All carding and blending will be done on Elite Series Drum Carders with each student using their own electric carder.
Materials Fee: 50
Design and Dye your own Warp with Terry Mattison
Design your own warp, first on paper and then we’ll get the dyes out and handpaint our own warps. Paint a warp that is one color, two colors, or more. Asymmetrical or symmetrical? Students will take home dyed and wrapped warps to finish curing at home. There will be discussions on color blending, theory and design ideas. Students will blend their own colors using primary color dye solutions.
Materials Fee: $35
Woolen to Worsted in a Day with Jacey Boggs Faulkner
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, but promises none the less!
Materials Fee: $60
Perfect Fleece with Letty Klein
Learn all about fleece in this presentation about the various aspects of what goes into a perfect fleece. We’ll discuss fiber types, fiber scales, fleece character, fleece development, histerotrics and curly tips. We’ll discuss feeding for fleece, how to keep fleeces clean, how to prep a fleece for show. “So you want to be a fleece judge” will include evaluating fleeces that students bring in to discuss.
Materials Fee: 0
Saturday, October 5th
Full Day 9a.m. – 4:30p.m.
Beginning Basketry with Peeta Tinay
Students will learn beginning basketry techniques by making a small basket. The basket will be made using over under weaving, twining and an interwoven basketry base. The weaving materials are prepared and dyed round reed.
Materials Fee: $40.00
Carding and Corespinning: texture with Jacey Boggs Faulkner
Carding and corespinning, there’s never been a better combination. We’ll spend the day going back and forth from drum carder to spinning wheel as we create textured batts and then corespin them into fantastic, bulky yarns. Never done either before? That’s okay, we’ll start with learning to add texture to our drumcarder (everyone will have a dedicated Clemes and Clemes crankless electric drumcarder at their disposal) and then we’ll delve deep into the world of corespinning. If you’re feeling even more adventurous, we can experiment with plying and coiling our corespun yarns too! You’ll walk of this class with some bulky, fun yarns, nimble fingers, and a better understanding of twist and yarn construction.
Materials Fee: $65
Saturday, October 5th
Morning 9a.m. – 12p.m.
Come Dye with Me with 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 will dye two skeins of yarn.
Materials Fee: $40
Knitting Comfortably Ever After – Ergonomics for Knitters with 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 knitting 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
One Way to Understand Color with Leigh Ann Parente
There are dozens of different color theories, and they all use different jargon. Hue? Value? Chroma? What?!? This workshop will cover the Munsell Color System, which applies a logical framework to a notoriously subjective subject.
Materials Fee: $0
Short Rows Toolbox with Faina Goberstein
How much do you know about short rows? A large number of modern knitting patterns use this fascinating technique to shape shawls, sweaters (back neck, rounded fronts, longer back or sides, angled cuffs, shaped collars, and more). Making different geometric shapes like wedges, circles, and waves requires knowing how to do short rows. The more you learn about them, the more you see where to apply them. Not only are short rows used for shaping, they can be involved in creating fun three-dimensional textures in one or more colors as well as artistic color work that looks like a free-hand painting. You’ll learn 4 easy ways of working short rows, how to replace a method used in the pattern with your favorite one, how to calculate the sequence of short rows, and see how they are applied for making various shapes.
Materials Fee: $0
Fresh Leaf Japanese Indigo Dye Play! with Gynna Clemes
Harvest, process and play with fresh indigo leaves! Join us as we take a look at the different ways we can dye with fresh indigo that isn’t a vat. In this introductory workshop we will: harvest indigo leaves from a live plant (that you can take home with you), prepare and tie silk scarves and cotton napkins using the shibori technique, then dye them using fresh leaf indigo ice blending and salt rubbing techniques.
Materials Fee: $75
Saturday, October 5th
Afternoon 1:30p.m. – 4:30p.m.
Naturally Dyed Speckled Yarn with Brooke Sinnes
While we can’t exactly replicate the speckled yarn look with natural dyes we can use flowers, leaves, and bugs to dye yarn with flecked with different colors to get beautifully unique skeins. Mordanting will not be done in class but it will be discussed.
Materials Fee: $30
Weave Like a Viking with Siobhan Harlakenden
Learn the technique to weave the Viking Age Vararfeldur, a pile woven cloth resembling a sheepskin that was worn as a cloak but now can be used for all sorts of wonderful adornments, decorations, and home goods. For the class we will weave a small piece that will lend itself to being made into a throw pillow or bag.
Materials Fee: 40
Will This Yarn Hurt My Hands? with Carson Demers
Creating or embellishing fabric is an exercise in energy exchange between your body and the yarn. Some yarns will help with this exchange while others are ‘energy vampires’ that require you to give your all! In this class you’ll “dissect” a variety of yarns to understand how helpful it will be in sharing the work. We’ll go far beyond what some think is obvious (cotton is “harder” to knit than wool) and dive deeply into the characteristics of plant and animal fibers, fiber, yarn structure and construction and how it relates to knitter’s hand comfort. Understanding the mechanics and construction of several fiber and yarns will help you to selecting yarns that will be comfortable for your hands and arms to work with and knowing what to do if you choose a challenging one. This class is appropriate for knitters and crocheters, and any crafter who uses yarn.
Materials Fee: 0
Upgrade Your Power Spinning with Amelia Garripoli
It’s time to upgrade your power spinning! Sure, you’re making yarn, but have you explored your e-spinner’s capabilities? See what happens when you adjust tension, speed, and spinning style! We’ll explore the impact of maintenance, twist, thickness, and even switching projects. Once we’ve tried out a few different techniques with singles, we will delve into plying with your e-spinner’s new favorite plying technique.
Materials Fee: $10
Top Down Socks with Faina Goberstein
Always wanted to make your own socks and did not know where to begin? Join us for this class and learn the basics of making socks top down. We will be talking about sock anatomy, grafting, and tips to avoid holes and tight cast on. To concentrate on a sock itself, we will use Stockinette for a main stitch pattern. There will be two other stitch patterns for a cuff and a heel that are added for functionality of a sock.
Materials Fee: $0
Mayan Backstrap Weaving with Sari Monroy Solís
Learn how to use one of the world’s most portable looms – the backstrap loom. In this class, you will learn about the history of this Indigenous loom and how to use it. You will learn to create plain-weave cloth and beginning brocade patterns. Come and learn the fundamentals of Mayan backstrap weaving and brocade design from a heritage practitioner of the art.
Materials Fee: $70
Sunday, October 6th
Full Day 9a.m. – 4:30p.m.
Carding and Spinning a Rainbow with Jacey Boggs Faulkner
Have you found yourself enamored rainbow gradient batts and yarns? Want to make your own? We’ll spend the day hopping back and forth from drum carder to spinning wheel as we stack, build, and split our colors until they build the perfect gradient for our yarns. We’ll take the fiber off the drum carders (everyone will have a dedicated Clemes and Clemes crankless electric drumcarder at their disposal) as batts, sliver, and rolags and then spin it in different ways to keep our gradients true. Exploring singles yarns, chainplying, corespinning and matching plies, we’ll create yarns that flow and fade from one color to the next.
Materials Fee: $65
Moody, Broody Natural Dyes with Brooke Sinnes
In this class we are going to explore how the use of iron can expand our color palette especially in combination with tannins. The resulting colors are often described as “sadder” – think grayed out and toned down. These moody colors are complex and lovely. Mordanting will not be done in class but will be discussed.
Materials Fee: $75
Sunday, October 6th
Morning 9a.m. – 12p.m.
Come Dye with Me with 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 will dye two skeins of yarn.
Materials Fee: $40
Punch Needle Intro with Una Walker
Learn the basics of Punch Needle Rug Hooking while completing two projects. First is a mug rug where you will learn the basic stitch gauge and the second project on linen.
Materials Fee: 40
Swatchbuckling with Carson Demers
Avast ye maties! Let’s bring improved ergonomics to life in your knitting technique. We’ll swatch to improve your posture, comfort, and efficiency. We’ll examine yarn tensioning techniques, and all phases of stitch creation first with simple then more challenging swatches and stitches. We’ll also look at ways to add movement to knitting to avoid stiffness and injuries caused by disuse. Class is appropriate for students who are comfortable with basic knit purl stitches. Swatches of basic cable and lace patterns are also made in class. Stitch patterns are provided in both charted and written formats.
Materials Fee: 0
Better Fitting Knitting with Amy Snell
What do the knitting pros know that you don’t about sweater size and fit? In this class we’ll get into the knitty-gritty of why your sweaters so often don’t fit, and provide the knowledge and tools that will allow you to make sweaters that fit every time. We’ll work step-by-step through the planning stages of sweater knitting, from yarn choice, better body measurement, and choosing the right size, to how and where to make adjustments for differences in gauge or differences in sizing and shaping. You’ll learn how to analyze the size of a pattern when it doesn’t give schematics, how different arm/shoulder constructions affect fit, and how to change just about anything that’s not working for you in a pattern.
Materials Fee: $3
Nalbinding, the Other Needle Art with Amelia Garripoli
Nalbinding makes a fabric that knots when you pull on the end – so it’s not knitting, but can look alot like it. The stitch structures build on one another in fascinating ways, resulting in more complex surface patterns as you progress in your skills. In this introduction, we will focus on the basic stitches and make a small pouch. Once completing this project, you will be ready to tackle a hat, or even that prototypical nalbinding project, a sock.
Materials Fee: $15
Knit Short Row Heels with Shadow Wrap Technique with Kavitha Raman
Heels are the most complex part to understand in the anatomy of a knitted sock. It’s a good idea to explore different types of knitted heels to find what you like for your hand-knit socks. Short row heels are surprisingly straightforward to execute and look very tidy. Their construction is symmetrical and works well for cuff-down and toe-up socks. In this class, you’ll learn to knit a short row heel using shadow-wrap short rows technique. Customization techniques for short row heels will also be discussed.
Materials Fee: $0
Sunday, October 6th
Afternoon 1:30p.m. – 4:30p.m.
Beyond the Basics of Acid Dyeing with Eva Szabo
If you enjoyed learning the basics of acid dyeing and want to take it to the next level, this is the class for you! Learn how to make repeatable colorways, create dye stock solutions, explore and understand depth of shade (DOS) and troubleshoot. We will also take a more in-depth look at color theory, play with “breaking” speckles and discuss how to shift the colors you have in order to create the colors you want.
Materials Fee: $40
Medieval Distaff and Spindle Spinning with 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
Ergonomics for Fiber Enthusiasts with Carson Demers
Do you do more with yarn than knit? This class takes inventory of the ergonomic pros and cons for a variety of fiber arts including weaving and finer needle work. You’ll learn how injuries occur and the contributions your craft makes both to their occurrence and prevention. You’ll learn to identify ergonomic risk in your craft and techniques to prevent injuries including improved posture, stretching and exercise.
Materials Fee: 0
Ladderback Jaquard for Stranded Knitting with Amy Snell
Easy, seamless, and beautiful, 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. Once you add this technique to your knitting toolbox, you may never want to go back to any other method of carrying floats.
In this class we’ll explore several different options for setting up and resolving ladders, explore best practices for placement and charting, and talk about edge cases like single-row ladders and working with three or more colors.
Materials Fee: $3
Beginning Peg Loom Weaving with Hazel Spencer
Weaving on sticks is possibly the oldest form of weaving. Peg Looms are a more sophisticated form of stick weaving, easier and faster than other forms of weaving. You can use this loom for head bands, dog leashes, ear warmers, hats, bags, hot pad, place mats, chair pads, blankets, bath mats, and throw rugs. We will learn to warp and weave by making an ear warmer. Other projects will be included in your packet. This class with be open to adults 14 years or older.
Materials Fee: $70
Beginning Crochet with Kavitha Raman
Starting at the beginning, we’ll learn to do slip knot, chain stitch, single crochet, double crochet stitches. Once we learn the stitches, we’ll 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