Spinning and Weaving in Taos

Dates: January 18-24, 2024
Location: Mabel Dodge Luhan House, Taos, New Mexico

The retreat was so much fun! You can see photos and more about it on my blog here: https://rebeccamezoff.com/blog/2024/1/25/spinning-for-tapestry-weaving

Many of you have asked if we’ll do it again. The answer is yes, in 2025.

This special retreat in Taos, NM is one of a kind. Rebecca Mezoff is teaming up with Jillian Moreno to bring you a week of spinning yarn for tapestry weaving.

Read through the whole page, but when you need to find something quickly, the links directly below will take you to that part of the page.

The Workshop
Mabel Dodge Luhan House
Housing Choices
Meals
What to Bring
Pricing
Tentative Schedule
Cancellation Terms
About Jillian and Rebecca
What to do Next (includes important dates)
Registration Form
Gallery
Weather and getting to Taos

Spinning your own yarn for tapestry weaving means that you can control the structure and the color of the yarn in ways you’re unable to do with commercial yarns. The possibilities for spinning yarn to make images using tapestry are exciting and varied. This retreat offers you the expertise of two yarn lovers. Jillian Moreno is a master spinner, teacher, and author, editor at Ply Magazine and Knitty, and orchestrator of the best Patreon on the planet! She teams up with master tapestry artist and author, Rebecca Mezoff to teach you how to make yarns for creating unique images in tapestry weaving.

We’ll divide the class for four of the days and you’ll work in either weaving or spinning in the morning or the afternoon in separate studios. On the fifth day we’ll have an open studio and discuss what we’ve learned as a group. We’ll have time to finish up last minute questions and projects and talk about next steps as we return home to do our work.

Experience required:

For spinning: If you are familiar with your wheel or spindle, can spin a continuous thread, and are comfortable making a 2-ply yarn, this class is for you.

For tapestry: If you can warp a loom, have done it a few times, and know some basic tapestry techniques and terminology, you’re ready for this retreat. If you’re not sure, Rebecca’s Introduction to Tapestry Weaving online course will get you ready.

MDL is a warm and inviting place. In January there will be a fire in the lounge (unless it is unusually warm!). Please take a look at the rooms on the MDL website here: http://mabeldodgeluhan.com/. Pricing is based on housing in Historic House or Juniper House. All provided meals are in the Historic House. Remember that there may be snow and that the surfaces at MDL are uneven and can be precarious. Bring good winter shoes and anything else you need to feel secure walking on their old, rocky walkways! (I’m not above using trekking poles when it is slippery!)

Mabel Dodge Luhan House (MDL) is a retreat-style facility with no televisions, alarm clocks, or telephones. There is wifi only in the main lounge area. You will have a key to this area (for 24 hour access) which includes sitting areas, fireplaces, and internet access on your own device. Please embrace this retreat as a time to get off your devices and into the experience of weaving and spinning in a beautiful setting. There is cell service and MDL House is within walking distance of downtown Taos.

If you’re interested in the history of Mabel Dodge and her house, I’d recommend reading Edge of Taos Desert by Mabel herself. The bookstore at the hotel has a nice selection of other books by and about Mabel, but if you want to understand more about who she was before you visit her house, she does a great job telling it from her perspective in that book.

Housing choices are detailed under Pricing. You can choose a room in the Historic House which is Mabel’s original home or you can stay in Juniper House which is just a few steps away. Please visit the hotel’s website to get a feeling for the rooms and indicate your first and second choice on the registration form. https://www.mabeldodgeluhan.com/accommodations/rooms/

Many rooms have two beds. Some are double/queen plus a twin, some are two twins. Please pay attention to the bed configuration and what you’ll need as you choose your room. We’ll be filling almost every room in this hotel, so people who register later will have to take what rooms are left. They’re all lovely but you might end up with a twin bed if you wait too long to register!

Extending your stay: MDL holds all the rooms from bed and breakfast registrations until a month before our retreat (until December 17, 2023). If you’d like to extend your stay, you can arrange with MDL to do so. You’ll need to call them, tell them you’re part of my retreat, and you can reserve additional nights. If you’d like to stay in the same room, make sure to tell them which room you’re assigned to. MDL phone: 575-751-9686. The rates on their website are the rates you’ll be charged for those nights.

Taos county residents: If you are resident of Taos county and want to be a commuter for this class, please indicate this on your registration form. If the retreat is full and you want to come, please contact Rebecca at hello@rebeccamezoff.com as there is probably room for a additional commuter. Mabel Dodge Luhan House extends this special possibility for Taos County residents only. All other workshop participants are required to stay at the house.

Companion

You may bring a spouse or companion with you if they are able to entertain themselves while you’re at the workshop. See additional rates under Pricing below. They are welcome at all meals. I only have a few openings for spouses at this retreat due to the size of the dining room, so when those are full, there won’t be any more ability to add a spouse. Please make sure your companion really does want to come before you sign them up!

The food at MDL is excellent. The Chef Sophia and her team are masterful and I think you’ll be pleased by everything on offer. They can accommodate most dietary issues, but it is important that you let me know in the registration form if you need dietary accommodations.

Breakfast and lunch: These meals are provided in the MDL dining room each day of our stay ending with breakfast on the last day.

Dinner: Dinners at MDL will be on the first night, January 18th, Sunday, January 21st, and the last night, Tuesday, January 23rd. The other three nights you’ll need to find dinner in Taos. Rebecca can provide dining suggestions and there are always people in the group who would love to add a dining companion to their car or walk together to one of the closer restaurants.

For the workshop:

Tapestry equipment

A loom: it is best if you can bring your own loom, however, Rebecca does have enough Mirrix Saffron looms for about half of you, so if you’d like her to bring one of those for you to use, please indicate that on the registration form. Small table-top or lap tapestry looms are excellent for this retreat. We’ll mostly be sampling tapestry yarns but you may want to actually weave a small tapestry during your time here. Please contact Rebecca with questions.

Tools: Please bring all your regular tapestry weaving tools. This includes things like tapestry fork, shed stick, any loom parts including heddles, tapestry needles, measuring device, scissors.

Headphones for your music. People have vastly different taste in music and auditory tolerance. Please use headphones.

Task light: The light in the workshop rooms is fair but not great. A task light is useful for most people. If you are driving please also bring an extension cord and a power strip to share with a neighbor.

Spinning equipment

A wheel is good working order, 3 bobbins, a small lazy kate, a niddy noddy, tags to mark samples and pen and paper to take notes. Please bring any other spinning tools you like to use. If you use a spindle you may want to bring a second plying spindle.

We will provide all the spinning fiber for the retreat. You don’t need a lot for tapestry weaving and we’ll have a variety of things to try. If you have fiber that you have questions about, please do bring them so we can talk about why that fiber might be excellent and how to spin it… or perhaps why it might not work so well.

For Taos:

• casual dress, clothing for winter in Taos (30-60 degrees F)

• walking shoes if you’re exploring the town of Taos or going hiking on the gorge or along the Rio Grande. Snow gear if you’re going to the Taos Ski Valley.

• It sometimes snows in Taos in January and the surfaces at MDL are uneven and sometimes slippery. Bring good shoes for this environment. Taos, NM is a very casual place. Comfortable, practical clothes are fine even at the nicest restaurants.

Note that snow in New Mexico in January does happen but it most often melts before noon and it is fairly rare to have enough snow to significantly impact the roads.

Price is based on the housing you choose. There are three options. For details on the rooms, visit Mabel Dodge Luhan’s website here: http://mabeldodgeluhan.com/accommodations/rooms/. Please note that the housing rates on their website are not the ones for us as we have additional fees for the conference and food. Those are the rates if you are extending your stay.

Prices below are all inclusive for 6 nights, 7 days. This includes your housing, taxes, the included meals, the workshop fee, plus all handouts and workshop extras. There will be spinning fiber provided.

A shared room indicates a room shared with another workshop participant. Companion fee information is below.

Historic House Rates

Private room: $2850
Shared room: $2400 (shared with another workshop participant)

Juniper House Rates

Private room: $2550

Companions: You may bring a significant other to this retreat. Your room will be billed at the private room rate and a fee of $575 which covers the double occupancy and extra meals that MDL charges me. For example, if you want to stay in the Historic House, you’d register for a private room for you and your companion. The total amount paid would be the private room fee of $2850 plus $575 = $3425. Companions are welcome at all meals and are free the rest of the time to enjoy Northern New Mexico.

Taos County Residents: There are two spots for residents of Taos County. Mabel Dodge extends a special rate to local people so if you live here and you want to commute each day, please contact Rebecca at hello@rebeccamezoff.com for your rates. This rate includes all meals and teaching and excludes housing.

Deposit: A $300 deposit is needed to hold your spot in the retreat. Rebecca will send you a PayPal invoice for this after you register. This deposit is refundable minus a $150 processing fee until December 11, 2023 and is non-refundable after that.

Final payment: I’ll send you a PayPal invoice for the final payment which is due December 11th. If you’d like to pay via check, please contact Rebecca for arrangements.

I will contact you if I don’t receive your full payment by 12/11/23. If I don’t hear from you by 12/13/23, your spot will go to the first person on the waiting list and none of your deposit is refundable.

I will refund your payments until December 11, 2023 minus the $150 processing fee. After that date, nothing is refundable unless I can find someone to fill your spot. If I can fill it, you’ll get a refund minus the deposit.

COVID policy

Everyone attending my retreats needs to be vaccinated and boosted for Covid-19. I have an autoimmune disease and can’t risk getting this virus and many other people are in similar situations. If you are not someone who has been vaccinated, please do choose one of my wonderful online classes! The only exception for this is people with autoimmune diseases who cannot get vaccinated. They’re counting on us to keep them safe, so if you can get vaccinated and boosted, please do!

I will make refund exceptions for COVID positivity on a case by case basis. Please be careful in the weeks leading up to the retreat. No one wants their vacation ruined by this virus! Testing is recommended a day or two before you arrive.

Thursday, Jan 18

3-6 pm: Arrival and check-in
3-6pm: unload your weaving and spinning equipment at Juniper House and the yoga studio as you desire and settle into your room
6:30 pm: Dinner in the main house with introductions and more information from Rebecca and Jillian

General schedule Friday through Monday

8am Breakfast at MDL
Gather in studios for work in tapestry and spinning (you’ll work with one in the morning and the other in the afternoon)
12:00-1:00 Lunch at MDL
Gather in studios to work in tapestry and spinning
Dinner at MDL on Sunday the 21st and Tuesday the 23rd. Other dinners are on your own.

Tuesday, Jan 23

9am: Open studio for everyone
2pm: Group trip to Taos Wools plus afternoon exploration time in Taos

Wednesday, Jan 24

Our last breakfast together! We’ll have time to clean out the studios this morning, say goodbye, and head our separate ways until next time. Check out of your hotel room by 10:30 am.

Additional activities

On Tuesday, January 2rd we’ll have a group trip to Taos Wools in Arroyo Seco. We’ll be car pooling to get there and this is an optional trip. Joe has lots of tapestry yarn as well as roving and fleece, a workshop room to explore, a small gallery, and even knitting yarn!

All breakfasts and lunches are provided at the hotel. Dinner will be provided to our group on arrival day, Thursday the 18th, Sunday the 21st, and the last night, Tuesday the 23rd. All other dinners are on your own.

Please fill out the registration form below on or after September 18, 2023. I will send you a PayPal invoice for your $300 deposit within 12-24 hours. You can always email me if you haven’t heard at hello@rebeccamezoff.com.

IMPORTANT DATES

September 18, 2023: Registration for retreat opens on this web page. $300 deposit due upon registration (Rebecca will send you an invoice within 24 hours of your registration).

December 11, 2023: Payment in full due via credit card, PayPal, or check. Also the last day for a refund minus the $150 processing fee from your deposit.

December 13, 2023: If I don’t hear from you and don’t get full payment by this date I’ll release your spot to the first person on the waiting list and your deposit is non-refundable in full.

December 17, 2023: Last day to extend your stay at MDL if you want to make sure you’ll get the same room for the extra days. If you want to come early or stay later, you need to call MDL and make that accommodation. Just let them know you’re in my retreat and what room you’re in. 575-751-9686.

January 18, 2023: Check-in after 3 pm, dinner provided at 6:30 pm in the Historic House dining room.

January 18-24, 2023: See you in Taos!

I am linking the registration form on a different page. Please click the button below to fill out the form! I’ll get back to you within 24 hours with a PayPal invoice for the $300 deposit. If you’re worried that something didn’t work right, you can email me at hello@rebeccamezoff.com to check. After filling out the form, the website page will change to a thank you message and if you see that, I got your registration!

Click on the photos to see the full image, hover for captions, arrows to navigate (on a computer).

Taos is in the high desert of Northern New Mexico. It is about a 2.5 hour drive from the Albuquerque International Airport or 1.5 hours from the Santa Fe airport. It does sometimes snow in January. In general the snows are not more than an inch or two and they usually melt by 10 am. Rebecca has taught many winter retreats in Taos and there has never been a time when the roads were severely impacted. The snow is beautiful and usually short-lived.

The easiest way to get to Taos is to fly into Albuquerque or Santa Fe and rent a car. Public transportation in New Mexico is difficult and though there are shuttles to Taos, the businesses running them change every year. I am checking into whether there are any shuttles operating this year in January but we may not know that for a few months.

The most direct driving route is north through Santa Fe, Española, and up the canyon to Taos. If you have more time and the weather is beautiful, I’d recommend taking the High Road to Taos through Chimayo and the high villages.

Carpooling is a great options. Rebecca is happy to facilitate communication among members of the group in case anyone wants to split a rental car. I’ve found that by the time the second night rolls around and everyone needs to venture out into Taos for dinner, there are plenty of people with seats in their cars who’d love to bring someone else along. Mabel Dodge Luhan House is within walking distance of several excellent restaurants though remember that it is very dark there and it will be winter, so you’ll need to bring a warm coat and a flashlight if you’re going to walk to dinner!

See you in Taos in January!

Rebecca and Jillian