April, May and June 2011

CountryTastic 2011
 at the Three Counties Showground was a huge success. The event attracted over 5000 children and their families.

We took 12 spinning wheels down this year and spent most of the day letting people "have a go" for themselves. As it was even more hectic than last year, we didn't get many photos ( again!) but above is one before it got too busy.


Wetlands
 We spent both Bank Holidays in May at Wetlands Animal Park. Two very different days they were too! The 2nd of May was a beautiful sunshiney day spent spinning near the Meerkats, who provided lots of entertainment in the moments when we weren't talking to visitors. I even got my photo taken, and the photographer very kindly sent me copies, see my gallery page:

On the 30th of May, unfortunately Wetlands really lived up to its name, it absolutely poured with rain, but the staff had been very thoughtful and put us right near the entrance this time so we kept quite dry and were well supplied with cups of tea ( thankyou Sheila!) The park had plenty of visitors, even in the damp weather and we still ended up talking to lots of people who were interested in what we were doing.


Idle Valley Summer Fair

In June, two of the Murmuring Wheel team were invited to spin at a Summer Fair held at the Idle Valley Rural Learning Centre, near Retford. The fair consisted of a select group of interesting stalls and exhibits, including Lound Bird Club, The British Trust of Ornithology and local artist Ross Spencer who created fascinating sculptures from litter found in Retford. We even managed to get a couple of the other exhibitors drop spindling during the day, but sadly didn't get photographic evidence!

We were also lucky enough to have a stunning view to look out at during the event as the centre has a wall of windows on one side, which overlook a lake on the reserve.

Spinning Workshops

We have now run many successful spinning workshops at Amber Valley Alpacas, Heage, Derbyshire.

We keep numbers small so that everyone gets plenty of individual attention and people always seem to go away happy, having learnt new skills, made new friends and been well fed on Ingrid's delicious cooking!

Our next workshop will be held on Saturday 2nd April, with more dates to be arranged in the future.

Any enquiries about further workshops welcome. We are hoping to cover other subjects such as felting and dyeing in the summer months, details to be published here soon!

For further details contact myself or Ingrid, more details here

Black Sheep Birthday

Wednesday 17th November 2010 was the first anniversary of our Black Sheep Spinners!

To celebrate the occasion we had a bit of a party, all the members brought along tasty treats, many of them home-made, and the Blaze Farm staff very kindly made us a cake (see above)

We are thrilled that the group has been meeting for a year and seems to be going from strength to strength, we have lots of lovely regular visitors and it's always a friendly, fun atmosphere at meetings.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us for the last year.

Wool Week, York Minster, Nobby and the Union Jack.

I think I've said before that I like odd requests. I enjoy a challenge, and an excuse to do something a bit out of the ordinary.

Sometimes though, I have moments where I wonder what I've let myself in for!

The idea for my most interesting project this year started at Bakewell Show. Richard from The Sheep Show casually strode over and asked if I thought I could make a Union Flag from wool. " I don't see any reason why not"...... I said.

I didn't really expect to hear anything more about it, but a few weeks later I got an email from the NFU's Regional Public Relations Officer for the North East. They wanted the flag making as part of their campaign to have wool included in the 2012 Olympics ( more information here) a campaign which Richard had been supporting all summer.

We swapped a few ideas and what followed was about 5 weeks of sketches, charts, samples, spinning, dyeing and crochet. I decided on crochet rather than knitting so that I could easily make the pattern the same on both sides.

The final result can be seen below, as well as more impressive shots here and here


The photos were taken at a special Wool Week event at York Minster on October 12th. The event was part of the national Campaign for Wool but also to celebrate the success of the NFU petiton.

We spent the day spinning outside the South Door of the Minster while Richard and Ed drew the crowds with The Mini Sheep Show. A full write up of the event can be found here.

We also managed to find a use for that 40ft scarf knitted at Bakewell. Emperor Constantine made a great model for the day!


We had a lot of fun with the tourists and also children from the nearby Minster school, who all had a go at spinning for themselves.

We were especially honoured to have been invited to this event as I'm told that this area of York is not a designated event area, and so the event was a the first of its kind.

So, in short, even if I was slightly upstaged by a Norfolk Horn, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.

Thanks must go to the NFU who looked after us so well, and especially to Rachael who made such a great job of organising the whole thing. Also to the Minster staff who made us very welcome.

And if you still want to see more, there are many more pictures: Mini Sheep Show Murmuring Wheel and York Minster

Gotland fleece

Trying to get some interest for a friend of mine, Phil has just sheared her flock and she has some beautiful Gotland fleece available.

Pedigree Gotland Ewe fleeces from the Pedwardine flock based in South Lincolnshire. Shorn twice per year.
Full or half skirted fleeces. Price £6 per kg - average weight 1.5 -2kg Postage at cost.

Smaller quantities available at £1.50 per 100g for ewe fleece. 21 ewes sheared in all.
£2 per 100g for lamb curls ( any quantity). 30+ lambs sheared.

Anyone who is interested can contact me and I will pass on her details.

Hand Spinning Workshops

Dates for our next Spinning Workshops at Amber Valley Alpacas have been arranged, they are ;

Wednesday 10th November 2010

Tuesday 7th December 2010

Thursday 6th January 2011

Sunday 23rd January 2011.

Cost of workshop is £37, a Gift Voucher can be purchased for Birthdays and Xmas.
A deposit of £20 per person is required which will be returned if the workshop does not go ahead.

The workshop runs from 10am - 4pm, all equipment and materials provided, but if you have your own wheel or fibre please feel free to bring them along.

Light cooked lunch will be provided, vegetarian alternatives are available, please let us know beforehand of your preference.

Please contact to book your place. Details here

Bakewell Show 2010

Our third year at Bakewell Show, what can I say that isn't like repeating myself?

Fun, friendly and muddy as usual!

The oversized scarf idea came into action again, it came to over 40ft this time, see future posts for what we did with it!

Here it is in progress, photo kindly supplied by Dot Lumb:

We enjoyed working with The Sheep Show again of course.

How many sheep shearers does it take to spin a yarn?


Don't worry, my wheel did survive the experience!