The medieval household needed all the textile workers that it could get. Without people skilled in weaving, spinning, felting, dyeing, knitting, crocheting and needlework, nobody would have had anything to wear.

Women did a lot of the textile work, but men were also involved in the production of clothing and cloth with no stigma attached. Little girls began learning these skills before they were five - they would be able to produce wearable items before they were ten, and assisted their older relations with larger, heavier tasks such as weaving and dyeing.

A lot of cloth was used for home consumption - the excess was stored away for later use, or traded and sold for anything that the household couldn't produce itself.

Drop Spinning - Becky is using an ancient technique that uses a simple weighted shaft plus gravity, and centrifugal force to spin combed wool into yarn. This technique is a very old one. Archaeological digs have found drop spindles in the Holy Land, some of them small enough to have been used by a child.

Lizzie (right), another agile spinner, is making yarn from brown wool on a more modern, mechanical spinning wheel. She is also highly skilled at using the inkle loom, a portable loom ideally suited for making ornamental straps and braids (below).

Cari is crocheting lace. Crocheting, a fairly recent innovation which uses a single hooked needle can be used to make everything from lace to warm wooly scarves. The end results all depend upon the fineness of the thread and the size of the needle.

Becky is now using some of the yarn she has spun to knit a sock or a glove. She is using a 4-needle technique that allows her to "knit in the round". This means that she won't have to sew up any seams on the garment after she has finished knitting it.

Imagine how plesant it could be, sitting outside in the shade on a beautiful day with your family and friends chatting, laughing, gossiping and singing while you work! Linda and her mother are busily embroidering and making rag rugs; two skills that were used to make a home more gracious to live in.

Maura is busy embroidering a celtic design on canvas. Embroidery was used to decorate everything from clothing to curtains.

Notice that Maura is using her headdress as a pincushion!

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