Fiber Weekend at the Hartstone Inn

Do you enjoy knitting or needle felting?  Maybe it’s a skill you’ve always wanted to acquire?  Treat yourself to a creative getaway in a beautiful setting.  Learn something new, get creative inspiration, complete a simple knitted or needle felted project, enjoy gourmet cuisine and meet new friends!

Fiber Weekend Package

Available: December 12 & 13, 2014 or Jan 16 & 17, 2015 or March 21 & 22, 2015
Package details: Relax and “unwind” with a weekend of knitting or needle felting led by two fabulous instructors!  Package includes two nights lodging, sumptuous breakfasts each morning, Friday night welcome dinner and our Chef’s spectacular five-course tasting menu on Saturday night.

NEEDLE FELTING

Needle felting uses special barbed needles to tangle loose fibers together to form a solid object.  This art form is versatile and rewarding for beginners as well as those who have been felting for years and want to create pieces that are more complex.

This workshop will teach needle felting techniques applicable to a variety of projects and levels of expertise. Participants will learn skills needed to create with confidence their own needle felted sculptures and will start and complete a simple project.  They will learn techniques to make 3-dimensional forms as well as flat forms and bowls.  Topics covered are: understanding different fibers and how they felt, needle sizes and what they do, color blending, surface decoration, facial expressions, and working with an armature. Experienced needle felters can receive advanced instruction.

All materials will be provided (foam pad, plenty of wool fiber, 4 felting needles of different sizes, instruction guide booklet)

Instructor:  Sue Stasiowski
www.stasiowskiart.com

Bio:
Sue Stasiowski is a fiber artist who became interested in needle felting after years of making hand knit clothing and blankets. Sue spends most of her time needle felting and knitting in her home studio, and also makes time to experiment with other art forms such as fiber wall hangings, bowls and other three-dimensional sculptures. Her work is sold at Leslie Curtis Designs in Camden, The Art Alliance Gallery in Belfast, and will be available at Archipelago in Rockland beginning this winter. Sue also works by commission and her art has been commissioned or purchased by people as broadly-based as Texas, Maryland, and Virginia as well as throughout the Northeastern United States.  Sue is a member of several artistic professional associations, especially in fiber arts.  She lives in Camden, Maine, with her husband.

KNITTING

Bring your knitting needles, yarn and current knitting projects or start from scratch and join us for a knitter’s weekend workshop.  Participants will work with our knitting expert on a variety of projects.  Beginners will learn to cast on and bind off, learn the knit and purl stitch, learn basic increases and decreases, learn to read patterns, and start and finish a simple project during this weekend.  Experienced knitters will get one-on-one help with more complex projects such as cables, lace work, kitchener stitch, linen stitch, and more.  We may also take a field trip to a local alpaca farm or walk to Camden’s yarn store, The Cashmere Goat, where you can browse patterns and shop local Maine yarns such as Blueberry Farm Alpaca and Swans Island Yarn.

Instructor:  Becca Johnson
Go to www.ravelry.com and search for “RebeccaJean” to see more of Becca’s work.

Materials:  Bring your own yarn and knitting needles and a pattern that interests you, or pick one of several free patterns that will be available.  Extra yarn and needles will be available for practicing something new.

Bio:
Becca Johnson has been knitting for several years, enjoying working and helping other knitters at Camden’s local yarn shop, The Cashmere Goat, where she works part-time.  Before working at the knit shop, she was employed as a full-time weaver at Swans Island Blankets for several years.  In addition to her love of fiber, she loves to paint, primarily in watercolor. Her work has benefited The Children’s House Montessori School and Youth Arts.  She lives in Camden with her husband and two children.