From Wool to Waulking: Spinning Wool and Creating Cloth with Norman Kennedy Video Download

The History! The Stories! The Techniques!

Join Norman Kennedy in an enthralling workshop about spinning, weaving, and waulking wool. Following his passion for weaving and knitting around the British Isles and around the world, Norman Kennedy watched traditional artisans making textiles as they had for generations.

By listening to their stories and learning their craft, Norman preserved skills that were on the verge of disappearing. Now you have the chance to experience these traditions, learn the stories, and gain valuable spinning techniques with this workshop!

In this video workshop, he teaches a new generation of spinners these techniques:

• Oiling wool for carding
• Using hand cards to prepare rolls and batts
• Dressing and spinning with a distaff
• Creating Shetland-style lace yarn
• Successfully spinning wool with a variety of spindles, a treadle wheel, and a great wheel

The workshop culminates in a waulking, a method for fulling cloth that brings people together to finish cloth by hand--led and accompanied by Norman's singing in a variety of languages. In a bonus segment, Norman demonstrates using a traditional indigo dye vat and discusses a variety of natural dye techniques.

Norman Kennedy teaches using the rich past as his course.

"I don't need to reinvent the wheel. I've got it all behind me, for generations. As they say, I've learned from books, but you're always learning. I'm still always learning. But I got an awful lot of knowledge from people just mentioning things just once and I'd never hear it again. Same with the stories I hear, same with the songs." -Norman Kennedy

Running Time: 167 minutes