Farmer’s wool looming workshops unite Welsh communities

What started as a pastime in the “she-shed” during the Covid lockdowns in 2020 has not only become a hobby for North Wales beef and sheep farmer Olwen Ford, but also a meaningful way to bring communities together.

Driven by curiosity and a desire to make use of the wool from her sheep, which cost more to send to British Wool than to keep, Olwen began learning how to process and use the coloured wool, spin it, and create felt displays as well as reviving traditional skills.

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“I had all this coloured wool in sacks in the shed, and I thought, what can I do with this?”, she says.

“Then we made a peg loom at home, and I made some seat cushions, and that’s where it started.”

Backed by grant funding from Menter Mon and the Cylchol grant, part of the Welsh government circular economy fund, she now teaches communities across North Wales how to loom the wool and turn it into anything from seat cushions to wall art.

Five workshops took place in 2025, and a further six are already booked in the months ahead.

Attendants on the courses pay a £5 a head contribution. 

Wool and loom © MAG/Anne Dunn

The grant, Olwen explains, requires that something of small worth is reused and turned into something that immediately has value.

“For us, it’s the wool from the farm, because now we can use that wool for something worthwhile and it brings people together,” she explains.

Something for everyone

An added benefit to reviving “a simple skill” is the mental health benefit of working with wool.

“Any mental health issues are relaxed immediately,” she says.

She adds that “when you’re working with wool, be it weaving on the loom or just creating with wool, it reduces stress incredibly quickly. It’s amazing.”

Joining a workshop in Dolgellau, a group of local women are almost hidden behind the piles of different-coloured wool, ranging from Herdwick and Torddu and Torwen Badger Face, to black Welsh Mountain and white Welsh Mountain sheep wool.

The wool has been prepared by Olwen ahead of the course and carded (combed) into neat fibres ready to use.

“You have all sorts of mindsets turning up, be it artistic, be it curious, and they all have the same things in front of them – a piece of wood with pegs in it and a pile of wool in the middle, and some string.

“And it’s so individual. The same thing is there for everyone, and everything is different,” she says.

Bringing people together

Travelling a few miles south from Dyffryn Ardudwy, Diana Tregenza is keen to keep traditions using natural fibres alive.

“This preserves a skill like drystone walling, thatching and felting, and people used to get together like this and learn new skills,” she says.

Diana Tregenza at the wool looming workshop © MAG/Anne Dunn

“Sitting round the table and talking; working with natural fibre, it’s quite a mindful thing to do.

“There are real benefits to creating something with your hands,” she adds.

Seeing the direct benefits of people coming together, Olwen says it’s time to bring back community-based social meetings.

“People used to meet every week. Some nights, you’d enjoy something more than somebody else, but that didn’t matter.

“You just took part, and it was a way of people keeping in touch,” she says.

And despite the internet and social media, she believes things are starting to come back.

“We’re seeing it come back in ‘knit and natter’ meetings, and you probably do more talking than knitting – but it’s about the social, not the craft per se,” she says.

Workshops like wool looming, she adds, allow people to create something useful with a carbon-friendly material and she hopes to teach many more in future.

To find out more about the workshops and all things wool, email olwen.llanfarm@btinternet.com