What are we covering in the spinning classes?

I got a request about what we will be doing in the week-long spinning classes in Brookfield, Conn. and Farmington, PA. First, let me say that Brookfield is an hour from Manhattan, so if you are planning on taking that class, you should plan on making an evening 'run' into the city one or two nights, and Farmington, which is near Pittsburg, is very rural, and it is a residential craft center, so we will have a wonderful bonding experience.
Day 1: We will begin drafting, and learn the mechanics of spinning, we will dye some wool for use later in the week, and we will do some hand carding. Students will spin a bobbin or two of singles.
Day 2: We will learn to ply our singles together, and navajo ply, we will continue our dyeing. Students will learn to clean wool, and set twist. Student should produce a couple of skeins of yarn today
Day 3: We will use the drum carder, and will do some blending on the drum. We will learn to use inclusions in our spinning, and will produce a skein or two of yarn. Some students will continue to navajo ply.
Day 4: We will learn to use combs, continue drum carding, and spinning. Students will learn to spin boucle, and will spin a skein or two of boucle yarn, unless they are still having sooo much fun navajo plying that they are committed to just that.
Day 5: Students desiring to drop spindle will learn that, others will 'blend in the draft', spin from the lock, and dye yarns.

Hope that helps. The class is great for beginners, as well as intermediate spinners.
Please e-mail me with questions.
Ciao!
Cherri

Residential Arts Centers and Spinning

This is just a plug for my out of state classes. I have a fun week coming up in Farmington, PA at Touchstone Center for Crafts. Here is a link to the website:
http://www.touchstonecrafts.com
If you think spinning looks peaceful, and want to jump in and find out for yourself, please join us in this class. We will explore wool, learn to draft it, spin it and ply it. Oh, did I mention that we will also dye some of it! Spinning wheels are provided and no experience is necessary! Just come with a desire to learn and an openess to enjoy one another in this class.

It's time for you to finally get away, and send yourself to Summer Camp;0)
We will thoroughly enjoy the solitude of this wonderful, creative retreat.
If you have questions, please e-mail me at tallitweaver@gmail.com
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Cherri

Learn to weave in a weekend class

Some of you have been looking for a quick opportunity to try weaving. The Visual Art Center of Richmond is offering that opportunity. On January 25, I will be teaching a weaving intensive at the Visual Art Center of Richmond. You have the opportunity to completely immerse yourself in 3 days of weaving. Friday night, we will work from 6:30 - 9:00 pm measuring out our yarn to put on the loom. On Saturday morning, from 10-12:30, we will wind the yarn onto the loom, and pull the threads through the heddles. In the afternoon, we will finish pulling through heddles, and sley the reed, tie onto the loom and begin weaving these beautiful mohair shawls which we will finish on Sunday afternoon.
I have openings in this class, if you would like to join us. It's a wonderful refresher course for you if you just haven't woven in a while. If you are new to weaving, and want yet another opportunity to set up and weave under the instruction of a teacher before working on your own at home, or you just want to know if weaving is something you might want to pursue deeper, this is a good opportunity for you.
The class is designed for mohair shawls because they weave up quickly. I hope to see you there.
If you are not local, there are many lodging opportunities in the area. We are very close to VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University), and the thriving heart of Richmond, Virginia. Come join the fun and be a part of a vital weaving community.
Cherri

My bizarre tapestry

Ok, here are 2 pics of the odd little tapestry I did this week. I wanted to do some pattern weaving in a tapestry type piece, and wanted some rya knots in it also. So here is the strange little piece I did. Yech!
I'm still working on the new tapestry loom that I hope to have saleable in a few weeks....4-6. After talking to Sue and Stu I'm thinking is should weave at least 24 inches, and maybe should have some sort of reed-like divise. Hmmm, it's still a work in progress.
Please click on the pictures and you can see much more detail.
Cherri

Spinning and weaving in Richmond,va

I have been advertising my spinning and weaving classes on several online venues, trying to boost enrollment at the Visual Art Center of Richmond. We have pretty good response to the "learn to weave in a weekend", but are still waiting for enrollment to increase for the regular and ongoing weaving class. It meets on Thursday nights, right here in Richmond, VA. We meet from 6:30 - 9:00. I have room for 8 students. I think I'm offering 4 or 5 sessions of it this spring, so you could actually learn a great deal just this spring alone. You don't have to have your own loom. Floor looms are provided by the art center. There is also plenty of open studio time, so you can come in outside of class and do various steps outside of class, so you can maximize your instructional time. No previous experience is necessary. If you can't make it, you can e-mail me, as I frequently have openings at one of my own studios for private lessons, or in one of my studio classes (Wed. nights, or Sunday afternoons).
I sell looms, spinning wheels, fiber for spinning, and yarn for your projects in class. If you are looking for someone to do loom repair, or spinning wheel repair, I do that and sell parts.
The looms I carry are Louet, Leclerc, and whatever used Looms I might have for sale at any given time. Currently, I have a 12 harness mechanical dobby loom by AVL that is for sale. You can e-mail me about that if you are interested. I also have a horizontal warping mill/reel for sale. It's a floor model, but folded up, it fits behind a door.

spaces available in Thurs. night weaving class

We have a weaving class starting Thurs. night at the Visual Art Center of Richmond. We meet from 6:30 - 9:00 pm and there are openings! Please join us for this 4 week session. In that time, you can learn to dress a loom, and weave off a project. We work on 8 harness Leclerc floor looms. There is a mix of new weavers (never woven before) and returning weavers, so no matter what your experience level, you will feel right at home.
Come join us.
804.353.0094
Thanks!

More on Summer Events and Activities

In addiiton to the June Summer Sewing Class, I have been working on several tallit commissions. One is a handspun, handwoven superwash merino tallit, and the other is a honey colored tencel tallit with very victorian colors. Here is a pic of one of the tallit warps. Our son, the marine, and his buddies have been home many weekends, and I've been teaching at Bay School of the Arts. We are working on expanding their fiber program to include regular weaving classes, and to really promote my fiber classes there. Let's see If I can post a couple of pics of our first weaving class down there. We had a two day 'Beginning Weaving" class this past week, using rigid heddle looms. In that process, I discovered that 75% of the class had their own looms, and they wanted something ongoing. Another 'regular' at the center came in, and said that he is interested in a weaving class also. So it looks like we may be off to a fair start.

Life Buzzes by

Oh my, I haven't written in a month! Things have been busy. Here are some pictures of a sewing class I did in my Roseneath studio. It was a kids summer class, and we will be doing it again.