Elizabeth Kneafsey, the Wild Wool Shepherdess, creates unique, wild and rugged woven rugs, tanned leather hides and felted sheeprugs with wool harvested from her own flock of organic, heritage breed sheep which conservation graze hay meadows to help support our declining wildlife and improve soil structure. A practitioner of traditional, ancestral skills is now teaching small holders and individuals through workshops and retreats how to bring back value to wool and live more sustainably in harmony and connection with our land, wildlife, waters and Mother Nature.
Her first book The Wild Wool Shepherdess: Weave the Ancient Path, Reignite Your Feminine Fire is out today from Hay House.
Wolves – yes she has a wolf!, dogs, sheep, herons and owls – being in relationship with animals and what it teaches us
Animal symbology
Reclaiming access to the land
How she became a shepherdess
Crafting with wool
The husband coat
Ancestral crafts – why they matter
Making her declaration of intention as a child… and a woman
Being a black sheep
Writing her book
Dreaming a gathering of women
Creating in community
The challenges of charging for our work and supporting what it takes to create and teach
Extended episode –
Her adopted Native name and the story of how she was the first white woman in several hundred years to be adopted by that tribe
Women as beacons
More on ancestors
How clothing impacts how we are in the world
Books we mentioned
The Wild Wool Shepherdess: Weave the Ancient Path, Reignite Your Feminine Fire