Create your own beautiful yarn in our Spinning classes. Learn to comb, card, and spin fiber on drop spindles and spinning wheels. Work with specific types of fibers, like wool or cotton, or discover how to blend fiber from different animals, such as sheep, alpaca, llama, and rabbits.
Spinning Classes
Explore The Studio
Wet Room in Davidson Hall
The perfect studio for those who like to get messy. It’s particularly good for classes whose students like to dye things, as it has big drains in the concrete floor we can just hose down (hence the name). There are banks of counters with ranges for dye pots. Spinning classes are often held here too since it provides such a nice, spacious area.
News & Stories: What's Happening in Spinning
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August 23, 2024
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July 23, 2024
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March 29, 2024
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August 29, 2022
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July 25, 2022
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July 22, 2022
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May 5, 2020
The days have pushed themselves along since the birth of our three brave lambs born to “Robin” on March 6th. When they arrived, I did not call them anything much. I just looked at them, noted their shape and health and desire to eat, and thought, Those three, they are the ones without names!
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March 11, 2014
I stopped by the Yarn Circle on a Monday afternoon to speak with Martha Owen, our beloved longtime Resident Artist in Spinning, Knitting, Dyeing and Felt Making. We talked about many things including fiber arts, raising sheep, travel, artistic process, Fair Isle, her rich history with the Folk School, and more. Enjoy our interview!
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January 30, 2010
You meet the most interesting people here. Over the years, I’ve learned from and enjoyed talking to some of the world’s great characters right here in Brasstown. Shortly after I became the Director of the Folk School, I asked some of my musical and crafts friends to tell me great people we should try to get to teach at the Folk School. A trusted musical advisor, Beth Ross Johnson, said “Get the great ballad singer Norman Kennedy.” My weaving advisor (spouse Nanette) said, “Get the great weaver Norman Kennedy.” These two turned out to be the very same ponytailed Scotsman. So for the last eighteen years or so, he has made visits to Brasstown which are always memorable for us here, jazzing up weavers and spinners, slamming tweed on the table to the beat of the ancient waulking music, where the singing and the weaving come together, as the song propels the cloth sunwise around the table while all the hands of the people lift it up and slam it down and pass it on to the next waulker. In this way, the wool is preshrunk, softened, bonded and unified. The people likewise, except they are not preshrunk.
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January 25, 2010
Resident Artist in Spinning, Knitting & Crochet, Feltmaking, Dyeing & Surface Design
Martha Owen
Martha began her adventure in spinning at this very school in 1978. Since then, her extended family has included sheep (mostly Corriedale/ Merino, Romney, Shetland and a little Blue-faced Leicester for fun) and French Angora rabbits. A banjo player known to tell a story or two, Martha’s interest in sheep and wool, music and dance, have carried her quite literally and joyfully around the world. Her children say she is a wool nerd, but her sheep say she is outstanding in her field! Martha became a member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild in 1988, and was co-owner of the Yarn Circle in Murphy, NC, a store catering to fiber enthusiasts. She has been teaching spinning, natural dyeing and knitting design since 1984.
Images from the Studio
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