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Fall is the Season For Fiber Festivals

Last week I was up visiting my parents and sharing Little Turtle with the family.  We had a couple of days that were like the fall of my childhood: cool mornings warming up to afternoons just this side of too warm.  Days where you want your sweater in the morning and shorts in the afternoon.  It was perfect – getting me in the mood for Fall and one of my favorite fall activities: Fiber Festivals!

SVFFThis weekend I’ll be at the Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival.  I’ll be teaching two classes: Helix Knitting and Duct Tape Dress Forms.  Registration is open until the day of.  I love teaching at SVFF.  It’s an intimate venue run by a great group of volunteers, and I have such a good time.  Catch me on Friday or lunchtime on Saturday.  And keep an eye out – Mr. Turtle and Little Turtle will be wandering the event while I teach!

Yarn Properties: the Low-Down on Plies, Twist, and Fiber

Yarn Properties: the Low-Down on Plies, Twist, and Fiber

The following weekend I’ll be teaching at Fall Fiber Festival & Montpelier Sheep Dog Trials at James Madison’s Montpelier.  Last year I couldn’t teach at the venue because I was attending a wedding, but this year I’ll be back, teaching Yarns 101.  This is the perfect class to pair with a Fiber Festival – it covers what yarns are best for which projects, how fiber, ply and weight affect your final projects.  If yarn substitutions ever stumped you, this is a class to give you good foundational knowledge.  Signups close on Friday, so check out the classes!


 

Later this Fall I’ll be returning to one of my favorite venues, Fibre Space.  If you aren’t able to get to the fiber festivals, I’d love to have you join me in Old Town Alexandria!  Check out the classes I’ll be teaching on October 15th: Intarsia Crash Course, Finishing Essentials and Darn Those Knits!

All About Yarns in October!

All About Yarns with Jennifer Raymond

If you follow my blog, you know that one of my favorite classes to teach is Yarns 101.  Yarns 101 is normally a 3-hour class on why yarns behave the way they do: why some yarn substitutions work, why your alpaca sweater is super saggy, and how we can make more informed decisions about pairing yarns with projects.  I love teaching the class, and often one of the responses I get back on my evals is… “When will you teach a Yarns 201?”

So many people enjoy the class, and would love to delve even further into the material.

I’ve been thinking for a while about how to go about doing that, and in the spring I pitched a class to Interweave that was my answer.

All About Yarns is an online seminar I’ll be teaching with Interweave’s online learning platform, Craft University.  From October 3rd to October 21st, we’ll explore and learn the different factors that influence how yarn behaves: ply, weight & fiber.

How does this differ from Yarns 101?  Yarns 101 is 3 hours.  All About Yarns is 3 weeks.  We’ll be able to do things I wouldn’t be able to do in a workshop.  There will be further learning assignments, swatching and sampling, and the creating of yarn cards.

Take a look at some of the topics we’ll cover:

  • How to determine the weight and size of your yarn.
  • Discover how ply and yarn weight influence the final presentation of your colorwork or lace.
  • How to look at yarns to determine which ones is suited for which project.
  • Determine which yarns will be suited for high-wear items, and which yarns would be better for next-to-skin wearing.
  • Understand how fibers in yarns influence the final look, drape and sturdiness of your garment.
  • How to figure out what your “mystery yarns” are made of, and how best to use them in your projects.

I’d love to have you.  If you’re interested in the course, you can sign up for it here.  Come join me!