In this workshop, participants will learn to card and spin wool from a cleaned fleece, into yarn suitable for crochet, knitting, or weaving. We will use fleeces sourced from the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival Fleece Show for this class, which will be processed from washed wool into roving by carding in the morning. After a brown-bag lunch, participants will learn to spin their roving into yarn. The class will be led by master spinner and fleece judge, Holin Kennen, of the Victorian Technology Institute.
Workshop Details
The morning will start at 10:00 a.m. with an introduction to cards, combs, and flick carding. Please let us know if you have your own cards (not required).
Please bring a lunch. We will have tea and snacks available throughout.
In the afternoon students will begin to spin. Students can begin to learn on a drop spindle (which will be available for use in the class and/or available for $20 to take home), but they can also bring a functioning(!) spinning wheel if they prefer to learn on that. If you have a niddy-noddy, please bring that as well. We will wrap up around 4:00 p.m. or so each day.
The fee for each class is $175, although a sliding scale and/or member rate of $150 is available. The class has an additional $20 materials fee to cover handouts and the fleece you’ll be practicing with and taking home. Extra washed fleece can be purchased at $4.00/oz., while supplies last.
Please wear weather-appropriate clothing. We plan to be in an 1800s school house, which can be cool if the weather is cold.
The workshop will take place at the Cooksville Community Center (next door to the Low Technology Institute), 11204 N. Church Street, Evansville, WI 53536. We are located in historic Cooksville: from Madison take 14 south; left (east) on 59; the Community Center is in a historic 1890s one-room schoolhouse on the east side of the village commons.
Register by purchasing a ticket through our online store. Space is limited and we will keep a waiting list. Get on the list by “purchasing” a waitlist ticket at no cost, also in our online store. Also, participants must fill out this liability waiver. Your registration is only complete when the waiver is filled out.
Important! If the class appears sold out, please refresh the page and/or clear your browser cache. When it is truly sold out, I will remove all options except the waitlist. If you still can’t sign up, please send an email to info@lowtechinstitute.org.
This event is a joint production of the Low Technology Institute and Victorian Technology Institute. Donations are always welcome to help defray the cost of our workshops and programming. Please visit our respective websites to find out more about supporting the work we do.
Instructors
Holin Kennen is an award-winning spinner and the author behind the blog The Victorian Technology Institute. She has been spinning for nearly 40 years and teaches classes in spinning, baking, wood stove cookery, and other preindustrial domestic arts. She is the coordinator of the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival fleece show and specializes in wool judging and fiber preparation.
Scott Johnson, from the Low Technology Institute, will be facilitating the class. (Photo courtesy Rona Neri.)