Join us on San Juan Island off the coast of Washington State in July! San Juan Islands are a welcome escape from city life with their stunning landscapes, uncrowded beaches, numerous hiking trails, variety of wildlife, and relaxing atmosphere. The Salish Sea is home to seabirds and eagles, seals and sea lions, baleen whales and orca and the islands are home to deer and fox.

Spend 4 full days with your guides and instructors, Designer/Author Mary Jane Mucklestone, Natural Dyer/Farmer/Gardener Tammy White of Wing & A Prayer Farm, Designer Ellen Mason, Shepherdess Angie Shephard of Stillwater Farm and Sharon Keller of Ferry Boat Farm. Their joint love of sheep and the respect of the enduring nature of natural fiber and the fun of creating beautiful yarn from natural dyes from locally sourced materials brings us all together.

Things you’ll learn -

A. Two-Part Colour exploration with designer and knitter Mary Jane Mucklestone. Mary Jane loves teaching, designing colorful knitting patterns, and color. She travels the world exploring knitting traditions and teaching. She helps others online and in person to learn more. She writes, so well, and has published books on stranded knitting, Fair Isle, Shetland knits, Scandinavian knits and more. Her patterns are available online, also, and she is a Knit Star!

Mostly, she is so lovely and fun to learn with, spend time with. She is a delightful and bright light, you’ll love her!

B. Sewist/Designer/Dyer Ellen Mason will be teaching a custom designed bag. We’ll have the sewing machines and supplies ready, you just bring yourself and your creativity. Ellen has designed the class to employ using vintage/thrifted materials that will be cleverly crafted into durable and pretty totes. Ellen has experience teaching workshops all over New England with all skill levels in fiber arts. Her background goes back to working in Fiber Mills, designing screen prints, pattern design for knitwear and fabric, and engineering any old thing that needs engineering.

Ellen is sunshine personified. She is patient and kind and smart and as my grandfather used to say, if you’re lucky enough to know her, you’re lucky enough. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn with the best.

C. Sharon Keller owns Ferry Boat Farm with her husband Randy. They are a 4-generation farm on San Juan Island and have wonderful eggs from their layer flock and a bounteous vegetable and flower garden. They are also home to Shetland Sheep - a nice little spinners’ flock! We will be enjoying farm-to-table fare from Ferry Boat Farm on some occasions, and will enjoy an extensive garden tour where we will also be having a Natural Dye Workshop. These hosts with the most are going to have you wanting to stay a little bit longer than you planned! A relaxing, inspiring farm with generous and learned folks - there’s always something to talk about with Sharon and Randy.

D. Tammy White from Wing & A Prayer Farm is teaching Natural Dyeing at Ferry Boat Farm as part of this retreat. The connection to San Juan Island is, Sheep! Naturally! Tammy has natural dye experience as part of her production fiber farm and has been naturally dyeing all of the yarn that her flock produces since 2010. The gardens at Wing & A Prayer Farm grow the dyestuffs so Tammy has garden experience to support the resources. You will learn to dye with what is available, and how to expand your palette using minimal resources so as to not be prohibited from making progress be it expense or availability. Natural Dyeing with Tammy White is an easy and thorough way to indulge in the alchemy of botanical dyeing. Tammy will walk you through all you need to know to dye on any scale.

E. Angie Shephard is the farm manager at Stillwater Farm on San Juan Island which is home to Suffolk and Shetland sheep. Angie operates the acreage with the help of family and has experience in everything from regenerative agriculture to fiber processing, animal handling, and administrative work. We will spend a good portion of a day with her at Stillwater Farm and be introduced the various livestock and dive into fleece handling in the bright and airy barn. You’ll have all of your questions answered on processing fiber from the sheep, what makes a good harvest of wool, how to handle it - from farm to yarn, Angie will help us learn in a beautiful setting. Angie is fascinating to listen to, has information and experience on everything, it seems, and we will be so fortunate to be in her audience.

TENTATIVE ITINERARY

Sunday July 6 – Arrival and settling in.

Welcome Evening with Pizza and Cocktails

Monday July 7 – 10:00 – 3:00

Visit with Angie Shephard at Stillwater Farm

Focus on Sustainable Fiber Farming, Shearing, Fleece Handling

Hands on as well as informative discussions

Box Lunch at Stillwater Farm

6:00 Farm to Table Dinner at Ferry Boat Farm

Boyd Pratt, historian and author, to speak about the islands

Tuesday July 8. – 10:00 – 4:00

Garden Tour and Natural Dyeing Workshop with Tammy White at

Ferry Boat Farm

Light Lunch

6:00 Dinner at Saturn’s Return

Wednesday July 9 – 9:00 – 12:00

Two part color exploration with Mary Jane Mucklestone at Saturn’s Return

10:00 Muffins and Drinks

Afternoon to relax and/or explore on your own

6:00 Dinner at Saturn’s Return

7:00 – 9:00 Class with Ellen Mason at Saturn’s Return

Thursday July 10. – 9:00 – 12:00

Two part color exploration with Mary Jane Mucklestone at Saturn’s Return

10:00 Muffins and Drinks

Afternoon to relax and/or explore on your own

6:00 Farewell Dinner

7:00 – 9:00 Class with Ellen Mason at Saturn’s Return

Friday July 11 – 10:30

Depart

ACCOMODATIONS:

(Cost of Accommodations not included in price for retreat. Please call and make your reservations as soon ask possible as the islands are extremely busy during the summer months.)

Our main home for the week will be Saturn’s Return Farm and Inn located on San Juan Island. www.saturnsreturn.com . There are 9 rooms. 8 Rooms have one King or Queen bed and one room has 2 Full beds. We have reserved all the rooms at the Inn. When you call, inform them you are with Farm to Needle.

We have also reserved a condominium overlooking Roche Harbor that sleeps 4-5 guests, to ensure we have accommodations for everyone. Feel free to call me for more information.

Check in is 4:00 P.M. Sunday, July 6

Check out is 10:30 A.M. on Friday, July 11.

After you purchase, a registration form will be emailed to you to fill out to help complete the process.