Julie B Booth: Spin and Stitch Workshop

Monday, January 7, 2019

Spin and Stitch Workshop

Some wonderful nubby threads made by Raquel R.

This past weekend, I team-taught a wonderful new workshop called, Spin and Stitch: Make Your Own Thread to Stitch (at The Art League School in Alexandria, VA). This is the first time in the fiber department that two teachers worked together to design a workshop. Sylvia De Mar and I have had this in the works for over a year. It was such a great success, that we hope that there will be other opportunities within the fiber department, and maybe even beyond, to work on rich collaborations. I hope that you enjoy the photos of what we did.

The spindle and some fibers.

On Day #1, Sylvia taught the class (and me too!) how to spin with a supported spindle. She provided us with a colorful selection of hand-dyed (by her) fibers including wool, silk, cotton and a synthetic.

A selection of fibers to spin.

For me it took a bit to understand the rhythm of twisting the fibers and releasing so that the twist traveled further up the fiber. It was a bit like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time. But eventually, it seemed a bit more natural. Here are a couple of the students spinning...

And here are some of the threads that we spun...

On Day #2, I had students use their threads to create a sampler (though some jumped right in to work on an art piece) and an expressive art piece. I suggested some tricks for working with our "wonky" threads. I have to say the "wonkiness" really appealed to me...especially making French Knots.

French knots in my sampler.

I provided a selection of hand woven fabric scraps, tulle, and two types of cheesecloth for students to play with. I also supplemented with yarns and pearl cotton threads.