Spinning and Felting Workshops, Derbyshire

We are currently taking bookings for 1 day spinning and felting workshops, early in 2010 at Amber Valley Alapacas, Heage, Derbyshire. Bookings can be made through myself or Ingrid at Amber Valley Alpacas.

Dates so far are 24th January, 28th February and 28th March 2010 from 10am - 4pm

Cost of workshop will be £35 and will include light refreshments. A deposit of £20 per person is required which will be returned if the course does not go ahead.

Places are filling up quickly so please register your interest now to make sure you don't miss out.

Further information and contact details on the poster above, and as always, please contact me if you have any questions.

Activity Update

I think it's about time I updated the blog with what else I have been up to, other than planning workshops and social groups!

I'm working on lots of commissions in time for Christmas and at the moment I'm in the middle of a big batch of Alpaca hats. I've also just enjoyed spinning some samples for a Leeds University Student to knit, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what she creates with them.

I also got a nice local (for once!) booking thanks to a friend of mine. Mum and I went out to do a spinning demo and hands on session for the Kiveton Sew -n- Sews who all seemed to enjoy having a play with the wheels. It was a really enjoyable evening and was nice to be able to demonstrate somewhere closer to home. I fact it's a real treat to be demonstrating in the same county as home!

Must get some knitting done now, hopefully I will get everything done in time for Christmas, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed - although not during knitting, obviously!

The Black Sheep Spinners, 1st meeting

I think I have just about recovered enough now to blog about yesterday! What a fantastic, friendly, fun, tiring day it was too.

I think I can safely say that the first meeting of the Black Sheep Spinners went well. We had far more people come and join us than we had ever imagined and the room was totally packed for most of the day, we think that, aside from the 8 of us who organised it, there were about 20 people!

It was great to see lots of new faces, who we hope will become good friends in the future, and also to see some old friends that we hadn't met for a while. Such as Sally and her family, home educating friends of ours who fitted in perfectly. Her girls were a delight to have with us and both Lani and Freya produced some very neat spinning.

Lani even helped out, teaching needlefelting to two children who visited after school. We hope to have lots more home-ed children, and children in general at future meetings.

Sally has already written a lovely post about the day on her own blog here Thanks Sally!

We had our own Black Sheep Banner, ready in time for the day, thanks to the hard work of Florence. It looked fantastic and shows just what a talented lady she is.

Both the banner and our badges sport our logo, George Clooney II of Camall, the Black Sheep. His image is used with the kind permission of Mr James Graham.

It was great to see so many people, spinning, knitting, chatting, swapping tips and having a go at different aspects of their crafts.

Dorothy doing very well on the Great Wheel there, I know who to leave in charge whan I want a break!

We all want to say thanks to all at Blaze Farm who took such good care of us, especially Katy who did so much to help us prepare in the lead up to the first meeting.

We are now eagerly looking forward to next month's meeting, 16th of December. We are anticipating even more people coming as almost everyone who came this time said that they would be telling friends. Hope the room will hold us all!

We intend meeting on the third Wednesday of each month from now on, I will post list of dates for next year eventually. Everyone welcome, all ages. £3 per session with refreshments.

If you are not a crafter, why not come for a look around ( free admission) and see what we get up to. You might just find that last minute Christmas present, as some members will have lovingly created items for sale. And of course it's never too cold for an icecream before you leave.

I will leave you with a taste of what we had on display, if you want to see more, then come along and visit us.