13th January 2018

SWD Jan 18Sue McNiven led a workshop exploring the qualities of cashmere, yak, silk, camel, angora and mohair. We were encouraged to break out of any habitual styles of spinning  to experiment with long-draw and the less common version of short draw that allows the twist to travel into the drafting triangle.

Sue brought lots of interesting samples of spun fibre, including yarn made from her cashmere rabbits.

SWD Jan 18 photos

9th September 2017

Sue Hiley Harris showed examples of her work and gave an illustrated lecture on all things silk, including: seri-culture, wild silks, silk reeling, silk for hand-spinning and waste silk.

All Things Silk with Sue Hiley Harris

A silk spinning workshop followed in the afternoon, with a second day at Cumberland Street Centre, Dumfries. Participants learned to make, handle and spin mawata, to worsted spin lustrous combed silk tops, to woollen spin knobbly, strong silk noil fibres, to create exciting yarns with waste silk fibres, to blend silk with other fibres and much, much more about silk and hand-spinning.