Shakerag

(beautiful shibori textiles from India)

(naturally dyed textiles from India)

As I wrote in my last post, I've been on a bit of a workshop bender. Three workshops in four weeks is a lot to take in, but I wanted to learn everything, so my motto became "Do All the Workshops!"

I heard about Shakerag last year when Cal Patch blogged about teaching there. I was surprised to learn that it was in Tennessee, which for me is close to home, as workshop destinations go. For the last two years I've attended workshops at Anna Maria Horner's Craft South in Nashville and have been pleasantly surprised that it is only three hours away and a very easy drive. Shakerag is an hour and a half from Nashville, located outside Sewanee on the campus of an Episcopal boarding school. It's a beautiful campus. The accommodations are in the school dorms, so are fairly basic, but staying in your room is not what you go to Shakerag for anyway. Meals are fabulous and are a great time for getting to know participants in other classes or chatting more with your classmates. The food was simply wonderful. It's mostly local, organic and beautifully prepared. Even the way the food was presented was gorgeous. At every meal the long buffet table was filled with so much goodness, it was hard to choose, so mostly, we just ate all of it!

(a wonderful group of women at Shakerag 2015)

I signed up for the Natural Dyeing class, taught by Charllotte Kwon and her daughter, Sophena Kwon, of Maiwa Handprints, because I'm still trying to get over my fear of dyeing. I've hosted several dye workshops over the years, but what I've discovered is that hosting prohibits being able to fully participate. I just didn't have the confidence to tackle the 350+ skeins of Tanglewood Farm yarn waiting on me. I felt my usual inhibition about going off on my own, where I didn't know anyone, but felt, if nothing else, it would force me to concentrate more seriously on the workshop. That first evening as we went around the room, introducing ourselves, I was feeling seriously intimidated by the number of women in the class who were already teaching natural dyeing, I was ready to put on the dunce cap right then and there. The next morning, when we were given partners for our dyeing assignments, sure enough, I was paired with Carla, who has been teaching at John C. Campbell Folk School for many years. Bless her, Carla was great! Though I made mistakes (being a little heavy-handed when I made our indigo vat), she didn't make me feel bad about it and was encouraging the whole week. This was a class full of the loveliest of women and I feel as though I've made new friends I'll stay in touch with in the future.

(only some of the many samples we dyed)

(pages from my very own finished notebook - I'm very proud of it)

 I honestly don't feel I can do justice to describing Charllotte and Sophena Kwon. The knowledge shared, the organization of class supplies and the amount of information we were given was astounding. These are two women who have a passion for what they do and their enthusiasm is contagious. It was a very hands-on experience and everything was presented in a manner to build confidence. Each person was given a beautiful notebook (full of all the class information) so while we did have informal lecture times each day, we didn't have to be stressed about writing everything down. (By the way, much of the information we were given is available for free on the Maiwa Handprints website.) We dyed samples of various fibers to place with the coordinating information and dye formulas in our notebooks. Upon returning home, I completed my notebook and now have a handy reference to use. In fact, the dye pot has been going for several days now. I'm actually practicing what I learned and it's thrilling to feel so empowered. If you ever have the opportunity to take one of their workshops, don't hesitate .... it was simply a wonderful experience. I'm honestly not sure how I was lucky enough to land there. I had seen the workshop list for Shakerag some time ago and the class was filled. Then I happened to see on a social media site that there was one opening in the class and I immediately sent an email to Claire Reishman, the amazing woman who is director of the Shakerag program. Even though she was vacationing in Italy (I know!), she emailed immediately to tell me the spot was mine. After spending a week at Shakerag, I am even more impressed with her attention to detail. Here's a little example - when I signed in, I was given an information packet that contained my name tag. As is often the case, my name was misspelled on the tag (Diane, rather than Dianne). I'm used to it. When I saw Claire the next day, I thanked her for her quick response to my email and while we were talking, she commented on my misspelled name tag, which was hanging around my neck. I assured her it happened all the time and that was the end of our conversation. I returned from lunch to find a new, correctly spelled name tag on my table! As someone who has gone through my whole life with people not noticing how my name is spelled, I was completely amazed!

(first batch of roving dyed with logwood)

The workshop was a life changing experience for me. I finally feel as though I have a grasp of the steps to achieving the colors I want from natural dyes. There are 350 skeins from previous year's wool clips, that are ready for the dye pot and more than 100 pounds of wool that I'll be taking to the mill soon, to be spun into more yarn. My goal has been to present my yarn to knitters in the most eco-friendly manner possible and I believe I'm going to succeed now.

(and then there's these two, Judith and Lisa - who kept me laughing all week - miss you two and Amy Lou so much!)