For the knitters in Mary Germain’s Creative Knitting Retreat and in the Open Knitting Studio, this past week was one of “knitting with enjoyment”. It was a time to continue well-established friendships, create new ones and share, all encompassed by knitting. So many projects, yarns and ideas that awe and inspire, and so many shawls, scarves, hats, mittens and sweaters worn during the week! We wish we could share photos of each one. They were all our favorites! One great opportunity for everyone to show, model or view some fabulous knitting is at the Thursday evening fashion show. For extra photos, check out our latest Facebook and Instagram story. In the book Knitting without Tears, Elizabeth Zimmerman writes this about […]
Three-quarters in, more to come
We’re about three-quarters into our season of classes and time has flown by. Did you know…August is a great month for knitting! The students in Mary Germain’s recent Fair Isle Color Play class used Shetland wool yarns to design a hat, experimenting with color placement and different motifs. As one student stated, “You better ‘swatch’ out!” Several techniques of Fair Isle knitting were incorporated as well, including corrugated ribbing, and hem and edge treatments. Each left with a good start, just in time to finish knitting their hats before they are needed to keep warm! Immediately following the Fair Isle class, Mary led a new group of students in Baltic Knitting, specifically Latvian mittens. A small portion of Mary’s collection […]
More than once in a blue moon
More than once in a blue moon, artful and creative things happen in the Sievers studios. (It’s actually every day a class is in session!) That is due to our wonderful instructors who share their knowledge and enthusiasm, in combination with the work done by their students. Anne Landre invites her students in the Shibori and Indigo Dyeing class to “jump into the blue” and create patterns on fabric using resist-dyeing techniques. Mixing up a vat of indigo and dyeing multiple pieces of fabric is an all-day, some-of-the-night, all-in class and experience. Wrapping pebbles around fabric with rubber bands or around various sizes of PVC pipe, using clamps, or gathering and stitching cone-shaped features into fabric (see photo, below right) […]
On location and in the studios
Class hasn’t just been in the studio the past two weeks with these four “one-of-a-kind” subjects including Basketry: Covered Coiling, Knitting on Location, a Weaving Alumni Studio and Introduction to Cartonnage. As you’ll see, a lot has been happening lately! It’s always a treat to see all the covered, coiled baskets Lynn Schuster brings as samples and inspiration for her class, and how her students create their own using yarns with texture, variegated colors or spun by hand. Each of Lynn’s own baskets tell a story, holding love and memories and we trust the same will be true of the baskets her students made. After several years, the Knitting on Location class returned, thanks to Shawn Simmons and with the […]
A perfect fit
October and knitting seem made for each other. The first reach for a warm sweater, hat or scarf tends to happen at the same time the leaves change color and sunsets come earlier. Maybe that’s one reason the Creative Knitting Retreat with Mary Germain and the companion Open Knit Studio take place in October…it’s a perfect fit (and you can wear your handknits as you create more)! The garments and accessories worn in class set the tone for the week, along with the projects students plan to work on. The range of expertise Mary Germain brings, and has at the ready to assist with each knitted piece, takes everything to the next level. How wonderful to have Mary as a […]
Making rainbows
Many classes use all the colors of the rainbow (and more!), but in the Spinners’ Color Lab with Deb Jones, students made rainbows of their own, in roving and yarn. Mixing a certain number of “starter colors” into hundreds of other colors kept the rainbows coming. Deb reported 200 skeins of yarn (more than 5,000 grams) and 1,300 grams of roving were dyed in two days. Students worked as partners dyeing solids, gradients, speckles and more. After the dyeing and drying, students spun the singles into one-of-a-kind yarns that might look like keepsakes, but are sure to be used in other fiber works. We hope to see those on a return visit! Happiness is being surrounded by color! Although there […]
Take five
We’ve had a busy start to August with five classes in session during the first ten days of the month. Beadweaving, and then Mixed Media Fiber Jewelry with Francie Broadie, Finding Our Way: A Dyeing Journey with Stephanie Lewis Robertson, Batik with Anne Landre and Coiled Basketry with Lynn Stracka Schuster. Let’s “take five” and see a little of what each class did during their time in the studios. Francie Broadie’s Beadweaving: Lesser Known Stitches class allowed all levels to try beadweaving for the first time or to explore unfamiliar stitches, then in her Mixed Media Fiber Jewelry class, students created one-of-a-kind jewelry using fabric scraps, beads, found objects or pieces of old jewelry, upcycling and combining them in fun […]
Something old, new, borrowed and blue
This age-old proverb usually isn’t associated with classes at Sievers, but it seemed fitting for the pair of classes held last week, Beginning Weaving on a Floor Loom with Susan Frame and Shibori and Indigo Dyeing with Anne Landre. Learning to weave on a floor loom certainly represents something old, or in more meaningful words, a continuity from the past. As you probably know, Sievers all started with looms and weaving. At the start of Susan’s class, Ann shared one of the first ads for Walter Schutz’s plan sheets for a table-sized Sievers Loom from the Fall/Winter 1974-75 McCall’s Needlework & Crafts magazine. Some of the many addresses Walter used for McCall’s ads were: Box 5M, Fifth Avenue, North Bay, […]
