Workshops, walks at Shaker Village Saturday

NEW GLOUCESTER — On Saturday, June 10, Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in New Gloucester will offer a series of traditional craft workshops and educational nature walks. Traditional craft workshops (pre-registration required for workshops at www.maineshakers.com or call 207-926-4597) include Beginner’s Knitting with New Gloucester fiber artist Betsey Leslie. Participants will become familiar with knitting terms, reading a pattern, checking a gauge, increasing, decreasing, and exploring different textile patterns while using Shaker yarn to create a button closure pouch. $55.

In Eco-Printing on Fabric will involve printing Shaker plants on fabric. Local instructor and fiber artist Mary DeLano will teach this process where plant materials are placed on specially treated fabric and then steamed to release the pigments in the plants, leaving realistic prints of the plants on the fabric. Students will take home eight printed pieces of fabric, including one silk scarf. $95.

The two-day workshop “Rug Hooking: Woolly Sheep” (June 10 and 24) will have beginner or intermediate rug hookers working with Beth Miller of Parris House Wool Works to create an 8-by-8 inch textured rug hook design inspired by the Shakers’ sheep. This can be finished as a table mat, wall hanging, or a scented buckwheat pillow. $150.

Resident naturalist Carolyn Fensore will lead “Nature’s Outdoor Classroom,” a 2½- hour hike through the Shakers’ 1,800 acres of diversified habitats while identifying and explaining flora, fauna, geological formations, and Shaker history along the way. See evidence of glacial and geological forces that formed the land and watershed, including Sabbathday Lake’s Loon’s Point and the hidden treasure of Aurelia’s Cascade. The nature walk will be offered at 10:30 a.m. and again at 2 p.m., check-in at the Museum Visitors’ Center. Shaker Village Nature Walks are free; reservations for the nature walk are suggested but not required.

The Shaker Store and the Shaker Museum Visitors’ Center will be open, featuring old-fashioned gifts and local Maine crafts and guided tours of Shaker Village. Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village is located at 707 Shaker Road (Route 26). For more information about individual programs, including start times, reservations and registration, please contact 207-926-4597, [email protected], www.maineshakers.com, or follow on Facebook at Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village.