The first week of August saw our 4th annual Indigo Intensive and we had a good crew of four students and three instructors. Justin Squizerro and Zoe Saldana led the first day of setting up the four different vats - Lye/Thiox, Zinc/Lime, Copperas and the old faithful - Urine Vat. The second day Zoe taught resist printing, the third day Jane Quimby was back to teach Shibori and the fourth day was a free day to experiment with all the different surface techniques using all four vat. The students this year came from near and far - Juna Muller from California, Caroline Goddard from RI, Jillian Westfall from GA and Joann Darling from Barre, Vt. The weather ranged from hot and humid to cold and rainy with even a major hailstorm thrown in…but the vats performed remarkably and some great dyeing insued!

Day 1 !

Zoe and Justin explaining the different options
for making an indigo vat.

A little hail storm added to the excitement the first day!

Joann, Caroline and Juna making the samples for each vat.

Caroline and Juna starting the samples.

Justin taking advantage of the warm weather to
dye 12 lbs 2/20 worsted for our job
for the DAR.

From right to left - Zinc/lime vat,  Justin's urine vat
and Kate's urine vat.

Justin with two perfectly reduced stock solutions!

Jane Quimby with the Shibori making equipment.

Some Shibori samples.

Caroline cutting open her stitched Shibori.

More Shibori….

And more...

And more….

And more...

Jillian working with the Bentonite Clay resist past.

Juna using a stencil and silk screen with the Bentonite resist paste.

Exploring the wonders of 3 Shafts - Krokbrag

Last week - July 6 - 10, we took a break from our summer sabbatical to host five students who wanted to focus on weaving Krokbrag (4) and Summer Blanket/Winter Sheets (1). Three of them were former alumni from NH - Tricia Jenkins, Mimi Jost and Suzi Beers and the other two were also former alumni - Betty Larsen, from Marshfield and her daughter, Kristina from San Francisco. We hadn't hosted a Krokbrag workshop in a few years so we were excited to teach this again and try out some of our different methods for tieing up 3 Shafts. Needless to say, all the rugs were gorgeous and all our tie up methods worked wonderfully.  Our lone summer blanket weaver, Suzi, made a fabulous piece as well, and it was a great week for all!

Lynnette and Suzi consulting on a summer blanket pattern.

Justin starting Mimi on her Krokbrag linen warp.

Tricia, Betty and Kristina hard at work threading their rugs.

Kristina contemplating the next design option.

Betty color coordinated with her rug!

Tricia's use of odds and ends yarn made a very pleasing color
combination.

Mimi's variation on the "green" theme.

Suzi making sure that her stripes are matching up.

Three Shaft tie -up #1 - triangles.

Three Shaft tie-up #2 - heddle horses.

Three Shaft tie-up #3 - Roller bars.

Three Shaft tie-up #4 - Pulleys.

Suzi's finished summer blanket/winter sheet.

Mimi's finished rug.

Detail of Mimi's rug.

Tricia's finished rug.

Detail of Tricia's rug.

Kristina's finished rug.

Betty's finished rug.

The work of a weeks weaving!

April Showers bring….Dosia and a few others back!

April was another busy month and winter still seemed to cling on with cold weather and grey skies but in the barn we had lots of colorful weaving projects to dispel the gloom. Our warp painter extraordinaire - Dosia Sanford - was back this month to try another cotton warp for pillows. She is fine tuning the dye mixture consistency so that there is more control in the painting and learning a few other useful skills in laying out the warp, etc. Stay tuned for a class this August that Dosia will be holding for students who want to experiment with this technique. Of our regulars, Sue Carpenter finished another great napkin warp and Susan Osterman tackled a monumental project of a summer blanket/winter sheet on a linen warp. She used a 40/2 linen for the warp and some fine wool from Jagger Spun for the weft. As you can see, her middle seam matched up perfectly! Our VT. Folklife grantee, Joann Darling, was also back to continue her work with linen and this months projects were to feature natural dyed yarn in the warp and weft. Her second project of using a 30/1 linen was truly a labor of love and though not without a few broken ends, yielded a beautiful end product. Now on to May and we'll see what warmer weather brings.

Dosia painting her new cotton warp.

The finished warp for three separate pillows.

The warp on the loom.

The finished dress from last year's bobble fabric!

Close-up of the tufts that we all cut by hand.

Sue Carpenter with her finished napkin project.

Arianna - Justin's friend from Sweden - weaving a fine 3/1 twill.

Susan Osterman and Norman with her finished summer blanket/winter sheet.

Nancy Hart with her checked wool throw.

Joann Darling weaving her hand-dyed linen.

Close-up of the napkins.

The first warp of napkins - each one a different hand-dyed color.

The dyed and sized 30/1 linen for another set of napkins.

The 30/1 checked napkins.