February 1st will be here in only three weeks! That day, all of our 2024 classes will be open for registration and the class descriptions, along with complete information, will be available on our website. The site will be in “maintenance mode” soon, but available again for registration on February 1. Featured on the cover of the 2024 brochure is the handweaving of Judith Yamamoto. Judie first came to Sievers as a student in Mary Sue Fenner’s 1981 Basic Weaving class and the following year, she offered a class in knitting. Since then, she’s gone on to offer another 100 classes at Sievers and has been a student here 35 times. Thank you, Judie, for being part of Sievers for […]
2023 Sievers Preview
February 1st will be here in only three weeks! That day, all of our 2023 classes will be open for registration and the class descriptions, along with complete information, will be available on our website. The site will be in “maintenance mode” soon, but available again for registration on February 1. Featured on the cover of the 2023 brochure are some of the many colorful splint-woven baskets made by Jeanette Biederman. Thank you, Jeanette, for all the beautiful baskets and equally beautiful friendships you’ve made with us and your students over the past 32 years! Many of our instructors are returning in 2023 and we welcome two new teachers this year, Joyce Gitter and John Rezachek. Both Joyce and John […]
Washington Island fiber happenings
These snowy, windy and cold days make for some of the best times to gather and knit, quilt or sew. We know of many people who are tucked into their own Washington Island homes, weaving, spinning or stitching, too. Mondays and Tuesdays find several Island residents meeting at Trinity Lutheran Church, sharing their gift of handwork with others, like a warm shawl or a quilt to comfort those who are experiencing a loss or illness. Handmade hats, mittens and scarves might be draped on December’s “Giving Tree”, where items are collected and sent to youth in need. The Trinity quilters, besides making comfort and charity quilts distributed both on the Island and globally, create and present a quilt to each […]
Give them a hand…
…for all the knitting and quilting and learning that took place in both Sandy De Master and Mary Germain’s Baltic Knitting Extravaganza and Ellen Graf’s Balance in Quilt Design classes! From the smallest Latvian mini-mittens to a full-size quilt, there were new and renewed projects in both studios. Following traditional designs or adapting and creating new ones were options in both classes. Both were equally wonderful! Studio visit times allow everyone to share and show the work of their hands, demonstrating a quote often associated with Walter Schutz, “Happiness is in your hands…and it keeps you young!” From the Reader’s Digest article Walter found that quote in, the last sentence reads, “We need the sense of self-confidence, self-respect, that comes […]
K2Tog (Knit two together)
Can you knit both yarn and two groups of people together at the same time? Of course! It all happens during the week of Sandy De Master and Mary Germain’s Creative Knitting Retreat class and the companion Open Knitting Studio. Returning students, new-to-Sievers students, past and present students of Sandy and Mary, Carol Anderson, Carol Huebscher Rhoades and others “K2Tog”, picking up and knitting from year to year, working as established. In both groups, students bring projects of their own choosing. It can be a time to focus on mastering color work as in Fair Isle knitting, starting, working on and/or finishing anything from shawls, cowls, sweaters, hats, mittens, socks, a knitted pig (it’s true!) and more. The Creative Knitting […]
Local Yarn Store Day
Although Sievers will have to formally celebrate the first Local Yarn Store Day a month later on May 21st when we open our doors daily, we did want to share photos of our yarns as we are beginning to arrange everything that has come in, including the lovely work sent by many Sievers students and teachers. We hope you will be inspired this year, not only by yarn and knitting, but with any fiber art you love best. “Stairway to (Blue Sky) Heaven” “Norwegian Wood” (I mean Wool) “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” “Send in the (Knit Circus) Clowns” “Kashmir” Merino Silk DK Rowan Felted “Tweed-le Dee” “Mad (Tosh) World” “Sock It To Me Baby” Brown […]
Handmade Treasures
We probably could’ve included the words “handmade treasure” in each of this year’s class descriptions or titles, but it officially appeared in only one: Handmade Treasure Boxes. We’re taking the liberty of applying those words to the two previous classes, as well, Creative Knitting Retreat with Sandy De Master and Mary Germain and the Open Knitting Studio session held in the Walter Studio, where eleven knitters worked independently on a variety of projects. The Creative Knitting Retreat class saw a number of knitters working on Latvian or Estonian-patterned mittens, Fair Isle, sweaters of all kinds, baby blankets and more. Help in solving fit issues as it applies to hand knits, substituting yarns and deciphering patterns are just some of the talents Sandy and Mary bring to class […]
Winter Knitting, Basketry and Weaving
In these first three weeks of February, we’ve had over 250 students register for classes. Wow! We are looking forward to seeing many of you this summer and fall! In the meantime, our last Sievers in Winter classes were in session: Knitting with Sandy De Master and Mary Germain, Splint-Woven Basketry with Jeanette Biederman and Rich Prange, and finishing today, Weaving Workshop with Connie Westbrook. As of yesterday (February 19), Sievers has a presence on Instagram. It’s only one photo so far, but it’s a start as I’m in the “learn-as-we-go” stage. https://instagram.com/sieversschool/ We like having many ways to say “hello from Sievers”!
