Tucson Spinning Rodeo

(Join us in 2025, Save the Date)

February 15th - February 23rd, 2025

Join a host of great teachers in Tucson during the Tucson Pro Rodeo week. La Fiesta de los Vaqueros means great weather and great times.

There will be spinning classes from using a turkish spindle to high-speed cotton spinning. All fibers will be explored from wool to angora, and cotton to alpaca. Teachers will include Joan Ruane, Julie Drogsvold, Mel Duarte, Lynn Ruggles, and LeRoy German.

This a la carte gathering enables you to choose the classes and days you want, and still enjoy the Rodeo and lovely southern Arizona.

Registration closes Jan. 1st, 2025

(The website will cut off registration when a class is filled, but will create a wait list by asking for your email. The wait list will be used to fill newly opened spaces based on first come, first serve.)

Event Schedule

Amazing Teachers. Fantastic Classes.

Twist & Spin: Cotton Spinning

Joan Ruane & Julie Drogsvold
Two Day Class
Twist & Spin the Cotton. Learn how to adjust your wheel for short staple fibers and how the long draw works best for spinning cotton. Students will spin cotton from the seed, card ginned cotton into punis to spin and then spin natural-colored cotton sliver. We will also cover plying, blending color and other fibers into your cotton to produce wildly unique yarns as well as tips for care and use of your handspun cotton yarns. Joan Ruane and Julie Drogsvold will guide you through a two day in-depth study of this fascinating cellulose fiber.

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Color Round-Up

Mel Duarte
6 hour class
Color Round-Up. Buckle up and be ready for Mel from Maine to show you how to spin colorful combed top confidently. Play with singles, 2 plies, and 3 plies to wrangle color the way you want.

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Alpaca: All the Way to the Buzzer

LeRoy German
6 hours (Tour and Class)
Ride to the buzzer with this wonderful luxury fiber.
On our final day of the rodeo visit LeRoy German’s Double G Alpaca Ranch and then sit down with this wonderful fiber for our final day of the rodeo.

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Score with Angora

Julie Drogsvold
6 hour class
In this workshop participants will be invited to go down the proverbial rabbit hole and learn about angora fiber and the rabbits that grow it. Students will be able to meet living representatives and learn about their care. They will also be able to evaluate examples of angora fiber and determine the best use for each grade of wool. Students will be able to observe or participate in a guided spinning exercise; spinning from the cloud and a selection of carded and combed wool.

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Gear up Your Spinning Skills

Lynn Ruggles
6 hour class
First time spinners, beginning spinners and those that need to brush up on their skills will welcome this class with Lynn Ruggles.

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Learn the Ropes of the Turkish Spindle

Julie Drogsvold
3 hour class
This workshop will explore creating yarns using the lovely and versatile Turkish spindle. Students will learn and practice using the spindle as both a drop style and supported type spindle. All experience levels are welcome.

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The Fold: Flick it and Spin It

Julie Drogsvold
3 hour class
We have all had that fleece we really wanted to buy, but didn’t want to get bogged down in a lengthy prep process with countless steps and lots of maybes and unknowns. In this workshop, students will be able to use just two skills to turn a raw fleece into a hand spun yarn.
This class will cover how to flick open fibers to prep them for spinning. Students will then spin their prepped fibers from the fold.
Students will leave this workshop ready to take the plunge the next time they see that fleece too good to walk away from.

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Lassoing the Long Draw

Mel Duarte
6 hour class
Lassoing Long Draw with Wool. Bucking your way to speed and soft lustrous yarns.

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Open the Chute: Blending Boards & Art Yarns

Julie Drogsvold
6 hour class
Would you like to make bright, fun and textured art batts, and then spin those batts into amazing yarn? This class will provide all the tools and materials needed to build a blending board of your very own during class and instruction on how to use that board to make art batts from a variety of fibers and materials. Students will then creatively spin batts in a thick and thin manner to create one-of-a-kind singles and plied yarn.

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