The Wool Experience

Another update of our antics, as usual we have been so busy that I have neglected the blogging again.

Saturday 4th of July we were up at Blaze Farm, Wildboarclough in Cheshire spinning at their annual Wool Experience event. We first spun at Blaze Farm in 2007 and always pop in when we are passing, for one of their famous ( and delicious) Hilly Billy Ice Creams.

Although he was in his Murmuring Wheel outfit, Phil still got roped in to helping with the shearing demonstration, which seemed to be one of the highlights of the day for a lot of visitors.

There were a lot of interested visitors and we spent a lot of time taking to lots of lovely people. Plenty of kids - and adults - were brave enough to have a go at spinning for themselves too, which we always like to see, and we even gave a quick spinning lesson to farmers wife Caroline.

In between all this we still managed to find time to spin and crochet a shoulder shawl which we hope found its way to Blaze Farm's Katy who had been working hard all day in the cafe and also providing a commentary on the shearing display.

Open Farm Sunday

Sunday 7th of June saw us heading up to Dovedale for Open Farm Sunday at The Peak District Farm Shop Grove Farm, Stanshope.

It was lovely weather - for ducks! And the thunder kept everyone awake too! The event attracted an amazing number of visitors though, who braved the bad weather to see the various demonstrations on offer. Phil's shearing demo went down well, as did an impromptu shearing lesson during the worst of the thunderstorm:

Nevertheless, we had a nice - if damp - day and had plenty of chance to talk (as always) Thanks to Nick, Helen, John, Janet and David for inviting us. We are keeping our fingers crossed for a dry day next year!

White Post Farm

Must keep up with this blogging thing, I'm letting myself fall behind. I was supposed to be blogging about our latest adventures a while ago but have been so busy I never got round to it.

My diary is usually full up for summer events well in advance but just occasionally I get a job come up at short notice. This was just what happened near the end of May. I knew that Phil was going to be shearing for White Post Farm at the end of the month, what I didn't expect was a phonecall from the Farm on the Wednesday, asking if we would all go and spin for them while the shearing was going on Saturday and Sunday! Never one to turn down a day out, I agreed and so we ended up going along and spinning for the weekend in the Silver Barn ( under a sign that said "Chickens" - don't know of that is relevant!)

We thought that as we were there for two days we would work on another big project and decided on a crocheted blanket. Philip had his orders to find us a good fleece, so he selected, and sheared a lovely soft, colourful Jacobs.

We were all pretty content as we were all doing what we do best, Philip shearing, and the rest of us spinning and having a good natter to the visitors, and the staff.

By the middle of the second day, we were a bit worried that it wouldn't get the blanket finished - maybe we spend too much time talking - but we did mange to get the finishing touches done in time, and here was the result:


We left it with the farm, not sure what they will be doing with it, perhaps they will have to use it to keep the sheep warm now that they have had their coats taken off!

So, for a short notice booking, we had a pretty good weekend, we were really impressed with how helpful and friendly the staff were and want to say a big thankyou to everyone, especially to Simon for inviting us and to Rebecca and Emily for looking after us so well.

Summer is really here

Summer really seems to be here now, the group and I have been out and about demonstrating in the sunshine.

Sunday the 24th of May we were out as members of the Arkwright Spinsters at Hardwick Park Farm

It was an absolute scorcher of a day which seemed to attract the visitors. They had a team of shearers in, shearing their sheep, so we picked a nice looking fleece and got to work.

Laying the fleece out in the sun kept the lanolin warm which made it much easier to spin and the fleece was soon knitted up -

into a lovely ( although slightly greasy and smelly) shawl, for farmer's wife Clare.

They had a fantastic barbeque cooking too, we can recommend the beefburgers!

Bank Holiday Monday saw us at Wetlands Wildlife and Waterfowl Reserve at Sutton-cum-Lound, near Retford, which, by the way, is a great place to visit if you like to get a good look at unusual types of creatures, or just fancy a country walk around the lakes.

We had a nice shady spot, under the trees at the end of the deer pen and not far from their one sheep, Knobby, who was sheared by Philip in the afternoon ( the 100th sheep he had sheared this year!)

We managed to talk a few of the visitors into having a go at spinning too with some pretty impressive results.

Sheep Shearer

Sheep Keepers, are you having problems finding a shearer this summer?

Sheep shearer available for work around the UK

My brother is just setting up shearing sheep, he is based in the South Yorkshire area but will travel. He is specialising in small flocks but will tackle larger jobs, his motto is "I've never slummed a pen".

He has experience of shearing all sizes of sheep from Lincoln Longwool down to Ouessant.

Philip Fisher http://www.singingshearer.co.uk/

Easter Weekend

The demonstration season seems to be coming around again. The Murmuring Wheel and I had a busy three days over Easter at two very different but very enjoyable events.

Easter Saturday we had been invited to the "Spring Fling" at Hatton Church in Lincolnshire, organised by
The Invitation.

The day started off rainy, but that didn't put off the visitors, in fact for such a small village, the turnout was amazing. As we were in Lincolnshire, we had decided that it would be appropriate to be spinning Lincoln Longwool fleece ( kindly supplied by Sharon of Greengate Wools) which many local people noticed. We had a really nice day, thanks to Margaret and Sheila for inviting us and hope we can come back again soon.

Easter Sunday and Monday we represented The Arkwright Spinsters at a Georgian Re-enactment and Living History event at Cromford Mill in Derbyshire. We were right up on the top floor of the main mill, which was new for us as we are more used to being on the ground floor of the wharf building, just across the road from the mill. Being so high up gave us a great view of what was happening in the mill yard though.





We thought that being up on the top floor, we wouldn't get many visitors, but were surprised at just how many people came in, partly due, on the Sunday, to David, the tour guide, bringing his tour groups in to see the spinning process. The other exhibitions in the same building as us were fascinating, unfortunately I didn't get to see as much as I would have liked.

Me, looking busy...........

So, a good start to our summer demonstrations, fingers crossed that the rest of the year goes this well.

Advent Gathering

On the 6th of December the Murmuring Wheel Group and I attended the Advent Gathering of the Staffordshire Moorlands Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers at Cheddleton.

It's always nice to see the Staffordshire Moorlands Guild as they are all such lovely people and this year, like last, they put on a fantastic event which was enjoyed by everyone who went.

We had a great time catching up with friends we hadn't seen in a while and making new ones.