Designing Yarn with Judith MacKenzie

I was lucky to be able to squeeze into Judith MacKenzie's Designing Yarn class at Black Sheep Gathering.  The class was full an hour after registration was open and I was first on the wait list.  I got the call a week out and signed right up.


It was fun being in class with Judith as she has so much knowledge to share on all aspects of fiber.  Part of the class was to determine what to do with what fiber you have and to bring some projects that you are interested in making and learning how to accomplish that.


A requirement for class was to bring three fibers from home and maybe a pattern or two.  Some people brought so much fiber that we spent quite a bit of time just going through the stash.


She again provided information on core spinning, carding base material with luxury bits to extend the life, and other tips and tricks.  Here are some of the sample yarns she demonstrated.

 Slubby yarn boucled on silk

 Three ply alpaca/silk hand carded

 Slubby yarn plied on itself

 Alpaca fiber twisted around coned yarn

Alpaca fluff twisted around commercial coned yarn and the same plied with thread


She also spun up for comparison and two-ply and a three-ply yarn and demonstrated her plying techniques.

As usual, Judith had all kinds of sample fibers for the taking to try different techniques.  She was also generous enough to talk about my yarn and her evaluation of my show entries.  It was very enlightening and it is always a pleasure to be able to learn from her.