SPINNING COURSES

The blending board can be your go-to fiber prep tool above all others and a few inexpensive additions can take this simple tool to the next level.  Learn how-to with Debbie Held

In this workshop, Katrina Stewart will be introducing you to the wonderful world of carding so you can create beautiful fibre for spinning and weaving.

Harness the power of play and explore a world of colour combinations and fibre blending with instructor Diana Twiss in our SOS Colour & Fibre Play course.

Join instructor Diana Twiss as she guides you through the methods to scale up from a unique 30-gram fibre blend to 500 grams or more. Besides making larger quantities, you’ll learn spinning and plying techniques to vary the yarn you can get from that same blend (such as using a drum carder, blending board, or hand carder). 

To spin better yarns you need to pay attention, be present and mindful while you work with the fibre at hand. Join instructor Kim McKenna in Nuances to Spinning Better Yarns, teaching techniques to take your spinning to the next level and become a better spinner.

Walk through the process of creating your first garment from your handspun yarn. In this course, you'll learn how to select the kind of fibre that will give you the garment you desire, how to sample your handspun yarn, how to calculate the measurements of your yarn and more.

Socks are the humblest garment: We put them on our feet, wear them all day and wash them in the general load without really thinking…

Learn to spin a continuous yarn using wool fibre and a spinning wheel

Develop a functional, working understanding of colour and how it affects your spinning, plus gain more confidence in your abilities to spin colour with intention with Spinning Intentional Colour, taught by Felicia Lo Wong.

Taught by Rachel Smith, explore the different classes of wool available to hand-spinners in this extensive workshop. An excellent foundation of learning, particularly for spinners new to spinning different sheep breeds and learning about the various types of wool.

A 9-week study group plan to work through the SOS spinning courses and content on a week-by-week basis.

Join us for the Working from Fleece study guide at the School! Work through content from Kim McKenna's courses Working from Fleece and Nuances to Spinning Better Yarns and become a better spinner.

 

In this series, we are going to be exploring how you can begin to go from a beginner spinner to a spinner that can plan the exact kind of yarn they want to spin for a specific project, be it socks, a sweater, or a shawl.

Join spinning instructor, Debbie Held, and learn to spin with e-spinners like the Ashford E-Spinner, Hansen Minispinner, and Nano EEW. Learning to harness the power behind your e-spinner so that you’re the one in charge is the ultimate in intentional spinning.

Walk through each step of Debbie Held's supported spindling process and alleviate any mystery surrounding the use of these spindles, demonstrating just how portable and spinning-friendly they are! The supported spindle has a unique beauty to it, not only in the finished yarn but in the fluid movements of spinning that yarn.

If you've ever wanted to venture into the world of spinning, using suspended spindles is a great way to start. All you need is a spindle and some fibre to start creating beautiful handspun yarn to knit and weave with.

Learn about the basic cleaning of your wheel, day-to-day oiling, replacing drive bands to increase the longevity of your spinning wheel.

In this fibre prep course taught by Kim McKenna, we take a look at the difference between woollen and worsted yarn. We'll walk through the equipment for carding and combing clean, scoured fibre, teaching you how to prepare combed sliver and roving as well as carded roving and rolags. Also learn how to finish your handspun, where you might find a few surprises when you sample the different methods presented. 

In the course lessons, you will also learn Kim's small batch scouring method, which Kim uses when working with medium fleeces—fleeces with crimp between 6 to 10 crimps per inch. The other scouring method taught is one reserved for those very special, very fine fleeces; ones worth the extra work involved in scouring the fleece lock-by-lock.