Category: classes

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Winter 2025 Classes

This winter I’ll be continuing classes at The Fiber Loft, A Place to Weave and The Unruly Stitch.

At The Fiber Loft, I’ll be adding a color palette class and a tablet weaving class to my usual weaving and spinning lineup. The Color Palette class is appropriate for all fiber creators – weavers, spinners, knitters, crocheters, quilters, and felters. One session will be offered during February school vacation week, when students aged 8-12 are welcome to join the class with an adult.

At A Place to Weave, I’ll be teaching some select specialized classes, including a new class on documenting weaving designs.

I’ll be back at The Unruly Stitch on the 2nd and 4th Mondays of the month, and am adding an advanced beginner spinning class to the basic wheel spinning and drop spindle classes.

Lineup at The Fiber Loft

Inkle bands
  • Beginning Weaving on a 4-shaft loom
    • Fridays 1/24, 10am-5pm and 1/31, 10am-4pm (snow date 2/7)
    • OR
    • Saturdays 3/29, 10am-5pm and 4/5, 10am-4pm
  • Intro to Inkle Loom
    • *Friday 2/21, 10am-3pm
    • OR
    • Sunday 3/2, 10am-3pm, (break for lunch)
  • Intro to Inkle Writing and Pickup
    • Saturday 3/8, 10am-3pm, (break for lunch)
  • Drop Spindle
    • Saturday 3/1, 2-5pm
    • OR
    • Friday 3/28, 2-5pm
  • Beginning Spinning on a Wheel
    • Saturday 2/8, 10am-3pm, (break for lunch)
    • OR
    • Friday 4/4, 10am-3pm, (break for lunch)
  • Intro to Tablet Weaving
    • Sunday 4/6, 10am-3pm, (break for lunch)
  • Creating Color Palettes
    • *Monday 2/17, 1pm-4pm
    • OR
    • Saturday 3/1, 9am-noon

*These classes are offered during February vacation week. People ages 8-12 are welcome to come with an adult companion at a discounted rate.

Lineup at A Place to Weave

Shawl woven on a continuous strand triangle loom
  • Continuous Strand Weaving on a Triangle Loom
    • Sunday 2/23 1:00-4:00
  • Intro to Inkle Weaving
    • Sunday 3/30 11:00-4:00
  • Documenting Your Designs
    • Sunday 4/27 1:00-4:00

Lineup at The Unruly Stitch (2nd and 4th Mondays)

For individual class details, go here.

Spinning wheels at The Unruly Stitch
  • 13 January 2025
    • 10am-noon– Beginning spinning on a wheel, part 1 of 2
    • 2pm-5pm – Drop spindle spinning
  • 27 January
    • 10am-noon– Beginning spinning on a wheel, part 2 of 2
    • 2pm-5pm – Drop spindle spinning
  • 10 February
    • Until 1pm – private spinning lessons*
    • 1pm-4pm – Advanced Beginner Spinning
  • 24 February
    • 10am-3pm (with a break for lunch)– Beginning spinning on a wheel
    • 3pm to whenever needed – private spinning lessons*
  • 10 March
    • 10am-1pm – Drop spindle spinning
    • 1pm to whenever needed – private spinning lessons*
  • No classes 24 March
  • 14 April
    • 10am-3pm (with a break for lunch)– Beginning spinning on a wheel
    • 3pm to whenever needed – private spinning lessons*
  • 28 April
    • Until 1pm – private spinning lessons*
    • 1pm-4pm – Advanced beginner spinning

*To ensure that I am available, it’s recommended that private lessons be pre-booked.

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Fall Classes in Old and New Locations

At The Fiber Loft in Harvard MA

Classes haven’t been posted yet, but I will be teaching a wide variety of classes. To sign up, call the shop directly. If there’s something in particular you are looking for, please let me know! I also offer private lessons at the Fiber Loft.

  • Beginning shaft loom weaving (2 full-day classes)
  • Advanced beginning weaving (series of 8 3-hour classes)
  • Intro to inkle loom weaving (full day)
  • Intro to Inkle pick-up (full day)
  • Beginning spinning on a treadle wheel (full day)
  • Beginning drop spindle (half day)
  • Flax spinning (full day) – NEW
Samplers from a Beginning Weaving class

At A Place to Weave in Leominster MA

Sunday afternoons in September, 3 classes have been scheduled – Intro to drop spindle, Triangle loom weaving, and Yarn explorations. Sign up through the website.

Shawl woven on a continuous strand triangle loom

At The Unruly Stitch in Weston MA – NEW this fall!

New this fall, I’ll be offering private lessons and group spinning classes at this cozy new shop in Weston! For details on individual classes, go here. If you would like sign up for a class or schedule a private spinning lesson at the Unruly Stitch (on a Monday or another time), please contact me directly.

  • 9 Sept
    • 10am-12:30pm – Beginning spinning on a wheel, part 1
    • 2pm-5pm – Drop spindle spinning
    • 5pm to whenever needed – private spinning lessons*
  • 23 Sept
    • 10am-12:30pm – Beginning spinning on a wheel, part 2
    • 2pm-5pm – Drop spindle spinning
    • 5pm to whenever needed – private spinning lessons*
  • 14 Oct
    • 10am-1pm – Drop spindle spinning
    • 1pm to whenever needed – private spinning lessons*
  • 28 Oct
    • 10am-3pm (with a break for lunch)– Beginning spinning on a wheel
    • 1pm to whenever needed – private spinning lessons*
  • 11 Nov
    • 10am-1pm – Drop spindle spinning
    • 1pm to whenever needed – private spinning lessons*
  • 25 Nov (Thanksgiving week, so only if there are private lessons* booked)
  • 9 Dec
    • 10am-3pm (with a break for lunch)– Beginning spinning on a wheel
    • 1pm to whenever needed – private spinning lessons*
Skeins from a Beginning Spinning class

Upcoming Presentations to Guilds

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Weaving Shorts

What’s new? I’ve been teaching classes on Zoom and have recently joined the ranks of YouTubers!

It’s so nice to be back to teaching after these months of separation. I’ve really missed it! I’ve been teaching beginning and advanced beginning weaving classes as well as some specialized topics. The beginning and advanced beginning classes are 5 sessions, 2 hours each. We cover a different step of the weaving process in each session, and students complete that step as homework. Project planning, drafting, tips & tricks, weaving equipment and finishing techniques are also covered, at the appropriate level.

Teaching on Zoom has its own challenges, but that’s part of the fun. Teaching from my own studio means I have all my own tools right at hand. I do the exercises along with my students using a mix of live demos, videos, show & tell and lecture based instruction. Connecting my phone as well as my computer camera to the Zoom session enables me to show different views to focus on the action.

My students also often connect their phones so they can show me their looms and what they are doing. Sometimes it gets pretty funny trying to describe what I want them to do. “Pick up that thread, the one to the left of your index finger. No, the other thread…”

That’s where some of the video shorts come in handy. These “weaving shorts” demonstrate some of the small steps in the weaving process, and students can go back and watch them after class as many times as they need to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs7exv5cm4E

My YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/PennyLacroix for those who want to delve deeper. The videos are simple, but hopefully helpful. I’ve been adding them as I recognize the need in my classes and intend to keep adding more. Suggestions for future videos are welcome!

In addition to some standard classes through The Fiber Loft, I recently taught a morning workshop for the Weavers’ Guild of Boston on how to create a doubleweave V-shaped shawl with no sewing. I mixed videos, interactive worksheets and live instruction to keep participants engaged.

It was alot of work to put together, but the folks I worked with in the Guild were extremely helpful, and we were able to present a high quality workshop on Zoom. A year ago, who would have thought this would be our normal now? So many new challenges and new opportunities. I’m loving it!

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New classes are posted!

The summer classes at The Fiber Loft have been posted! I’ve got some spinning and weaving classes scheduled.

In addition, if there’s a class you’d like to take but don’t see it scheduled, call the shop and give them your name. When we have enough people interested , well schedule it at everyone’s convenience. We have a couple people already interested in a great wheel class.

Here’s a little video from my last beginning weaving class, when Kendra pulled her sampler off the loom – a happy moment!

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A delightful spinning class!

Last Sunday I taught a spinning class at The Fiber Loft. Usually I have a 3- person minimum, but I had made an exception, and I’m so glad I did! Chris and Meredith and I had a delightful afternoon. Chris is a fiber artist, focusing on knitting, dyeing and quilting, and was looking to expand his repertoire to spinning. Meredith was looking to learn about the meditative benefits of spinning. With just 2 students, I was able to tailor the class to their interests. We used an Ashford wheel and a Schacht, and tried out the new Majacraft wheel at the shop. The Ashford and Majacraft were ones I had tried out on my January trip to New Zealand, and I was eager to have students use them. It was enriching afternoon for all of us!

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Parker Tavern Textile Tools

A couple weeks ago, I gave a talk for the Reading Antiquarian Society, which owns and manages the Parker Tavern in Reading, Mass. Thanks to my good friend Eric Workman for taking the pictures!

In preparation for the talk, I researched various textile tools in their collections and put together a presentation that would be interesting to the general public and helpful to volunteers at the historic house when they are giving tours.

Explaining how a niddy-noddy is used. Photo by Eric Workman

The talk covered a great wheel, a flax wheel, niddy-noddies, wool cards, a hetchel and a couple of textiles as well. I was able to find information on the origins of some of the tools and some of the people involved. In addition, I was able to show them how many of the tools are used, to give volunteer docents a better idea of how to interpret the objects for visitors.

This is one of the textiles in the collection. It’s a needlepoint sampler made by Sarah Ewer Burleigh. The words read, “Surviveing friends when this you see; Mourn for your sins and not for me.” And, “In the midst of mirth, Remember death.” Through some online research, I was able to find out that despite Sarah’s dark view of the world, she grew up, married, had 6 children, and lived to the age of 78. Was it simply customs of the period that compelled her to use these sayings?

Sarah Burleigh sampler

The 12-15 hours I spent preparing for this talk were well spent and very interesting to me. Attendees were engaged and asked some excellent questions. The room at the Reading senior center was well-equipped, with a TV with an HDMI port that we could connect to a computer with my presentation. I hope to be able to more presentations like this in the future!

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Upcoming classes

Tomorrow (Sunday 3/3) is the drop spindle workshop at the Wayland Farmers Market Fiber Day. It runs 1-3. Details and signup are here.

Next Sunday 3/10, we’re adding a drop spindle class at the Fiber Loft, 12-3. Call the shop at 978-456-8669 to sign up.

Also, we’re adding another Beginning Weaving class at the Fiber Loft the first 2 Wednesdays of April. Details are here. This is a “being-a- friend” class! The first person plays full price and can bring a friend along for $20 more. You work together to make a sampler.

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