Spinning and Weaving in Taos 2025: Color!

Dates: October 25-30, 2025
Location: Mabel Dodge Luhan House, Taos, New Mexico

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 orchestrator of the best Patreon on the planet! She teams up with master tapestry artist, teacher, and author, Rebecca Mezoff (second-best Patreon on the planet) to teach you how to make yarns for creating unique images in tapestry weaving.

This 5-night retreat gives us four full days of spinning and weaving time. We’ll spend time talking, experimenting and playing with color. We will shift value and make new colors with handcards and combs. We’ll work with plied marls, blend colors at the wheel with parallel drafting, and, of course, we will work with hand painted braids keeping colors clear and manipulating colors for the perfect accent for your tapestry weaving. 

Rebecca will present tapestry techniques for blending and grading yarn. We will weave our handspun in small samples and some of you can start a tapestry if you have time.

Experience required:

This retreat is for advanced beginner+ students. You need to have at least the experience listed below. The techniques we’re experimenting with are not highly advanced but you will have the opportunity to focus on either spinning or tapestry more heavily if you’re more of an expert in one area.

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 October it can be warm and sunny or chilly and feel like fall. Bring layers for chilly mornings. 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. The walkways at MDL are not very even so please bring sturdy shoes and even trekking poles or a cane if you have any questions about your balance.

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 most rooms 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! (One of my favorite rooms is Cather which has two twin beds, so don’t discount those twin rooms!)

Extending your stay: MDL holds all the rooms from bed and breakfast registrations until a month before our retreat (until September 24, 2025). 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 may be 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! We will be very busy and they won’t get a lot of attention from you during the retreat.

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 many 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, October 25 and the last night, Wednesday, October 29th. 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 a few Mirrix Saffron looms you can borrow if needed. 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 in 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 fall in Taos (30-75 degrees F)

• walking shoes if you’re exploring the town of Taos or going hiking on the gorge or along the Rio Grande. I recommend sturdy shoes for this environment. You’ll be walking from your room to the workshop rooms several times a day and the surfaces are uneven with weirdly spaced stairs.

• A flashlight for night-time walking at MDL. The lighting is poor after dark and with the uneven ground, a small flashlight is very useful.

• Taos, NM is a very casual place. Comfortable, practical clothes are fine even at the nicest restaurants.

Price is based on the housing you choose. 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 5 nights, 6 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
Shared room: $2350 (shared with another workshop participant)

Companions: You may bring a significant other to this retreat. Your room will be billed at the private room rate plus a fee of $510 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 $510 = $3360. Companions are welcome at all meals and are free the rest of the time to enjoy Northern New Mexico. Make sure they are happy to spend the week mostly by themselves as you will be very busy with your workshop.

Tips for staff: A tip for the staff is encouraged at the end of the retreat. MDL does not want you to leave tips for the housekeepers because they split any tips between all staff including kitchen staff. Tips are split between about 25 people so consider budgeting at least $50 for this if you can. The staff will quickly convince you they are worth it and some of them will be friends by the time you leave.

Taos County Residents: Mabel Dodge extends a special rate to local people so if you live in Taos County 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 non-refundable.

Final payment: I’ll send you a PayPal invoice for the final payment which is due August 29, 2025. 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 August 29 via email. If I don’t hear from you by September 1, 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 September 8 minus the $300 deposit. 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

COVID-19 is not as scary as it used to be but I ask everyone who comes to these retreats to be vaccinated for it. I have an autoimmune disease and can’t afford to catch this virus and you don’t want to be responsible for getting 18+ people sick with it plus potentially the staff at the hotel who often have young children or elderly parents they’re caring for. Please be careful in the weeks leading up to the retreat. Testing is recommended a day or two before you arrive. We’ll be working in close surroundings with not much ventilation (radiant floor heat).

Of course care with other highly transmittable viruses is important! Norovirus can take down a whole class really quickly and no one wants to be part of that party! Wash your hands! (please please please)

Saturday, October 25

3-6 pm: Arrival and check-in
3-6 pm: Get your room key at the front desk in the Historic House. They also have maps of the property. After settling into your room, check in with Rebecca in the yoga studio to find a spot for your weaving and spinning equipment. The yoga studio is the building with the roosters on the top right in the main parking lot.
6:30 pm: Dinner in the main house with introductions and more information from Rebecca and Jillian

General schedule Sunday through Tuesday

8 am: Breakfast at MDL
9:30 am: Gather in studios for work in tapestry and spinning
12:30 pm: Lunch at MDL
2 pm: Gather in studios to work in tapestry and spinning
Dinner on your own. Please include others in your dinner plans if they need a ride or look like they’d like a companion!

Wednesday, October 29

8 am: Breakfast at MDL
9:30 am: Studio work
12:30 pm: Lunch at MDL
2 pm: Open studio or time to explore Taos. A group will go to Taos Wools in Arroyo Seco.
5 pm: Class meeting to take a group photo and talk about what we’ve learned and what our next steps are going forward
6:30 pm: Dinner at MDL

Thursday, October 30

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. We have to have the studio cleaned and all be gone by 11:30 am.

All breakfasts and lunches are provided at the hotel. Dinner will be provided to our group on Saturday and Wednesday. All other dinners are on your own.

Please fill out the registration form below on or after July 14, 2025. 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

July 14, 2025: 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).

August 29: Payment in full due via credit card, PayPal, or check.

September 1: 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.

September 24: 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.

October 25, 2025: Check-in after 3 pm, dinner provided at 6:30 pm in the Historic House dining room.

October 25-30, 2025: See you in Taos!

Please click the button below on or after July 14th to fill out the form (before then the button won’t work). 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!

In the gallery below, click to enlarge, use the arrows to scroll, and hover for captions. There are a few photos of rooms but they’re all different. Please see the MDL website to choose your room.

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. Weather in October should be beautiful and still fairly mild. I wouldn’t expect any winter weather though nights can be quite cool and you should bring some layers. The images with snow in them were taken in January!

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. Mabel Dodge Luhan House may know of a shuttle that can bring you from the airport to the hotel.

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. Take the time to stop at Centinela Traditional Arts in Chimayo if you take this route.

Carpooling is a great option. 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 restaurants.

See you in Taos in October!

Rebecca and Jillian

The video below is about my trip to Taos for a retreat in 2024. I’m including it here because the video at the very beginning shows you what the entrance road to Mabel Dodge Luhan House looks like. You’ll think you’re in the wrong place, but you’re not! It also includes a little history about Mabel and a bit of my adventures around Taos when I’m not in the classroom.