MADRONA 2013 RETREAT PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Teachers are the heart of Madrona and we are thrilled that we have been able to gather so much talent in one place. We are amazed by the variety and energy that will take you from the traditional to the very edges of the creative universe.
We are absolutely thrilled to be able to host CLARA PARKES, teacher and author, whose online knitting magazine, Knitters Review, has been leading thousands of knitters on a weekly yarn adventure for almost 15 years. Clara’s many books on yarns and fibers are authoritative guides that unravel the mysteries of when, how and why to use so many of the different types of yarns and fibers available today. As our speaker at the Saturday evening banquet, Clara will take us on a richly illustrated jaunt into her own love affair with yarn. From her farmhouse full of yarn in Maine to her many travels through the fiber world, Clara will share her personal perspectives and inspire and enlighten with humor, yarn wisdom, and even a few tricks. Clara will also be teaching her popular classes on cashmere and wool and be available in the rotunda for a “Yarn Clinic” to answer all your questions. You can find out more about Clara and sign up for her “Knitters Review” at www.knittersreview.com.
DONNA DRUCHUNAS has delved deeply into the knitting history and traditions of many cultures around the world to bring us their heritage in designs and tell the stories that go with them in her books. We are delighted to be able to welcome Donna to Madrona this year and have her give the talk at our Teacher’s Gallery on Friday evening. In her talk, Donna’s focus will be a slide show and stories about the unique lace patterns of the native Alaskan knitters and the beginnings of the Oomingmak Co-op and how Dorothy Reade was involved in an adventure of a lifetime. Donna will also teach a class that will have you also, creating for yourself, some of these Native Alaskan Eskimo lace patterns. In addition, in other classes, you can learn to recreate traditional and vintage folk sock patterns, learn stories of knitters from around the world while you learn and knit a pattern stitch from each region into a sampler and much more. For more information about Donna visit her website at www.sheeptoshawl.com.
Are you ready for The 2nd Annual Teacher’s Talent Show for Charity on Thursday evening? Stephanie Pearl-McPhee turns on her special magic as host and will again produce an amazing show of teacher talent! We are all sworn to secrecy about last year’s event but what I can tell is that we went from laughing till we cried to inspiration and awe. Our teachers were stunning and all of you responded by donating more than ever – a whopping $9,098 – to our Charity Partners, Doctors without Borders, Heifer International, and the Global Fund for Women. We hope you will join us again this year for an unforgettable evening with our teachers and Stephanie and continue to show your appreciation by supporting our charity partners.
What can I say about the incomparable STEPHANIE PEARL-MCPHEE – such a well loved friend of Madrona. It is always so special for me to welcome Stephanie to Madrona. When I see her walk through the door it’s like a magic wand with sparks of energy and I know Madrona is coming alive! Stephanie is the best selling author of many books about her life with Knitting and her Yarn Harlot blog is known around the world. Stephanie has a new class in Color Work for you and will also be teaching her Knitting with Mawata – showing you how to knit warm goodies from silk in the pure form – and Knitting with Speed and Efficiency for those of you who want to get the most out of your knits and purls! You can find Stephanie at www.yarnharlot.ca
We are thrilled that BRENDA DAYNE, the creator and host of “Cast On” (www.cast-on.com ) the internet’s longest running podcast devoted to all things knitting will join us at Madrona. She has listeners in 72 countries that have downloaded her podcast over 2 million times. Although, originally from the Pacific Northwest, Brenda has made her home in Wales for many years. She will be teaching her fabulous advanced top down raglan method and also be available at special times in the Rotunda to meet and talk with you all. Brenda’s new book, Welsh for Rainbow: Small knits from the small country to the left of England, is due out this coming February.
We cannot think about color without thinking about MARY SCOTT HUFF who returns with another exquisite and exclusive Madrona design. This year it is a stole called “Thistle”. She will also be teaching a class that makes sure that when you start a knitting project you end up where you want to be! Mary has a new book, Teach Yourself Visually Color Knitting and you can check out all her doings at www.maryscotthuff.com. JANINE BAJUS has inspired many a Fair Isle knitter with her Feral Knitter blog (www.feralknitter.com) and her unique and colorful Fair Isle sweaters that make a personal statement. Janine will bring you “Color Outside the Lines” – a Fair Isle tam design that will build your confidence in color choices. We welcome LORILEE BELTMAN who is also fascinated by color. She will be teaching Vertically Stranded Color – a very clever class that incorporates techniques from various traditions including zig zags, diagonal plaids and color lines between lace. SUSAN NEWHALL uses color in a very subtle yet compelling way in her unique technique called “Blended Intarsia” which integrates the opacity of lace work, isolated color motifs and the harmony of color blending. She will use the beautiful art glass on display in the Hotel Murano to expand understanding of colorplay and light in Blended Intarsia. Susan has designed and taught in the US and Canada. Here are some links to her patterns on Knitty and Ravelry – take a peak at the amazing Blended Intarsia effects. http://knitty.com/ISSUEss11/PATTverdant.php and www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/vitreous
ILISHA HELFMAN, the queen of Jazzknitting, has you working with the inherent qualities of hand dyed yarn to knit beautiful natural forms without patterns or stitches to count. This year Ilisha will teach you variations on the theme of “Follow the Thread” to intentionally pool color and create asymmetrical design to use in your knitting. A knitter for 40 years, Ilisha has shown her knitted collages in galleries in NYC and Portland. Now she has published a book Jazzknitting: An Introduction about her technique. Check it all out at www.followthethread.com. We welcome BILL JONES to Madrona. Put together 50 years of knitting with theatre and costume design and you have Bill Jones, retired professor of theatre design at San Francisco State University. Bill will show you how to cut up your knitting and stabilize it for a myriad of reasons from steeks to buttonholes to reshaping, inserting zippers, and many creative possibilities! GWEN BORTNERhas been teaching and taking knitters to the next level for many years. Her book, Entrée to Entrelac, has unraveled the mysteries of entrelac and shows how this wonderful pattern technique can be used in so many ways. Gwen will be teaching entrelac, of course, and also a class in Aran sweater design, pattern customization and much more. Join Gwen’s challenge, take your knitting to new heights and check her out at www.knitability.com . We are so happy to welcome CHRIS BYLSMA back to Madrona after several years absence. Chris takes the mystery out of sweater design with her “Design in a Day” which will empower you to put your creative knitting ideas into practice! From Savvy Solutions and Pocket Possibilities to Eight Empowering Edges and you will be adding great skills to your knitting tool box. Check out more about Chris and her designs at www.chrisbylsmadesigns.com.
FRANKLIN HABIT is back at Madrona! For those who have taken Franklin’s fascinating Tesselations he is back with an extended version to take you into more depth. From lace and going wild with Garter Stitch along with his ever popular Photographing your Fiber and a couple of new classes to enhance your knitting skills, you will be treated to Franklin’s philosophy and his great sense of humor. Franklin is a knitter, writer, illustrator, photographer and author of The Panopticon blog and It Itches: A Stash of Knitting Cartoons.( www.the-panopticon.bogspot.com ) Tired of your hand knit garments not living up to your expectations? We’ve got some answers! JEAN WONG, incredible master instructor for the Japanese Nihon Vogue certificate courses, returns with her very popular Japanese Tailored Knitting and Fine Finishing classes. Delve into the world of Japanese knitting and finishing techniques and your knitting will never be the same! Jean’s classes will show you how to fit and finish your garments professionally. SIVIA HARDING is back with a clever class called Sideways Lace. It uses lace edgings in a non-traditional way to achieve a striking and unique edge treatment for a sideways shawlette. Come and be inspired! Sivia is known for her lace and bead knitting and her patterns can be seen at www.siviaharding.com. CATHERINE LOWE, known for her exacting methods of fitting and finishing returns to teach at Madrona with a new class. All of you who want to polish up your knitting and take the look of your handknits to a professional level, this is for you. Catherine has distilled her signature approach to hand-knitting into six fundamental techniques that will have you saying “Wow”! See more of what Catherine has to offer at www.catherine-lowe.com .
GAYLE ROEHM will help you learn the language of Japanese knitting patterns and stitches. We are so pleased to welcome Gayle back to Madrona. The Japanese are enthusiastic knitters and have some of the most beautiful and also challenging stitch and garment patterns. Gayle has lived in Japan and is fluent in the language. Her classes will focus on understanding Japanese knitting patterns, using Japanese stitch dictionaries and learning some of the challenging Japanese stitch patterns to expand your choices and horizons. AMY DETJEN returns! Amy has been Meg Swansen’s assistant at her knitting camps for over 16 years and has a solution for almost any knitting problem. Her new class “Avoiding the pitfalls of circular yoke sweaters” is just one of those problems that can cause a knitter to go Arghhhh. She will also be teaching EPS – Elizabeth Zimmermann Percentage System along with some other favorites. STEPHANNIE TALLENT taught her style guide for self-publishing patterns as a mini-class at Madrona last year and people have asked for more. She is back this year to teach a longer version of her style guide class along with one on becoming an Indie Designer and a technique called Aran Lace from her new book of patterns, California Revival Knits, with stitch patterns based on classical early 20th Century California design elements. Check out designs and all about Steph at www.sunsetcat.com . Steph will also be spending some time in the Rotunda to talk with those of you who want to take up the publishing challenge.
JUDY PASCALE joins us at Madrona for the first time and brings years of teaching experience from across the United States. Judy will help you add a variety of ways to seam your garments to your knitting skills and introduces the Nuno Felting process. You will create a scarf that uses this ancient textile process that remains vibrant and fascinating today. We also welcome to Madrona for the first time, CANDACE EISNER STRICK,author of many books and the new Strick-ly Socks. Candace will teach her revolutionary new method of knitting socks – heels and toes that are worked flat yet there are no seams – a great class for both beginning and veteran sock knitters. She will also teach Casting Shadows, Austrian Stitch patterns and Double Dare for advanced knitters – more than enough to challenge all you Madrona knitters! You can find more about Candace and her designs and books at www.strickwear.com. JC BRIARis a master at presenting complex techniques and skills in easily digestible portions. Anyone who has seen her Charts made Simple knows it is a must have for every knitter. Join JC as she demystifies charts, and we get twisted and multi-directional! We are so pleased to welcome JC this year to Madrona and you can find out more about JC at www.jcbriar.com We are so pleased to have ANNE BERK return to teach this year at Madrona. Anne is well known for her intarsia classes and this year she brings to us her years of experience doing commission work in repair of handknits. Join Anne in a class that will show you how to repair and restore those beloved handknits that you are not ready to let go of! Anne has an Intarsia DVD and is working on a book due out next year. Visit Anne’s website at www.annetarsia.com BRIAN KOHLER returns to Madrona this year to help you design your own toe-up socks. Brian has designed for Skacel and he originated the “knit a weeks worth of socks all at the same time”.
Who can resist a class with JUDITH MACKENZIE? At Madrona this year Judith will help you discover your own personal color system using dyes and explore various design possibilities. From spinning rare silks to plying luxury blends, introducing you to spinning opossum and understanding and keeping your wheel is good order, a class with Judith leaves you with many new skills, lots of wisdom and a little breathless! Beloved and revered by all who have taken a class with her, Judith wrote the instant best seller The Intentional Spinner and Interweave has issued a number of DVD’s with Judith – all on the best seller list. Her latest, just out, is Three Bags Full, filmed with Judith from the Estes Park wool market. The DVD’s are almost like having your own class with Judith but at Madrona you get the real deal – Judith herself! JACEY BOGGS returns to Madrona and we are so delighted. Jacey is well known for her art yarns and her first book Spin Art was published last year by Interweave. She is a contributing editor for Spin Off magazine. At Madrona, Jacey will take you on a plying adventure, into the beautiful possibilities of Boucle and show you things your grandmother would have taught you at her knee. You can check out all of Jacey’s “doings” at www.insubordiknit.com.
SARAH ANDERSON will again be our spinning mentor at Madrona in the Rotunda and teaching classes too. You have seen each year at Madrona, Sarah’s growing display of every type of yarn – her “yarn dictionary”. Well now it is all in a gorgeous book, The Spinner’s Book of Yarn Designs, with all the information you need to spinning 80 different kinds of yarn. It has just published this fall by Storey books. We’ll be celebrating Sarah’s book at Madrona with more clinics and she will be available in the rotunda for mentoring and showing you how to spin some very special yarns. Sarah will also be teaching several classes including her Foundations of Yarn Design which will teach you the building blocks essential to spinning any kind of yarn. There seems to be a lot of you who have come over to the other side and are spinning your own yarn so Sarah will be available to answer all types of questions and solve problems. Come and spin along with her. AMELIA GARRIPOLI, the wizard of spindle spinning, will expand your spindle skill-set with her class on productive spindling and demonstrate charka spinning. Those of you who have been captivated by the new e-spinners will want to take Amelia’s e-spinner class to build your skill with these little gems. LISA CHAN is a master of the support spindle both making them as a woodturner and teaching how to use them. Last year Lisa demonstrated in the Rotunda and we have brought her back to teach the art of support spindling where you will learn all you need to know to master support spindling from the zippy Russian lace spindles to long spinning Tibetan spindles. Lisa is a 3rd generation fiber and wood artist who has turned more than 2,000 support spindles on her lathe. Learn more about Lisa and her spindles at www.grippingyarn.com.
LINDA GETTMANN returns to Madrona to teach lace patterns and more for the rigid heddle loom. Many of you have already had an introduction to using a rigid heddle and now it is time to move beyond plain weave to how you can manipulate the warp on this handy portable loom to make more intricate designs. Linda will show you how to create beautiful lace patterns and use a pick up stick to help you add highlights, accents or a special border. The possibilities are endless. She will also be demonstrating Kumihimo weaving in the rotunda. Come and try it out!
And if all this makes your muscles stiff, your shoulders sag, and your back ache, then CARSON DEMERS, PT and ergonomics specialist will teach you techniques to keep your body healthy and knitting and spinning happily ever after. This year, Carson will repeat his popular hour long sessions for just 6 students at a time so that you will get some individual feedback to help make your knitting time more enjoyable and free from “after effects”.
THE MADRONA MARKET, MINI–CLASSES AND MORE!
We have another amazing market for you this year and you can expect your favorite vendors to be back along with a few new ones. Check out the vendor list at the Yarn and Fiber Marketplace by clicking on it in the website Table of Contents.
Registration for the Mini–Classes, each just an hour and a half in length, will open the end of January. Most of our great teachers will also be teaching mini-classes so there will be lots of opportunity to for all to participate in Madrona. EVELYN CLARK , the master of lace knit design, will join us again teaching lace design as a mini-class.
Informal gatherings and hanging out is part of the Madrona fun and tradition. Even if you don’t take a class, come and enjoy the Market, demonstrations, clinics, evening events and knit and spin with old and new friends. Remember you only pay for classes and the Saturday night banquet. The rest of Madrona is FREE!
DANIEL HERRERA, your guru of every kind of tricky fiber situation, will again be available for problem solving of all kinds in the Rotunda. SARAH ANDERSON will mentor those who want help with spinning or just want to spin along with her. We’ll have many clinics, (ALL FREE) and also Mini-Classes for those of you who find you can come at the last minute, want to fill in gaps in your regular class schedule, or just want an introduction to a new skill or technique.