The Gathering 2026
Gathering 2026 – Register Now!
Our Connecticut organization is pleased to announce The Gathering 2026.
Members of NHA are able to register 2 weeks prior to non-members and pay the member rates. See the Membership* link below to become a member. Members will receive an email when Registration is available.
When: July 24-26, 2026
Where: Westfield State University, Westfield, MA
Plan on arriving late afternoon on Friday and departing after Sunday morning class and lunch. Westfield State University has a great dorm reserved for NHA use, including registration, accommodations, and evening gatherings. Classes will be held in the new classroom building adjacent to the dorm, and the cafeteria building is located just across the quad for meals. Westfield State is a level campus making it easy to get around, and has accessible buildings with elevators to all upper floors.
Watch the website, our Facebook page, Facebook group, and Instagram for Registration to become available and as updates are made to information about The Gathering.
The Northeast Handspinners Association is a non-profit membership organization dedicated to the fiber art of hand spinning, with members from New York, Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. NHA conducts annual events to bring members together to participate in classes and networking opportunities with the hand spinning community from across the region.
The Gathering is a weekend-long retreat held on even years and hosted by the state organizations on a rotating basis. Respected mentors are brought in from the U.S. and Canada to teach classes. This weekend event traditionally includes accommodations, meals, opening reception, special vendors, member displays, evening spin-ins and Saturday night presenter. All regions of NHA are encouraged to participate, and you must be a member of NHA to attend. We look forward to seeing our members from New York, Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.
*Membership: NHA individual and family memberships are available for one or two years and may be purchased here.
Note: NHA events have been traditionally held in November. In the spring of 2025 the board voted in favor of supporting arrangements made outside of the month of November to take advantage of summer and college campuses which charge much lower rates than hotels, and also to avoid conflicts with major regional fiber festivals.
The 2022 Gathering took place in Massachusetts
The Northeast Handspinners Association and the Massachusetts Gathering Committee welcomed over 100 attendees to the 16th NHA Gathering at the DoubleTree Hotel in Danvers, MA. The event had been 4 years in the making due to the global pandemic so we were thrilled to provide this long-awaited opportunity to gather and share our love of all things fiber!
We were lucky enough to offer classes with the following fantastic mentors: Sandi Cirillo, Wendy Jensen, Donna Kay, Mary Jane Mucklestone, Jackie Ottino, Esther Rodgers, and Alanna Wilcox. Attendees had the opportunity to choose from a wide range of classes from spinning to knitting to felting; and we also had a variety of fiber-related vendors join us for the weekend.
Thank you to the 2022 Gathering committee for all of the time and effort you put into planning this event – a great time was had by all!