Tiwtor / Tutor: Katie Weston from @hilltopkatie

Costiau / Cost: £80

For this spinning workshop with Katie from @hilltopcloud you will be using creative spinning techniques to make beautiful decorations, and gifts. Partly a workshop where we’ll cover some technical spinning skills, but at the end of the session you should  also have some finished items you can use to decorate your home or gift  to others. We’ll be learning how to cover fairy lights with fibre, make  a mohair garland, and also make jewellery. These are art yarns as  you’ve never spun them before, because these things are the answer to  the question “well it’s lovely, but what do you do with it?” You will spinning and making festive objects and gifts all in one day.

You can spin these yarns on any wheel with a standard orifice, though if  you have a choice of wheels and flyers the largest orifice and slowest ratios will make things easier. A standard Ashford flyer works fine, however, works well if that is what you own. These yarns will challenge you technically, and also teach you valuable lessons about twist, drafting techniques, wheel mechanics and diameter control. This workshop is not suitable for complete beginners, but anyone who can spin a skein of 2-ply yarn will be able to manage these techniques. Techniques will produce fancy art yarn type spins like tailspun, corespun,and supercoil yarns.

Materials provided: all  fibres, battery powered LED fairy lights (1 set per person, but more  available at a small additional cost if you want to spin more), wire and  jewellery findings.

Equipment to bring: spinning wheel, 3 empty bobbins, stand-alone lazy kate.

Please make sure your wheel is in good working order before we start the workshop. Time we spend getting drive bands mended, scotch tension fixed etc. is time we can’t spend on the technical aspects of the workshop. You will get more out of the workshop if you have done some spinning recently. Time spent doing some maintenance on your spinning wheel is always a good thing! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_F9JZmFgOE&t=594s