With temperatures set to drop in the coming months, one north east farming group spent the weekend sharing their knowledge on how to knit winter woolies at an Aberdeen community farm.
Doonies Rural Education Group (DRAG) spent Saturday and Sunday giving free classes on wool spinning at Doonie’s Farm, in Nigg, during their “Woolie Weekend”.
The free event, organised by DRAG trustees, Joan and Ernie Strachan, included tutorials on wool preparation, spinning, knitting, weaving and felting, with participants learning about different wool and fibre types.
Last night Mrs Strachan said: “We got a few people interested in different crafts to come and see what you can do with a view to getting them to come along and learn. It was quite mixed age groups.
“We had different things, we were using hand spindles, drop spindles, as well different methods of spinning and we had needle felting. And we were talking about spinning wool and knitting.”
She added that one of the aims of DRAG was to “keep alive” traditional farming crafts.
The group were also on the look-out for new recruits to their charity, and have an eye to making the spinning classes a regular occurrence at Doonies.
She said: “One young lady came, she does knitting, and she ended up spinning and wants to come along to classes now, and as far as I’m concerned that’s what we want to do, to get the youth interested. Now it’s quite high fashion, wool, and city people don’t always have a chance to see people doing these things.
“Some classes for these things cost £60 – £80, so it’s great for the community, we’re hoping to get a craft group going there once a month if we can get enough interest.”