Classes
Our classes are scheduled on an as needed basis, including private handspinning. Just call or e mail us and request the class you want, with time and day preferences. All classes are $35 and include all equipment and materials. All classes except handspinning are 2 hours long.
KNITTING/CROCHET:
Beginning, ongoing: This is a one time fee/forever service situation. Learn to knit or crochet, read a pattern, complete a hat, and prepare yourself for other projects. Contact me any time with any questions or problems.
Moebius Strip Basket Knitting: Learn to knit the impossible, and create something useful and beautiful at the same time. Amaze people with your impossible seeming basket.
Sock Workshop: It's all about warm feet and durable stockings. Take the fear and mystery out of turning a sock heel. Ongoing support.
Mosaic Knitting: A combination of techniques allowing infinite, and intricate variations on color work without the long back stranding that sometimes occurs. Truly impressive and beautiful without being complicated. Learn to create your own charts.
Lace Knitting: Turn a mundane project into a work of art with just a few simple lace techniques. Learn to read lace charts.
SPINNING CLASSES
Handspinning class, beginning and intermediate All equipment and materials are provided.
Designer Yarn Spinning: Go way beyond the basics, learn to use inclusions, to create designer boucle and crepe yarns, incorporate beads & feathers, core spin, and many other wild and wonderful things. It's all about texture!
Yarn Plying: Yes, there are enough tricks and techniques in just plying yarn together to fill an entire 2 hour class session. This class is essential toward creating that perfect yarn for your dream socks, sweater, or tapestry. You do not need to know how to spin, in order to learn to ply!
FIBER PREPARATION CLASSES
Basic Fiber Prep: This includes all fibers, with some focus on wool. Learn how to pick out raw fiber, how to clean it, how to prepare it for spinning or lock weaving. This is a hands-on dirty class, wear old clothing.
Silk Techniques: Go beyond the basics with all forms of silk, from cocoons to caps and hankies, learn the specialized techniques for creating luxurious silk yarns.
Carding Techniques: It's all about color play and texture. This class will reveal the secrets to obtaining the particular color combinations you need, how to create self patterning yarns and felted scarves, This will also help you when you purchase dyed fibers to predict what they'll do when spun.
Blending Luxury Fibers: Tiptoe through the exotic world of camel down, yak down, silks, mohair, and others, learn to showcase the fiber you want to feature in your carded batts. Don't lose an expensive fiber by incorrect mixing!
DYEING:
Color Workshop: This class is NOT fiber related. The information given will help you choose your clothing, decorate your home, plan your flower garden, and really understand why you don't like something when you first see it. You'll go home with simple gadgets and tools to create harmonious color wherever you are.
Crockpot Basics: Start your own Toxic Crock, learn the basics of space dyeing, strip dyeing, tie dyeing, immersion painting, and why blue and yellow dye don't make green.
Hand Painting: This technique can be used on yarns, roving, batts, quilt fabric, silk scarves, you name it. We'll disclose all the little secrets and induct you into the specialized group of those who can really handle their dyes.
Natural Dyeing: Learn how your ancestors created colors from what grew around their dwellings. If the weather is good, we'll take a walk and gather dye materials in the woods. Wear old clothes.
Non Toxic Dyeing: This is a class all in itself. Learn to use common kitchen ingredients to obtain nice colors, how to stay safe while dyeing with children, and why this class is so important for pets.
Shibori Technique: This wonderful Japanese technique can be used for big bold expression with color, or the most intricate designs. Learn how to use it for rovings, batts, yarns, fabric, and more.
Space Dyeing: This class focuses on roving and yarns, but can also teach valuable techniques for fabrics. Create beautiful self patterning yarns using space dyed roving, and also space dye yarns for more control. Get to know your dyes.
Dip Dyeing: Sounds easy, doesn't it? Well, as with all things, there are tricks to it. This class is excellent for rovings, batts, yarns, and fabrics.
Ice Dyeing: Good clean American fun! Great for hot summer days. Completely random and unpredictable. Technique is suitable for woven fabric, roving, yarns, etc.
FELTING:
Fish Felting: By far our most popular class. Learn wet AND dry (needle) felting techniques all in one class, create a cartoony or real-to-life aquatic creature. The best beginning felting class.
Cobweb Scarf: A wet felting technique using our fabulous handpainted merino/silk rovings. Create a work of art that weighs 1 oz and is durable enough to pull a truck.
Jewelry: Create beautiful beads, felt around found objects, showcase that perfect agate, make jewelry without weight!
Nuno: A Japanese technique that uses wool or other fine mammal fibers to shrink and pucker silk fabric in a controlled way. Create a beautiful scarf in your favorite colors.
Advanced Nuno/Reverse Nuno: This is a 4 to 6 hour class, and due to the amount of silk fabric used, the fee is $50. This is amazing, beautiful, stunning, and surprisingly durable when finished. Create an incredible stained glass scarf.
Small Animals: This is the cuteness class. Create small to medium 3 dimensional animals (your choice) using a dry (needle) felting technique.
Soap Bars: Learn to make your soap last twice as long. When you cover a bar of soap in a layer of soft wool felt, the wool acts as a natural exfoliant to your skin, and when you're done using it, the wool wicks the water down and away from the bar, making it last a long, long time. These make excellent gifts to friends and family.
Vest in 20 Minutes: Fee for this class is $85, we provide two yards of sheet felt to create the vest. If you register for this class several days in advance, you can request color combinations of your choice.
Watercolor Felting: Our single most popular class. This combines dry (needle) felting techniques with a bit of wet felting, to create flat art masterpieces for your walls, to embellish rugs, to decorate woolen clothing or scarves. Caution: this is addicting.
Basic Needle Felting: Caution, this is highly addictive. Learn to use a felting needle in a variety of ways, both flat and 3 dimensional, to create ornamental and practical things for your home, or as gifts. You'll go home with your project, a felting needle pad, and a felting needle for further projects.
Cashmere (Down Fiber) Felting: wet and dry techniques for felting the fine down from the Cashmere goat. Can also be applied to Quiviuk (Musk Ox down) Camel Down, Yak down, Angora, or domestic dog/cat fur.
MISCELLANEOUS
Sheep/Goat/Alpaca/Rabbit Nutrition: It's not all the same for any animal you can coerce into eating hay. And according to your regional minerals, it can get tricky getting micronutrients in adequate amounts into your fiber animals.
Fiber Animal Selection and Management: In any breed of animal, there are good ones and bad ones. The bad ones are usually the ones for sale. Learn how to pick out the best of the bad, and how to sweet talk the sellers into letting you purchase a really good one.
Soap Making: Make a basic batch of soap, and go home with several bars for yourself. Three to Four hour class, wear old clothing.
Cheese Making: Materials NOT provided for this class. Call or e mail us for the requirements sheet. Learn to make delicious homemade cheeses, soft, cottage, cream, cheddar, and more. Go home with a fresh cheese.
Leather Working: Basics to fancy. Learn how to select, cut, shave, sew, embellish, stain, seal, and tool leather.
Leather Making: Learn the basics of tanning, from skinning to finished product.