A fabulous array of woolly workshops with talented textiles experts have taken place this spring with the aim of promoting and preserving wool based heritage skills.

In the modern world wool textiles are becoming overlooked in favour of synthetic fabrics which are much less sustainable. Susan Denham Smith (of Wild Wool Barn in Ennerdale) delivered the first two workshops.

During ‘ From Fleece to Yarn’ participants learnt how to process wool, washing and preparing fleece with combs and carders to create a fluffy roll of uniform fibre called a ‘rolag’. Draft out some of the rolag and the magic of spinning begins using either drop spinners or spinning wheels to create yarn.

A weaving workshop followed on using a simple and traditional weaving loom known as a Rigid Heddle Loom and Herwick Wool to create a weft faced mat. The heddle in the middle held the threads and was lifted up and down as the shuttle is passed backwards and forwards.

June Hill delivered the final two events. Knitting with giant knitting needles and a Wild Wool Heritage Talk. June Hill, from Crosby Ravensworth has a life-long interest in sheep, wool, spinning and knitting and spent 11 years with the Wool Clip in Caldbeck.

Knitting has a very long history, its like making bread and other traditional crafts that women in particular did every day, so ordinary that it never really got mentioned in history. It is only in the last 600 years it has become a refined craft. Knitting sticks and knitting belts were used from the seventeenth to the twentieth century to anchor the needle to enable knitting with one hand. Knitting was once a constant activity for women, men and children in some Dales villages.