Easter Saturday and Sunday

Easter Saturday and Sunday was spent out in Lincolnshire at St Stephens Church, Hatton for the Srping Fling, organised by Artinvision.




We were rather subdued for the first day as we had been separated!!! We were spread out into two different marquees, so couldn't banter like usual, we rebelled on day two though and all grouped together up near the church.

We shared the marquee with a very friendly woodworker who had come along with the Lincolnshire Tree Services team.

The weather had turned out beautiful and a lovely lady from the refreshments tent ( Jenny?) kept us well supplied with tea and cake. Like last year we spoke to lots of interested people, including some who were spinners already. For such a small village it is surprising how well attended this event has been for the last two years.

Good Friday

Good Friday was a Smallholders day at CWG Worksop. The warehouse was filled with various creatures including sheep, pigs, alpacas and poultry, while we were spinning just near the entrance of the shop.

We were well looked after by the staff who were fantastic - we couldn't persuade any of them to have a go at spinning though.

The place was incredibly busy, in fact I had a permenant spectator!

We really enjoyed the day, and bumped into lots of people we hadn't seen for a long time. Hopefully we will be spinning there again soon.

Easter events

We're gearing up to a very busy Easter here. I'm spending every spare moment preparing and am sure that I'm never going to get everything done that needs doing.

If anyone fancies coming along to see us when we are out and about, we will be at the following:

2nd April - Good Friday - Open Day at Central Wool Growers, Worksop Branch, Nottinghamshire

3rd and 4th April - Easter Saturday and Sunday - The Spring Fling, organised by Artinvision
at St Stephens Church, Hatton, nr Wragby, Lincolnshire.

then a few days rest until.....

8th April -CountryTastic! at The Three Counties Showground, Malvern, Worcestershire. We are working with The Sheep Show at this one, which always proves an interesting experience!

11th April - Wetlands Animal Park, Sutton-cum-Lound, nr Retford, Nottinghamshire. We will be spinning near the deer enclosure.

We will also be at the Arkwright Spinsters meeting on the 18th and Black Sheep meeting on the 21st, so April will probably pass pretty quickly!

New Year and more to keep me busy

2010 seems to be disappearing as quickly as 2009 did. Almost a month gone already!

The Black Sheep meetings continue to be successful, we did have a few worries about the January one after such a lot of snow up near the farm, but we still managed to get across, as did many others.

The diary is filling up at an amazing rate at the moment, some dates have been added to my Events page but lots more will be added in the near future. It's looking like this will be our busiest year yet.

The first workshop at Amber Valley Alpacas went very well indeed and seemed to have been enjoyed by everyone who attended. I'm going to write a seperate post about the day when I've tracked down some photos.

The date for the February workshop is fully booked and the March date is getting plenty of interest too so we may have to look at arranging more dates later in the year to meet demand. Anyone looking for spinning courses, felting courses or workshops any other related crafts please get in touch and we will see what we can arrange.

Ah well, must get some work done, back soon.....

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.