Spin the night away as you transform fibers into hand-spun yarn.

This hands-on class welcomes beginning spinners to the essentials of yarn making using a simple and portable tool, the hand spindle. Whatever your yarn dreams may be, this class will get you started!

Note, spinning requires motor skills in two hands. Suitable for ages 16+. $55 ($50 ASI member) + $15-30 materials fee.

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Learn the history of Norwegian embellished sheepskins, or skinnfell, while block printing a tanned sheepskin hat.

Students will use traditional Norwegian wooden print blocks to create meaningful designs and finish with a stitched hem. Leave with a warm and woolly hat, plus the skills for future wearable and decorative skinnfell projects.

Suitable for ages 18+; some hand strength is required. $95 ($85 ASI member) + $60 materials fee.

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Step beyond sock puppets in this intergenerational class.

Using wool as the base material, students will create 3-D characters of their own design, including ears, arms, feet, and a mouth with any expression they can imagine. After sculpting and shaping the puppet, students can either create a stuffed animal or keep it as a puppet.

Suitable for ages 5-12 alongside an adult. $90 adult/child pair ($80 ASI member adult/child pair) + $50 material fee.

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Starting with Slöjd is a monthly program for early elementary children. Participants explore new tools, materials, and skills that prepare them for a lifelong love of handcraft. These drop-off programs are suitable for students in grades K–2.

For this class, students will join instructor Anna Ruhland to learn all about the art of block printing. Students will learn basic techniques to create rubber stamps for printing on paper or fabric.

Advanced registration required. $20 ($15 ASI member).

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Slöjd Studio is a monthly program for children in grades 3–5.

Participants will practice slöjd skills and explore new tools as they continue to nurture their lifelong love of handcraft. In this class, instructor Anna Ruhland will teach students how to create the iconic cone-shaped hat of Tomte.

Young makers will cut out a pattern in felt, then needle felt their own designs on the fabric and handstitch a seam to complete their Swedish Tomte hat to wear all year round. $25 ($20 ASI member).

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Try out spoon carving in this afternoon-long intro class.

Learn how instructor Jess selects a tree and prepares wooden blanks, practice basic carving techniques to carve a cooking spoon, and end with a discussion of finishing options and spoon care.

Suitable for ages 16+.  $75 ($65 ASI member) + $20 materials fee.

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Learn basic carving holds while crafting an iconic Swedish Dala horse.

Pick up a Swedish carving knife and pre-cut basswood blank to bring your unique Dala horse to life. Learn some finishing options in a class discussion.

Suitable for ages 16+. $75 ($65 ASI member) + $20 materials fee.

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Norwegian-style acanthus carvings are familiar to many appreciators of traditional buildings, wooden bowls, and other folk art, with painterly forms that build together into endless patterns.

In this four-week workshop, students learn the basic “alphabet” of Norwegian acanthus by drawing and then beginning to carve with gouges and chisels. Students provide some of their own materials for this class; see web link for more info.

Suitable for ages 18+. $180 ($160 ASI members) + $25 materials fee.

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Experience the vibrant sensory textile works in a new exhibition at the American Swedish Institute. Emelie Röndahl creates large-scale figurative textiles that challenge and expand the possibilities of rya, a traditional Scandinavian weaving technique.

As a textile artist, Emelie challenges tradition by showcasing new aspects of rya, creating depth and duality in her works, which can be viewed from both sides. Her works ask viewers to slow down and look closely.

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Curated by the American-Scandinavian Foundation, this traveling exhibition features stunning works by 24 artists from the Upper Midwest.

Highlighting innovations to and variations on traditions, this exhibit presents artists’ works as living, malleable forms grounded in traditional skills rather than as static objects rooted in the imagined past.  The exhibition challenges the dominant “heritage model” of ethnic folklore by emphasizing that “all tradition is change.”

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Wool embroidery has offered needleworkers expressive texture on many types of textiles throughout history.

Learn about a few of its various iterations in this introductory class while stitching your own floral piece with yarn from the instructor’s sheep.

A kit is included in the class fee; students also provide some supplies. Each kit includes the tools and materials for one student. Kits will be available for pick up or can be shipped for an additional $10 fee. Suitable for ages 18+.

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Join Swedish textile artist and educator Kerstin in weaving a weft-facing repp band, a technique where the weft is given more space and a pattern is built up over time, much like a drawing or picture.

Using their band weaving loom and materials, students will develop skills in this intermediate-level class.

Suitable for ages 12+. Students provide their own materials and should be comfortable warping their small rigid heddle loom ahead of class; please see the full materials list link.

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Enjoy the relaxing art of needle felting while making a textile as pretty as a painting.

Using a piece of felt as the canvas and wool roving as the paint, students will work alongside textile artist Kayla Ann to create a 2-D folk-inspired floral bouquet in wool.

Suitable for ages 16+, the class fee includes a kit that has the tools and materials for one student.

Kits will be available for pick up at the American Swedish Institute starting January 22 or can be shipped for an additional $10 fee.

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Create a sweet felted chickadee inspired by Minnesota’s north woods in this afternoon-long class.

Students will follow step-by-step instructions to transform hand-dyed wool from the instructor’s own sheep into a small felted chickadee.

Class fee includes a kit. Each kit has the tools and materials for one student, including a needle felting base, felting needles, and wool roving.

Kits will be available for pick up at the American Swedish Institute or can be shipped for an additional $10 fee.

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Virtual class: Saturday, January 17 – Sunday, January 18, 10 am – 12 pm CST

Join Swedish textile artist and educator Kerstin to design and begin weaving a repp band, a style where warp threads tightly cover the weft threads.

Students will practice creating a pattern, warping, and starting to weave a repp band over two online sessions using their own small, rigid-heddle band weaving loom and materials.

Suitable for ages 12+.

Students provide their own materials, details in the link.

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