Melissa Weaver Dunning is a ballad singer and a traditional handweaver. She has been singing for as long as she can remember and making things with her hands for almost that long. Melissa is an avid tartan and linen weaver, a compulsive knitter, and likes to mess around with beads, thread and bits of cloth.
She loves to teach people how to unleash their creativity and make cool things.

Melissa lives with her husband Peter in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia where they run the Bluemont Concert Series, an award-winning regional arts organization. They have three daughters and two corgis.

Scroll down the page to learn more about her music and workshops.

Friday evening music:

From Cottage to Factory

Melissa Weaver Dunning will perform a short concert of 18th & 19th century songs and tales of spinning, weaving and other trades from before and after the Industrial Revolution.  These old songs and ballads are a living voice of history, and form a resonant poetry of people and their daily lives from times past.  Far more than just entertainment or social expression, songs and ballads deliver the news of the day from a time when news traveled at the speed of a horse.  Bring your knitting and come and listen!

Saturday Workshops with Melissa Weaver Dunning

A Sampler of Island Knitting

For the morning workshop, we will visit Ireland’s Aran Islands, where we will explore Aran style knitting through the myths, history and techniques of this fascinating and enduring Celtic knitting style.  Melissa will discuss cables from basic to complex, elements of Aran design and placement of the motifs all in the context of history and folktale.  Students will begin a small Aran patterned sampler and have a go at cabling without a cable needle!

After lunch we will move northwards to the Shetland Islands with their Norse culture to talk about the rich history and designs of Shetland lace knitting.  There are many pleasing yet simple lace patterns that come to us from these remote islands.  We will look at the basic structures of the patterns, shawl construction, reading lace charts and text and discuss blocking & finishing. To engage our hands as well as our minds, we will work lace bookmarks in fingering weight yarn.

Melissa will provide handouts of the patterns and a resource list.

Saturday Evening with Melissa Weaver Dunning

Fleece Artist & Hand Maiden Trunk Show

Melissa will share sample garments from her Peace Weavers sales booth, knitted from hand painted Fleece Artist & Hand Maiden yarns from Nova Scotia.  (Hey – another island!)  The garments are worked from patterns that showcase hand dyed yarns in a variety of ways.  Melissa will also have a small selection of these yarns & patterns for sale.