North House Folk School

Free Webinars & Lunch and Learns

Fiber February Knit Alongs Sneak Peek

Thursday January 14th, 7-8 pm CT

Have you heard? In February North House is teaming up with Dappled Fern Fibers, a new community fiber arts venture in Grand Marais, to host four virtual knit alongs! A knit along is a way for a group of knitters to work on the same project at the same time and learn from each other along the way. Join Dappled Fern founders Dorothy and Mary Ellen for a short webinar sharing information about the knit along options, how to participate, and an introduction to Dappled Fern Fibers. After the webinar, you’ll be all ready to sign up to participate in a knit-along.

Register in advance for this webinar

Lunch and Learn: Swedish Weaving with Arianna Funk

Thursday February 4th, Noon-1 CT

Weaving and other textile crafts are experiencing a wave of popularity in the West. The weaving collective Ariana is a member of, Studio Supersju, aims to keep weaving relevant and forward-thinking while being rooted in centuries of weaving practice in Sweden. Arianna will talk about what it's like to learn a skill and build a career in one's second language and about being a kulturbärare (a bearer of culture) when you're not from the tradition you're preserving.

Arianna E. Funk’s website is www.areclothesmodern.com and Studio Supersju's website is studiosupersju.com

Arianna's bio is available here: www.areclothesmodern.com/about

Register in advance for this webinar

Lunch and Learn: Norwegian Knitting in Time and Distance: Heirloom Sheep with Short Tails and a Rag Pile Heritage with Long Tales with Annemor Sundbø

Thursday February 11, Noon-1 CT

Author Annemor Sundbø, the “sweater detective,” will join us for a Lunch and Learn webinar to share stories from her research into the most familiar and well-loved Norwegian knitwear. For more than 25 years, Annemor has unraveled the history of knitting, following the thread all the way back to the very oldest tales, which feature a mix of cultural history, memory, myth and hypotheses. She will discuss her books Koftearven and Spelsau og Samspill, live from the Setesdalsmuseum, which features her exhibition. 

Register in advance for this webinar

Lunch and Learn: Contextualizing Textiles: Family Ties and Textile History with LaChaun Moore

Thursday February 18th noon-1 CT

Contextualizing Textiles: Family Ties and Textile History is a workshop and presentation with artist LaChaun Moore that starts with a dive into her ethnographic textile research which focuses on the history of race and agriculture in the United States of America. For the short workshop portion of this Lunch and Learn she asks participants about their first interaction with agriculture and to choose a garment from their closet in order to start a dialog about their personal connection to the fiber content and its context. 

LaChaun's bio:

“As an artist, I am available in response.”

LaChaun Moore is an interdisciplinary artist who engages the public with her ethnographic fiber making and research practice. Her practice focuses on plant species that are linked specifically to black and indigenous farmers who’ve been overlooked for their agricultural contributions and exploited for their ingenuity. She earned her BFA in Integrated Design at Parsons, The New School For Design with a focus on Alternative Fashion Strategies and Social Practice. There she began her grant funded research Perceptions of Cotton and Agriculture with in the African American Community awarded by the Tischman Environment and Design Center. On a small scale, she grows naturally colored cotton as well as ancestral indigo sourced from a Low Country plantation with goals to create a commercial scale sustainable brand with social constructive social awareness.  As part of her research LaChaun co-host's the WEAVE podcast.   She has interviewed a diverse group of sustainable farmers, fiber makers and weavers who all function with the same goal of creating a more equitable and sustainable fiber system. Her work envisions investigating, documenting and implementing ancestral knowledge as the start to chipping away at the inequalities within the fiber system that still reign today. 

Register in advance for this lunch and learn

Lunch and Learn: Stories from the Land - Landscape Quilts with Gwen Westerman

Wednesday February 24th, Noon-1pm CT

From hand-dying fabric with snow to creating quilts that tell stories, Gwen Westerman incorporates the language and songs of her Dakota culture into her fiber art and poetry. Learn more about how she took advantage of Minnesota winters to hand-dye fabric with a snow-resist process that was much easier than she anticipated, and her homeland informs her art.

Register in advance for this webinar

Wonders and Ways with Wool Webinar with Linda Johnson Morke

Thursday February 25th, 7-8 pm CT

Wool is wonderful! It has many properties that we can explore. Wool has history regarding nations and even currency. Wool can be silky soft for baby clothes or hard-wearing and course for a rug. Wool can be made into a lacy shawl or a closely felted covering for a yurt. How can one fiber do so many things? Starting with a scientific look at the fibers from different breeds of sheep and going to the many cultures wool has influenced, come learn the Wonders and Ways with Wool.

Linda's bio:

Linda has been a fiber enthusiast for the majority of her life. Knitting started at 5 years old and twisting her hair at an even younger age. Knitting led to spinning (something more that her hair) which led to sheep and rabbits. Felting led to different sheep, trips to Norway and Mongolia and a passion for understanding why wools felt differently. Being an engineer by training and curious by nature resulted in many years of fiber experimentation as an outlet for her creativity. A 10 year hiatus from the corporate world led to a line of fulled wool products sold both wholesale and retail.  A shepherd for more than 30 years, Linda has shepherded Navajo Churro, Border Leicester, Cheviot, Hampshire, Karakul, Finnish Landrace, Icelandic, Texel, Blue Faced Leicester (BFL),Tunis and Gotland sheep. Her current flock consists of Icelandic & BFL crosses, Karakul and Gotland sheep. Her latest project was directing the felting of a Mongolian yurt in Northern Minnesota. Linda currently lives on a farm in Isanti, MN and enjoys sharing what she has learned through classes and lectures.

Register in advance for this webinar

Fiber February Show and Share

Friday February 26th, 7-8 pm

A treasured element of our annual celebration of all things fiber is the Show and Share! We’re taking the party online this year and invite you to join us for an epic show and tell evening—feel free to bring something (that you made in a class, a knit along, or have just made recently) or attend just to see all the amazing things other folks have to show. We’ll spend about an hour together sharing things by holding them up to our cameras and ooo-ing, aaah-ing, and sharing stories. Curl up with your laptop, some cookies, and a project to share—all are welcome!

Sign up in advance to join us for the Show and Share

Knit Alongs with Dappled Fern Fibers!

Want some group support as you tackle a knitting project that will introduce you to new skills? A Knit Along is just that—you’ll sign up to knit a project and meet a few times during the month with other knitters working on the same project to show off your work in progress, ask questions, and encourage each other along the way. The new local fiber shop Dappled Fern Fibers is offering four knit alongs in February as part of Fiber Month. $30 each.

Check them out at the links below:

• Dark Sky Neckwarmer Knit Along
• Wildflower Hand Warmers Knit Along 
• Headway Hat Knit Along
• Mother Superior Pullover Knit Along