Weald and Downland Living Museum Ticket Portal

Saturday 13 December 2025

Learn to knit at this full day workshop and take home a cosy hat (with optional bobble) to wear or give as a gift. Your first piece of knitting will be in chunky 100% wool yarn. During this course you will learn all the basics including how to cast on, knit in garter stitch, and cast off as well as how to shape your hat.

Sunday 14 December 2025

Knitting small squares or blocks, participants will practice cable patterns while adding bobbles and twists to create traditional Aran style samples which can be used for future projects. There will be an opportunity to learn about the heritage of Aran knitting and some of its history as well as to create your own designs based on traditional patterns.

Sunday 09 November 2025

Spend a day with our expert tutor learning how to make needle-felted Teddy Bears to give as a present - or keep for yourself!

Sunday 05 October 2025

Quilting has been used for thousands of years to add extra warmth, protection and decoration to clothing and household items. Simple in concept, yet amazingly versatile, spend the day exploring simple techniques including shadow, corded and stuffed quilting (also known as boutis or Marseille and trapunto), in this relaxed and informal setting, gaining an appreciation of the versatility of the craft. Quilting lends itself to everything from clothing to Christmas tree decorations.

Saturday 4 October 2025

In this workshop we’ll cover about the basics of spinning wool on a medieval-style notched hand spindle. Included is a brief talk on the history of hand-spinning and information about wool and fleece. The latter includes the basics of sorting (skirting) a fleece, washing (scouring) and fibre preparation (carding and combing).

Participants will learn how to handle/twirl their hand-spindle, which is a bottom-whorled spindle, using the ‘direct hand’ method.  They will practice spinning initially with a small section of wool so that they learn to draft and creating a twist.

Once people feel confident with their spindles, we’ll add distaffs: how to dress them and spin from them. We’ll finish up the workshop with information on setting the twist and plying the yarn.

Students will get to keep the spindle and distaff they use during the workshop and will be given a small booklet on the basics covered in this workshop.