Simple, portable, rich. Drawing from historical sources, everything covered in this course is a "take along" fiber arts project. You'll make your own tools for spinning cotton and wool the way it used to be done - with a "ten." There's a weaving project completed without a loom, coiled basketry worked in odds and ends with yarns, and a natural dye project, completed without a dye pot using dye materials collected from forest, bog and marsh. We'll experiment with braids and embellishments drawn from old Scandinavian textiles - flettet snor, frynseflet, bregdet band and rundflet snor. All are simple and portable projects with insight into the ways textile crafts evolved. This workshop will be useful for those who want to introduce textile crafts to children or adults – with many ideas for introducing traditional craft into the classroom.

Goal of workshop is twofold - to introduce basic textile skills and to introduce textile projects where students make not only a textile project, but also the tools and equipment required. Workshop covers the following: basic knots for textiles, handling of fibers and yarns, construction of spinning tools and introduction to handspinning, braids useful for textile projects and otherwise, natural dye without the dyepot, doubleweave pouch woven on a loom constructed onsite, coiled basketry in yarn, rag rug techniques in nålbinding. Desires and needs of the students shape the direction and sequence of activities.