This year I went back to the Heritage Textile Weekend at the Ancient Technology Centre at Cranborn, Dorset. If you missed my post about last year’s event, you can read more about that here. Last year, I had the luxury of driving down with my husband at the start of the week (we share the driving), saw lots of archaeological sites, then I did the textile weekend event (he went to the tank museum) before driving back home. But this year, I drove all the way from Durham the day before and then all the way back on the Sunday, so it was a bit intense! But travel woes aside, I had a lovely weekend, the weather was cooperative and the tutors lead some excellent workshops!

Last year I attended dressed in my Huldermose Woman inspired outfit and I got it out again this year. I made a few alterations to my outfit this year and I’m working on a blog post where I describe everything I wore and hope to publish it soon.

Saturday

At the start of the day, we all gathered in the Viking Longhouse and had a chance for some morning tea/coffee, to chat with people and of course an introductory talk.

Spindle spinning

My group did spindle spinning first with Nicole deRushie. After an introduction to the history of spinning and the types of evidence that we have, Nicole had us make a spindle from a dowel rod and a tree branch ‘cookie’. This was a lot of fun to do and really emphasises that spindles don’t have to be fancy to get the job done, although this one is a little lighter than I prefer. We then used our newly created spindles to spin some Jacob fleece. It was really lovely sitting in the gazebo structure, chatting about textiles and crafts, and enjoying the site’s ambience.

Weaving on a backstrap loom

After lunch, we were in the Earth House for weaving with Jalea Ward from Slightly Warped Looms. She (very patiently!) took us through the process of setting up a back-strap (body tensioned) loom. We did everything from winding the warp and attaching it to the beams, knitting the heddles, and of course, made a start weaving. Last year, I tried to set up a back-strap loom to make a belt for my Iron Age inspired outfit (you’ll hear more about that in my future blog post) but I was using wool yarn that liked to stick to itself, and honestly, it didn’t go very well! I haven’t revisited the process since then, so it was good to work through the whole thing with someone there to give some guidance. We were using cotton yarn, which to be honest, was probably beneficial for beginners and I probably should have tried cotton first. I enjoyed finishing up my little band and I’ve started to make a larger version of a backstrap loom and am looking forward to experimenting with this type of weaving in the future.

The image on the left shows two examples of backstrap looms, while the image on the right shows the loom I made and the completed woven band.

Saturday evening

In the evening, we had a lovely little gathering in the Earth House, where some of the tutors had some of their own things for sale and participants could show off their work. It was really lovely speaking to some of the others attending the workshops and hearing about their own projects. I, of course, couldn’t resist making a few purchases. I have been eyeing up Sally Pointers net making kit with bone shuttle and gauge and I picked up a few extra bone needles as well. By the time I got back to my accommodation, I was exhausted but couldn’t help smiling because I had such a wonderful time.

Sunday

We had two more workshops on the second day. The sun came out and it was much warmer than it had been on the Saturday. I really need some sort of brimmed hat that goes with my outfit to keep the sun off me!

Felted bag

First up was making a felt bag with Sally Pointer. This was a lot of fun because, while the bags weren’t necessarily based on specific archaeological finds, she encouraged us to draw on decoration styles inspired by the past to decorate our bags. We started by making a wide decorative band using a felting needle, then making a sheet of lightly felted wool to which we added the decorative band. We then wrapped a large beach cobble with our felted sheets and allowed it to take on a more organic shape. Finally we wet felted it to finish it. I’ve done a little bit of needle felting before (more recently, mostly to make cat toys!) but the last time I did wet felting was when I was a kid, so it was a lot of fun to revisit it.

Net making

By lunch time, I think a lot of us were really flagging. We had taken in so much by this point and it had all been a lot of fun.

Our final workshop was on net making with Vanessa Bunton. I’ve tried net making before using Sally Pointer’s video where she shows how to make a net bag, so I kind of understood what we were doing but couldn’t actually remember how to make the knot…turns out it was like riding a bike! While our main project was to work in the round to make a bag, we did get to practice working straight rows to create a rectangular net, which isn’t something I’ve tried before. I’m also still not 100% sure I understand how to start the initial ring of loops for the bag and I’m going to have to practice that some more.

All in all, it was a lovely weekend and I’m so glad I went and caught up with some of the people I met back in 2025. I’m already looking forward to next year’s weekend event!