Time & Space to Unwind – Yarn & Yoga 2023

March 27, 2023March 27, 2023Leave a comment

Madeline, a fat pale woman wearing an icelandic wool sweater and glasses, admires the scarf she's just pulled from an indigo vat, which is drying on a bush

In 2017 when this event was created Kate Larson wrote: ”It’s good to find ways to engage our whole selves, and both yoga and fiber arts are great ways to go about it.”

I was lucky enough to attend that first year, soaking up the yoga, spinning time, and all the loveliness of the hotsprings. It was so wonderful that when I was asked to return and assist I was excited every time. Of course it’s been a few years since we’ve been able to gather, the pandemic saw us cancel for 2020, and Kate is now the editor for Spin-Off magazine and quite busy. Though she won’t be joining us, it is with her encouragement that we are putting together Yarn & Yoga at the Hotsprings in 2023 and we hope that you’ll join us!

Kelly Baraby, our wonderful yoga instructor from Helena, will be returning to guide us through restorative yoga practices each day of the event, and I have a couple other experienced fiber arts instructors with me.

This year I will still offer a natural dye session, and the rest of our time will be more retreat than workshop. We think it’s likely that many of you “need” in your life what I did in the past when I attended this event – rest – some space to be – and time to engage in play. I am partnering with my friend Shelley Stone of the Yarn Underground in Moscow, ID and she is excited to be bringing a variety of wheels, looms and other tools for us all to try!

If you have specific spinning goals, new techniques you’d like to learn, or challenges you are facing please be sure to contact us and we can make sure that tools and materials for practice, as well as helping hands are available for you. For more detailed information on what you can expect please check out the Experience page.

So, bring your wheel, spindle, perhaps a friend or two, and come ready to settle yourself into a fiber nest in a truly beautiful and healing place. We’ll bring the wool, the yoga mats, and of course, as much tea as you’d like.

I’m so looking forward to seeing you there,

Madeline

Color from the Montana landscape

September 15, 2019Leave a comment

There is so much magic hidden within plants & our surroundings! Living in Montana there is a nearly constant call to get outside, combining that with a love of wool and yarns, natural dyeing seemed to follow as I spent my hours wondering the woods, mountains and riversides.

I love the ongoing experiment of it all, the rush of finding and collecting dyestuff, the consideration of the mineral content of different waters, The shifting and modifying of colors with different mordants and modifiers. This year, we are quite excited this year to share with you a short afternoon session at the dye pots with a few different Montana harvested dyestuffs. We will all have a chance to dye some of our precious handspun and bring home some of the color of this beautiful landscape.

We soaked, we stretched, we spun!

June 22, 2019June 22, 2019Leave a comment

Hello everyone, Madeline here & excited to continue to be a part of this wonderful retreat!

Where can we even begin to talk about the fun we had this past year? The combination of hot springs, gentle yoga, and wool in the hand is just, perfection (in my very biased opinion.) Here are some of my favorite photos from our time spent together:

our workspace
Kate’s gorgeous samples!
MT wool up for grabs
Kelly at rest
all yoga props provided
The whole crew! So many friendships made here!

and of course, the Montana landscape is not to be missed!

Meet Madeline

January 19, 2018Leave a comment

Photo: Madeline Keller-King.

Madeline Keller-King, a fiber artist based in Montana, will be helping out at Yarn+Yoga this year. She joined us last year with her bright smile and was enjoyed by all. She works at an LYS, the Woolery Mammoth, and manages the Creative Arts Center, both in Eureka, Montana. We are so excited that she is returning this year and will help out with sourcing some Montana wool, airport transportation, and such.

Here is Madeline (right) with Julie (left) who will also be joining us again this year. Can’t wait to see you both!

Color and Creativity at YYHS

January 19, 2018January 19, 2018Leave a comment

Last October, sixteen spinners (including a few new spinners!) filled a huge, sunny room with laughter and a whole lot o’ wool. We started on Friday with a Fine-Tune Your Spinning class and then jumped into Color and Creativity for Fiber Artists.

We had a long tables in the Boulder Hot Springs Hotel covered in colorful fibers and sample textiles to help inspire our work.

And then, we started stitching fiber color wheels complete with tints and shades.

For 2018, we will continue our creative work and move towards putting our color ideas into yarns, stitches, and fabrics. During our long, relaxing weekend, we can make a series of small textiles that capture our inspirations. We can finish with an easy approach to the technical info we can glean from them and how to keep track of your work. I hope you can join us!