Introduction to Wool Handspinning with Eimear O'Neill, The Organic Centre

What to Expect

Introduction to Wool Handspinning is a one-day beginners’ course at The Organic Centre in Rossinver on Sunday 4 October 2026, taught by Eimear O’Neill. The fee is €130. It sits in the centre’s traditional craft strand, which in autumn 2026 also takes in willow basketry, dry stone walling and candle making, and like the rest of that programme it is taught as a making day rather than a talk.

Handspinning is the step between a fleece and a usable yarn, and an introductory day covers the whole of that short chain: preparing and carding the fibre, drafting it out evenly, adding twist and winding on. It is a skill with a genuine learning curve in the first hour and then a fairly sudden click, which is why it is taught in a full day rather than an evening. Sheep farming shapes a good deal of the landscape around north Leitrim and Sligo, so there is a local logic to running it here. The Organic Centre’s nineteen-acre site at Rossinver runs around fifty weekend courses a year. Places are booked in advance through the online shop, and reduced rates are available to students and people on income supports by contacting the centre directly.

Good to Know

• Date: Sunday 4 October 2026, a single-day course
• Tutor: Eimear O’Neill
• Venue: The Organic Centre, Rossinver, Co. Leitrim, F91 H978
• Price: €130, booked online in advance
• Suitable for complete beginners
• Reduced rates for students and those on income supports, by contacting the centre
• Contact: 071 9854338 or info@theorganiccentre.ie
• The Willow Bread Basket course runs the previous day, Saturday 3 October 2026

Getting There

The Organic Centre is signposted off the R281 near Rossinver in north Leitrim, on the road running between Manorhamilton and Kinlough along the southern shore of Lough Melvin. Manorhamilton is roughly 20 minutes by car, Kinlough and Bundoran 20 to 25 minutes, Enniskillen about 45 minutes and Sligo town around 50 minutes. There is free parking on site. Public transport into Rossinver is very limited, so participants drive or car share, and the last stretch is on narrow rural roads worth allowing extra time for.