North House Folk School

Hello! I’m Riley, one of the new Resident Artisans at North House. I’m a handspinner and weaver based in Minneapolis, and I am so excited to join the community of craft lovers at North House Folk School this year.

Getting into Craft

I’ve always been someone with “busy hands,” drawn toward tactile exploration of my surroundings. I have early memories of learning finger knitting as a child, and was eager for my mom to teach me how to knit with needles next. This came as a shock to her, since she hadn’t knit anything since her own days as a Girl Scout! She bought a copy of Knitting for Dummies to teach herself enough so that I could learn from her, and from there I was off to the races.

Through knitting I found my way to local yarn stores with beautiful braids of hand-dyed fiber. I was determined to learn how to make my own yarn, so I bought a drop spindle and some teal Polwarth wool and began trying to figure it out, with mixed results. The following year I started college in the northeast and was lucky to be met with an entire student group with a herd of Ashford spinning wheels to learn on. During my studies I managed to sneak my handspinning into painting, papermaking, and performance classes, culminating in my senior thesis which involved an eight-foot blue tarp covered in Hardanger-style embroidery. 

Following my graduation, I moved to Minneapolis on a lark and slowly embedded myself in the arts scene. During the pandemic shutdown in 2020, I lost my job in a bike-delivery taco delivery restaurant, which gave me the time to fall back in love with my spinning wheel. Realizing I was producing far more yarn than I could use, I started my business, Better Days Yarn Co., and used money from my first pop-up sale to buy my 8-shaft table loom. 

Life as an Artist

My practice is multifaceted and shifts quite a bit from week to week. Fall and early winter are typically my busiest seasons, and I spend a lot of time with my wheel and dye pots creating work for holiday sales events. During deep winter, my focus shifts towards recharging my creative energy through exploring new projects on my loom. Easing into spring and summer, my time shifts toward the classroom and community; depending on the week, I might be taking a class on dyeing fiber, teaching a youth summer camp bridging textiles and LGBTQ+ pride, preparing an article for Spin Off Magazine about blending textures, leading a community weaving activity, or preparing for an art show. It can be a lot to manage, but it’s very rewarding to get through so many exciting projects each year. 

September and Beyond

This first month of ADP really flew by! Some highlights have been visiting a sauna for their Wednesday community night and cooling off in Lake Superior, joining the Northwoods Fiber Guild, taking a trip down to Minneapolis to help lead an interactive weaving demo at American Swedish Institute, and weaving birch bark covers for my sewing scissors. We also had our first professional practice intensive with photographer Tib Shaw, who helped me take so many pictures of my hard-to-photograph spinning wheel. 

I’m looking forward to the months ahead, where I’ll focus on developing my practices in weaving and teaching. I’ll be sharing my journey here on the North House blog, as well as on my Instagram, @betterdaysyarn.