Get Involved
There are many drop in craft classes and workshops that offer a wide range of activities for people of all ages such as knitting, crochet, sewing, spinning and natural dyeing that take place at various times and locations. Interacting and working as part of a group offers the opportunity to get involved with like minded people who are working towards the same goal. By getting involved you will be able to share your experience, skills and knowledge with others which can be passed onto family, friends and in the future passed down from one generation to another.
Crafts
Here are some examples of drop in classes that are available in London:
The Create Placeis an energetic workshop space in Bethnal Green, specialising in delivering arts and crafts workshops for the local community.
It brings local artists, craft enthusiasts, designers, makers and complete beginners together under one roof to share ideas, learn, teach and be inspired to create. They offer a combination of workshops, open studio time and informal clubs and drop in sessions as well as being on hand to offer advice. A monthly membership is available so regular users can benefit from discounts to our workshops and facilities.
Prick Your Finger is a yarn shop, haberdashery and gallery in Bethnal Green run by Rachael Matthews and Louise Harries. They offer a range of classes including: Beginners Knitting, Beginners Crochet, Beginners Spinning, Improve Knitting and Crochet.
Vauxhall City Farm run a Spinning group that includes a range of workshops in textiles and natural dyeing.The Spinners’ cultivate vegetables and plants in the community garden so they can extract the dyestuff and produce hand made yarns for weaving, embroidery and knitting. ‘The Spinners’ offer education and training classes at the farm every Saturday.
Dyework is a group of textile artists and craftsmen with an interest in natural dyes and fibres and their application to contemporary textiles. We want to retrieve and reproduce the techniques used in the past using renewable bio-degradable processes and colour sources. We produce dyed lengths of natural fabrics and specialised yarns for weavers, knitters and embroiderers We also take small commissions from textile designers interested in the uniqueness of the textiles we produce. We organise workshops and exhibitions.
Events
In March 2010 we participated in a Natural Dye workshop at Vauxhall City Farm.
Natural Dyeing can be seen on the
Film page of this site and in the
Natural Dyeing
photo set on Flickr.
Paradise Gardens, Victoria Park, London. In June 2010, Tower Hamlets College had a tent at the Paradise Gardens festival. Here we showed naturally dyed yarns and encouraged people of all ages to get involved with spinning and hand knitting. Hand knitting and spinning can be seen on the Film page of this site and in the spinning and hand knitting photo sets on Flickr.
In August 2010 we shared the craft of spinning and knitting at a Barn in Pentney, Norflok. Spinning can be seen on the Film page of this site and in the spinning photo sets on Flickr
In March 2010
Prick Your Finger set up an interactive event, "Murder at the Wool House". They constructed the world's first bicycle powered wool mill, making unwanted sheep fleeces within the M25 into a range of seductive yarns, good enough for the Queen. Everyone was invited to join the workforce.
