Last month I told you all about the John C Campbell Folk Art School itself. This month I’d like to tell you about the course I chose to take. It was called “Get Spinning with Wool and Whatnots” and it was taught by Lesley Darling. Lesley’s bio describes her as: Professional folk arts instructor, custom natural dye artist, and natural dye supplier. Lesley is passionate about “environmental resiliency for the planet: using traditional skills”. She feels “folk traditions across the globe, unite us” as human beings. She financially supports her local (Lincoln, Nebraska) indigenous communities, and their run-and-led nonprofits. She deals almost exclusively with local small businesses, especially the farms that raise sheep and process their fleece. She is small in stature, fierce with determination, and passionate about fiber.

She started our first class, a 2 hr evening session after dinner, by handing out a small bit of fiber to each of us. As she went through personal introductions, and the course outline, we all sat there fiddling with the fiber. By the time she finished, all of us had organically twisted our fiber into a felted worm of yarn. Then, she pointed out that we had already begun spinning. It was a really clever way to break the ice!

The next morning, we arrived for our first morning session. At each of our table spaces, were a few pages of notes for the day, a small tin of handmade hand balm, and several balls of different rovings to spin with.

Day 2: We spent the morning, learning to spin and draft fiber using a spindle and the brown fiber (Jacob blend) shown in the photo. I had spun fiber this way, years ago at a fiber retreat. I think I was even less successful this time. It was a great relief when the class voted to move on to spinning wheels after lunch. 🙌🏼 Hooray! I think we were all on the same page.

When we returned from lunch it looked like a spinning wheel showroom. I was really impressed with the schools selection, of different spinning wheel styles, makes, and models. You could tell the schools attention was squarely aimed at providing the best possible learning opportunities for students. They had several wheels at each price bracket; low $350-$500, midrange $500-850, and high end models from $900-$2000. A few of us had wheels we brought too. Lesley looked at our body structure, and chose wheels that she felt would fit us well. She said we would use these for half the afternoon, and switch models for the remaining half. Lesley had us gather around a wheel, and watch the process first, then move on to our wheels.

I forgot to mention Lesley had an assistant, Jason Ebinger, who is the schools full time gardener, and more importantly for the fiber program…the person who helped create the Corey Brown Memorial Dye Garden. I’m going to let that sink in for a moment: they have a dedicated dye garden! Here’s a video of fellow gardener, Farmer Teddy showing a kool technique, for tying up plants, and telling you about this year’s plantings.

https://youtu.be/kHE3cw0pZdo

Jason lives near the school, and raises his own sheep. He learned how to spin at a previous session, and was there to help oil wheels, attach leaders, and get us started spinning too. They both had us spinning in no time. I think their laidback, calm demeanors, gave us all the confidence needed for success. At the halfway point we were given the option of changing wheels. I was using my own wheel successfully, and I didn’t want to confuse myself with another wheel. In retrospect, I wish I had tried another wheel…as I contemplate buying a different wheel now! I realize I had the best selection of wheels, right there, in front of me. Oh well – live and learn. 🙄

Day 3: started with us joyfully spinning the entire morning away. Lesley magically slipped in before breakfast and added more fibers to our pile of goodies. Jason was MIA because one of his sheep had begun the birthing process, and was in distress. Martha Owens, the Folk School’s Resident Artist (Department Chair) in Spinning, Knitting & Crochet, Feltmaking, Dyeing, and Surface Design, was already lending a hand to help Jason over this hurdle. Everyone helping each other – it’s a way of life at the school. We were all relieved to mama sheep and her little lamb were doing fine. That afternoon, we soaked some ethically processed fleece, in preparation for some natural dyeing. Once the fleece fibers soaked for an hour or so, they were rinsed and transferred to a heated pot of alum and water to mordant overnight. We learned once wool has been mordanted, it can either be naturally dyed right away, or dried to dye at a later time…that can be a year or so later. Once fiber is mordanted it will accept the natural dyes, whenever you have the plant materials on hand. That was a great piece of information, to me as an acid dyer used to completing the process all in one go. But, it made sense, as plant dye parts harvest at different times. Having fiber mordanted ahead of time, is way more efficient. And mordant can be re-used by adding 1/2 the original amount of alum to refresh the pot, thereby reducing water usage. Good conservation information!

Our class was held in “The Wet Studio”.

Day 4: We did a little of this, and all kinds that! Lesley had prepared 2 dye pots of natural dyes sometime the evening before. She soaked chipped pieces of Osage Orange wood, and then simmered the pieces to make a dye concentration. She used natural Madder Root, dye powder to make a reddish color. She had a dye class the weekend before we came in on Sunday and they bought almost all the dyes she brought for both classes. She apologized for the lack of options, but it ended up working out fine as far as we were concerned. Today, Lesley handed out silk scarves to everyone in the class. We quickly soaked them, and used the mordant water from the previous day. I have to admit I was concentrating on my spinning, and my table mate was eager to take on the soaking bit. I had one single mission: to leave JCCFS able to spin and ply yarn. So far we had spun a bobbin full of different fibers that was lumpy and bumpy, “art yarn” we called it. Lesley confirmed, what I had been told by my spinning friends: “Enjoy the lumpy, bumpy yarn you make at the beginning…You will spend a long time, relearning how to spin that bumpy yarn later, when you want to make it.” She told us we were already getting the rhythm and our spinning was getting smoother. She was right, but we were a day and a half away from the end of the course, and I was anxious. I tried spinning a few times before this class, where I thought I had it…and didn’t. That’s why I opted for the 5 day intensive approach to spinning this time. Repetition in quick succession was how I planned to slew the dragon!

I was bound and determined, to go home with actual plyed yarn. I decided to start a new bobbin with a cream colored fiber called Polypay. It’s an older meat sheep breed, that someone discovered has a short fiber with a nice bouncy crimp. It was one of the fibers Lesley gave us that first morning. I spun the entire thing, and it looked pretty good. Now, it was the moment of truth, to double check what I wanted to achieve from this course. Spinning the beautiful batts I love making, on my drum carder. If I could leave, spinning more than scratchy wool, I would call that success. Thank goodness I had 3 bobbins with me. I started spinning that fiber like a champ. I was a spinner. After I finished my goal, we spent the rest of the day was spent dyeing fiber, and those mordanted scarves in the remaining exhausted dye. The weather was perfect for hanging fiber and scarves outside on the clothesline. It was hot and humid in the daytime but as the photo below shows there was a good breeze. This evening we stayed after class to clean up, wash all the dye pots and other items, and get it all put away.

Day 5: Today is the last full day of class. We were pretty much free to do whatever we wanted, with Lesley available to ask whatever questions we had. Some students wanted to use drum carders, to blend fiber to take home with them all ready to spin. A few of our classmates ordered the spinning wheel models they were using in class. There was an active buzz of those checking Facebook Marketplace for used wheels to purchase when they got home. Several of us wanted to try spinning a different fiber blend. Lesley had a bag full of this lofty Alpaca, blended with Angora bunny fiber. Lesley told me the Angora part of the fiber was from her precious bunny, Gunny. Once I heard that, I knew that’s what I wanted, to remember my time at John Campbell.

These are the yarns I spun at John C Campbell:

 

I hope you’ve enjoyed a behind the scenes peek at our class: Get Spinning with Wool and Whatnots”