Individual Lessons

Introduction to Wool

• Time: 1-3 hours*
• Cost: $20-50/student

Want to learn more about natural fibers and wool? During your lesson, you will learn about plant and animal fibers and their attributes by examining their physical properties and processing those fibers from their raw form. We will examine a variety of breed samples and will discuss what we observe visually and tactilely and what attributes result from those observations. We will continue our observations and discussion while physically processing raw materials, walking through the various stages of processing wool – skirting, scouring (where we’ll talk about lanolin), picking, and carding (where we’ll talk about differences in yarn attributes that result from different methods of preparation).

Natural Dyeing

• Time: 1-3 hours*
• Cost: $50-80/student = $30-60 lesson + $20 materials fee (includes glass jars, wool and/or yarn to dye, and dye materials)

During this lesson, you will learn the basic principles of natural dyeing – including fiber dyeing attributes, pre- and post-mordanting, pH, color-shifting, and over-dyeing – as well as the importance of foraging and dyeing sustainably.

If time and location allows, we will forage for local materials. During that time, we will discuss sustainably foraging, taking only 10-20% of materials so as to minimally affect the micro-ecosystem and so as not to accidentally eliminate any populations.

We will then use both those collected dye materials as well as other materials to create solar dyeing jars. While creating the jars, we’ll discuss ratios of dye material to the materials being dyed, how and why different types of fiber/textiles dye differently, changing the pH or adding iron to shift the color of the dye, and over-dyeing darker natural materials or over-dyeing already dyed materials to achieve different colors.

Students will take their solar dye jars home where they will dry the dyed wool/yarn, rinse, and dry them again.

Basic Color Theory & Blending Fibers

• Time: 1-3 hours*
• Cost: $40-70/student = $20-50 lesson + $20 materials fee (includes wool for blending)

During this lesson, you will learn the basic principles of color theory and how best to choose colors for their purposes. We will discuss the color wheel and color harmony, focusing on inspiration from nature, analogous colors, and complementary colors. Using what they’ve learned, students will select 4-5 colors of wool, which will then be blended with a drum carder, on a hackle, or with hand carders. We will discuss the different ways wool can be prepped for spinning and how it can affect the color and other attributes of the finished yarn – rolags, roving, pencil roving, batts, nests, vertical stripping, and horizontal stripping.

*Content will vary depending on time constraints.

Beginner Drop Spinning

• Time: 1-3 hours*
• Cost: $20-70/student = $20-50 lesson + $20 materials fee (includes drop spindle and wool if you do not have them)

Learn how to spin your own yarn from natural fibers without the hassle and cost of a spinning wheel. During your lesson, we will learn the basics of spindles and wool, will draft fibers, and will practice spinning on a drop spindle to create the first half of a yarn skein. In the latter half of the class, we will learn how to complete the yarn by plying it. If you have your own spindle and/or fibers, we will spend some time learning about them.

*In an extended class, we will learn about differences between drop spindles and support spindles and look at several examples of each, discussing many of the attributes that affect the spin and why some spindles are better under certain circumstances. Examples include the differences between top- and bottom-whorl spindles, the size of whorls, spindle lengths, density of materials, and fiber types. At the end of the extended class, participants will learn about multiple plying techniques, 2-ply vs 3-ply, yarn weight, a balanced yarn, and how to finish their yarn for the best effect.