Patsy Sue Zawistoski
Ellettsville, Indiana

A spinner and a weaver, Patsy holds a Certificate of Excellence in Handspinning from the Handweavers Guild of America, plus a Master’s Certificate for her study Spinning Novelty Yarns for Use as Warp. Patsy travels widely across the United States as a lecturer and teacher. She has taught classes for various guilds, shops, community arts programs, conferences, SOAR 88 and 95 and Convergence 90, 92, and 96. Fiber magazines often feature her articles. She is continually exploring and refining her spinning techniques. A complete textile artist, Patsy creates unique liturgical weavings and appliques for churches across the nation. Her work is recognized for its use of color through a wide variety of styles. 

Constructing designer yarns can be frustrating unless you understand the fundamentals of yarn structure. Are you ready to be in charge of your yarn? Patsy systematically shows you how to spin toward a particular goal. A wide variety of yarn structures will be studied: smooth and even in fine, medium and heavy weights; 2 and 3 ply yarns from one source, single ball, Navajo and Andean or wrist plying; novelty yarns like thick and thin slub yarns (on purpose), fuzzy and hairy yarns; plus special yarns like cable, spiral, bead, knot, flake, loopy boucle and core spun boucle. Create a notebook of yarn recipes. Supplies: Hand cards; wheel, 2-3 bobbins; lazy kate; niddy noddy; ball winder; plastic sandwich bags; 3X5 cards; scissors, stapler or tape; notebook with paper; pen or pencil. Fee: $25.00. Level: Intermediate, comfortable with their wheels and with experimenting with a variety of fibers.

Supplies:Hand cards; wheel, 2-3 bobbins; lazy kate; niddy noddy; ball winder; plastic sandwich bags; 3X5 cards; scissors, stapler or tape; notebook with paper; pen or pencil.
Fee: $25.00.
Level: Intermediate, comfortable with their wheels and with experimenting with a variety of fibers.

Recreating a novelty style yarn can be frustrating unless you understand the fundamentals of yarn structure. Patsy’s class will help you to decode a number of plain and fancy commercial or handspun yarns to see the twist, size and variety of plies used in the construction of each yarn. Each student will receive Patsy’s special “yarn decoder” to examine several yarns during the class. Using a method of shorthand, we will record the number of twists and plies, so the yarns can be spun 

Supplies: Paper; pencil; scissors; small calculator, tape (reading glasses if needed); magnifying glass (optional)—no wheel.
Fee: $3.00
Level: All.

Spend a day learning how to create five basic novelty yarns. Learn to do a mixed twist spiral, a core spun boucle, a knotted yarn, a cable yarn and a lopi style single. We will be working mainly in wool and mohair. We will cover a few designer basics needed to spark your own creativity and set you free to produce your own special yarns.

Supplies: A wheel with a slow to medium drive speed; lazy kate; extra bobbins; hand cards; ball winder; 3X5 index cards; tape or stapler; sandwich baggies.
Fee: $10.00
Level: Intermediate spinner.

Top of page.