Cathy Wright is a spinner and weaver based in Liverpool and has been a member of Fibreshed since 2020.
A spinner with over 20 years experience Cathy came to spinning from an embroidery background, falling in love with textured yarns to use in her work. This led to spinning wool for others and then to starting her own business in 2008 teaching others to spin.
“Wool is just an incredible resource and with each breed offering different properties it opens up so many options for us as craftspeople. Choosing a particular breed, say one with fine lustrous fleece and spinning it in a way to keep the lustre can create a beautiful yarn to wear woven as a scarf. If you want a hardwearing pair of socks for hiking, you’d choose a different breed, maybe a Texel or a Romney, something that may be slightly coarser to the touch but hard wearing, withstanding the friction walking would create. Then, if you want a hat, you would choose a short stapled breed that can be spun to keep air in, keeping the wearer warmer.
Each breed has it’s own special properties and we are so fortunate in this country to have access to over 57 different types of breeds of wool at our fingertips. So for whatever project you have in mind, there will be a breed that will suit it down to the ground
Add to this the many ways that wool can be spun and you give the weaver, knitter or spinner complete control over the project they’re making, allowing them to get the best out of the fleece and the garment. There are so many possibilities, so many things to learn about this humble product”
Cathy runs workshops for complete beginners through to advanced students and also runs a monthly meet up where spinners and weavers come together to share inspiration and ideas.
“My two day spinning workshop takes a fleece, shows you how to choose the good parts, wash it, comb it or card it and then spin it. I use fleeces from farmers I know who breed their fleece specifically for the wool so I know that when I put the work into processing and spinning the it, it will be well worth the effort. This special relationship between farmer and spinner allows some of the rarer breeds – like Bluefaced Leicester, which produces the softest wool we have in this country and is listed as ‘at risk’ by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, to be utilised and valued”
“It’s incredibly important to keep skills like spinning alive and there is a very healthy spinning community in this country with wool festivals taking place throughout the year. The future for spinning is bright
Upcoming Workshops
Jan 13th: Natural Dyeing
Jan 16th & 17th: Learn to Weave
Jan 31st: Beginners Spinning
Feb 14th: Weave a Scarf
Feb 21st: Beginners Spinning
Feb 27th & 28th: Two Day Spinning
All workshops take place at Northern Lights, Brewery Village, Liverpool L8 5AF