Celia Quinn's Fiber Weekend Getaway

If you haven't yet had the experience, book a workshop with Celia Quinn. You won't be disappointed.You can contact her at quinnspins AT yahoo DOT com. She offers numerous fiber workshops which are very worthwhile. Many years ago my spinning guild offered her color blending workshop, and it was top notch. I learned the essentials of color blending and how to card.

This weekend's comprehensive spinning workshop held at RI Handspun was an excellent exposure to spinning at least 65 different fibers and using more fiber spinning tools than your wheel. She demonstrated spinning with the takli and the charkha. Yikes ...........I was astounded by the fine singles she could achieve with these tools. I'm inspired to dig out my takli and give it a whirl again.

I'm thrilled to say I learned how to dress a distaff with flax and spin the fiber using my Country Craftsman wheel. I loved spinning the luxury fibers like qiviut ,cashmere and bombyx silk, but I also enjoyed spinning yak and horsehair. The other surprise for me was discovering just how many kinds of cotton there are. Spinning pima cotton is my favorite with a close second going to spinning cotton from the seed. I did spin from the seed many years ago thanks to Helene. I also learned how to create a puni from carded cotton.

Celia brought along an impressive array of her textiles. I love her leaves scarf ( see above) , her collapse weave textiles and her crocheted camisole made out of finely spun singles. Wish I took a picture of it...............