Spinning Retreat in Kansas City, All About Silk, February 2025

Can you spin a continuous ply of yarn on your wheel? If so, you ABSOLUTELY are "good enough" to attend!

Your spinning does NOT need to be perfectly smooth, thin and amazing. It can be a bit thick and thin (ummmm my go-to) it can be bulky, it can be super thin. However you spin, you will get a lot out of our workshop!

I think MOST PEOPLE don't enjoy spinning pure silk straight out of the gate. While we WILL be experimenting with different kinds of silk and learning some techniques for spinning 100% silk.... that's only a PART of our workshop! We'll find ways to blend silk in with other fibers and spin some true luxury blends.

We're going to learn ways to help our hands love the process of working with this unique fiber. We'll also get some amazing recipes for hand scrubs & learn stretches and exercises to help our hands and wrists keep active as we age.

ALSO, every time I've attended a spinning class I've learned something OTHER than what the class intended. You're going to be not only taught techniques by three teachers, but you'll also absorb and learn from the other attendees! 

There's nothing like spending time with other yarn spinners!

I get it. We will have a lot of fiber & spinning going on, but we're also going to be taking a LOT of breaks, learning good hand care (which is amazing for spinning silk but also for ALL of your creative
adventures), eating yummy food, and basically relaxing, being totally pampered
and hanging out with fiber loving friends! 

You DO NOT need to spend both days spinning continuously. :)

I have obtained a CRAZY amount of unique silk fibers for us to play with and LEARN ABOUT! There's some wild histories to share.

We will explore and learn about NOT ONLY the "usual" silk spinning fibers of mulberry silk, tussah silk and recycled sari silk, but we'll also play with peduncle silk, muga silk, eri silk, mawata silk hankies, silk carrier rods, silk comber's noil, silk cocoons AND learn when and where to add these to your other fibers for projects.

I've got some seriously luxurious fiber blends featuring
combinations of silk with llama, baby camel, polwarth, yak, merino and
more!

The techniques we share will mostly be aimed at those who spin on wheels or e-spinners, but you can absolutely still attend and get a lot out of our retreat if you use spindles only.

Though I am ABSOLUTELY not the person to talk spindle spinning, both the other teachers Teri Plemel and Meagan Condon are spindle experts. 

ONE NOTE: you would need to either bring multiple spindles or spin one batch of multiple types of fiber. We will be asking our attendees to bring multiple bobbins to experiment with the multiple silk types and fiber blends and for plying tips.