North House Folk School

Overview

Fiber fervor peaks in mid February as lovers of all things fiber connect on campus for Fiber Week. Join us for this special week-long event that celebrates all manner of fiber arts. Featuring speakers, demonstrations, community gatherings, and coursework from long-time North House instructors as well as new artisans; tuck in to the warm and woolly camaraderie this winter. Create your own fiber adventure with spinning, knitting, felting, dyeing, embroidery, and more! 

Event Highlights

Fiber Friday

Fiber Friday, a fabulous feature of Fiber Week, will be February 14. We’ll host a day of speakers, demonstrations, and community gatherings free for all. Connect with students and instructors, expand your interests and enjoy our cozy campus learning atmosphere. Come early or stay late; you won’t want to miss Fiber Friday! 

Evening Programming

Several evenings of Fiber Week feature programs all are welcome to attend and connect with other fiber enthusiasts.

Featured Speaker

We're thrilled to welcome fiber artist Maggie Thompson, founder and owner of Makwa Studio, as our featured speaker for Fiber Week.  Join us at 7pm, Friday, February 13.

Event Details

FIBER FRIDAY
February 13

A day of learning and community, creativity, and exploration! Enjoy a morning full of fiber talks, the afternoon Fiber Fun Fair, where fiber enthusiasts gather and share, and the special evening presentation by our featured guest Maggie Thompson.

Speaker Series

9am-1pm| Friday, February 13
Join fiber artists for talks and presentations about fiber experiences around the world and stories of inspiration and learning as they’ve grown their practice.

9am | Reviving Linen with Leslie Schroeder

This talk will include stories of fiber flax in history both near and far, information on the cultivation and processing of flax into the well loved textile linen, and share the latest developments in the evolving work to expand growing flax for fiber in our region at both artisanal and field scales.

Leslie's background is a blend of practical skills, community engagement, and a deep connection to nature. She enjoyed fourteen years as a stay-at-home homeschooling parent of two which provided her the flexibility of time to deepen into the contemporary fiber crafts of sewing, knitting, and learning to weave on a floor loom, while also exploring traditional textile skills of twining wild cordage and hand tanning buckskins. Finding continuity from all that is ancient and modern in fiber flax, Leslie became smitten with linen. Drawing it all together is an inspiration that there is something sacred in mending our relationship with our clothes. Founder of Midwest Linen Revival, Leslie has been enthusiastically working to bring all that she has in passion and organizing skill into reviving a fiber-flax industry in The Midwest. She sleeps outside whenever she can.
 

10am | Wool Crafts and Ecology in Estonia with Dr. Mathilde Yakymets-Lind

Known for its beautiful folk dress traditions, Estonia is home to the Estonian native sheep (eesti maalammas), a small, thrifty breed with a shaggy double-coated fleece. Traditionally and today, these sheep have been grazed on biodiverse coastal meadows and in forest pastures, where they both help to maintain the landscape and provide hearty, multicolored wool for knitting and weaving. In this talk, folklorist and artisan Mathilde Yakymets-Lind will discuss the entanglement of traditional wool crafts and ecology in Estonia through the lens of these special sheep and their wool.
 

11am | Slow Fashion Sheep to Sweater with Josie Cooke

Join Josie Cooke for a sheep to sweater project with a twist. Using funding provided by the Three Rivers Fibershed organization, sheep wool was regionally sourced (within 300 miles of Minneapolis), which was then washed, carded or combed, spun into yarn, plied, and knit into a sweater. A range of natural sheep colors were used to show the variety, and four of the five breeds are on the Livestock Conservancy's Shave 'em to Save 'em list.
 

Noon | Scandinavia Travel Panel with Melba Granlund, Riley Kleve, and Anna Lindall

Melba Granlund shares about historical textile pieces she has seen, touched, and tried to emulate in workshops during the Textile Tours she’s taken with Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. Each trip focused on textile-related subjects in one of the five Nordic countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Denmark. 

Hear about Riley Kleve's journey to Sweden, Norway, and Denmark with the rest of their resident artisan cohort. Riley toured spinning and weaving mills, explored regional textile vernaculars along with contemporary expressions of folk art and culture, and had a chance encounter with rockstar activist Greta Thunberg on the streets of Stockholm. Learn about what happens when you unexpectedly buy a loom overseas, why you've probably never heard of Danish handweaving, and the many ways in which textiles are thriving today in Scandinavia. 

Anna Lindall presents Fiber Arts and Culture Building in Contemporary Sweden and will speak on fiber arts in contemporary Sweden through the lens of her experiences in the Stockholm area in 2022 and 2025--training in the Slöjdklubb teaching methodology and participating in Storholmen Viking Village. These are unique contemporary cultural projects that emphasize fiber arts as living traditions.
 

Fiber Fair

2-5pm | Friday, February 13

Enjoy a host of fiber activities under one roof. Drop in and visit instructors, our guest speakers, and fiber friends all set up to share some favorite fiber projects and processes. Learn about sheep breeds, flax, knitting, spinning, wet felting, bandweaving, embroidery and more! Stay for 10 minutes or two hours! Open to all fiber enthusiasts. 
 

Featured Presentation with Maggie Thompson

7pm | Friday, February 13
Join us for a special evening presentation with fiber artist Maggie Thompson (Fond du Lac Ojibwe), founder and owner of Makwa Studio in Minneapolis.

During the Week: Evening Activities

Most evenings during Fiber Week will offer a fiber-themed program for all to enjoy.

Private Shop Tour and Fiber Circle at Dappled Fern Fibers

7pm | Tuesday, February 10

Enjoy a special look around local yarn shop Dappled Fern Fibers during a private shop tour. Enjoy light refreshments and stick around for a fun fiber circle with Dappled Fern staff. Bring your works in progress or start something new with a just-purchased ball of beautiful yarn!
REGISTER HERE!
Dappled Fern Fibers is located at 15 Broadway Ave, Grand Marais www.dappledfernfibers.com
 

Stitching (& More!) Open-Studio

7pm | Wednesday, February 12

Join in a relaxed evening of connecting with those gathered for Fiber Week. Bring along a fiber project you're working on and enjoy a cozy night of crafty camaraderie.
 

Up North Fiber Swap

7pm | Thursday, February 13
Looking to update your cache of fiber goods and also let go of a few materials or tools. Bring a selection of fabrics, yarns, notions, fiber craft supplies, craft books & magazines, or small fiber tools, and find some new-to-you treasures! 
No early drop-off, please.
 

Featured Presentation with Maggie Thompson

7pm | Friday, February 13
 

Show & Share, Hosted by the Northwoods Fiber Guild

7pm | Saturday, February 14 at Johnson Heritage Post 

The Fiber Week Show & Share is a cherished event of the weekend when Fiber Week participants and instructors can come together and share work they have done, past and present.  This year is a special one as the Show & Share will be held at the Northwoods Fiber Guild's exhibit at the Johnson Heritage Post Gallery - just a handful of blocks from North House.  Bring something from home or from a Fiber Week class to share. All are welcome.
Johnson Heritage Post is located at 115 W Wisconsin St, Grand Marais