At the Wool Experience in July 2009 friends Frank and Florence Brocklehurst, Sylvia Berrisford, Jayne and George Fisher and their children, Diane, Philip and Nancy were discussing the need for a child friendly spinning/craft group. The Fishers were demonstrating handspinning at the event and it was where they had met Florence and Sylvia in 2007. They had become friends then after Jayne had taken a liking to the Ouessant fleece that Florence had brought along to The Wool Experience that year. The fleece was from sheep owned by Frank's friend James Graham, so obviously as she had never spun any, Jayne really needed to spin some!
Anyway back to 2009. The friends had been debating the fact that quite a few spinning/craft groups weren't happy to have children there when Jayne said to Florence, “Why don't we see if Blaze Farm would provide us with a room?” As it happened Frank and Florence knew The Waller Family and kindly offered to go and ask. About half an hour later they came back with the good news that Blaze Farm would be able to find us a room and we made a date to go back and talk about it with Katy Waller.
After meeting with Katy it was arranged that we would be able to use the party room once a month on a Wednesday afternoon and we all set to planning advertising for the first meeting which was to be in November 2009. We decided on the name The Black Sheep Spinners after James Graham kindly allowed us to use an image of one of his Ouessant rams as our logo.
When the first meeting started we were a bit apprehensive as to how many people (if any) would turn up, but spot on 1.00pm in walked June, Marina and Sheila from Florence and Sylvia's Guild, followed by Jayne's friend Sally and her three girls (part of the reason for setting up the group). All heard of the group by word of mouth, so not a bad start. Diane had been talking to someone on Ravelry who turned out to be Dot Lumb later to become the founder and editor of YarnMaker magazine.
Everyone settled in and the room was filled with a warm, friendly atmosphere with the hum of spinning wheels and friendly laughter and chatter. Sally could already spin, but her two eldest had a go on the day and have become very good spinners and valued members of the group.
The group has gone from strength to strength from 16 people at the first meeting to 28 in August 2012. Our spinning friends come to as many or as few meetings as they wish and we expect nothing from them other than to have a good time with friends.
We would like to thank Katy Waller and her family for kindly allowing us the use of their party room. Many thanks also to everyone at Blaze Farm who continue to make us feel welcome.
Anyway back to 2009. The friends had been debating the fact that quite a few spinning/craft groups weren't happy to have children there when Jayne said to Florence, “Why don't we see if Blaze Farm would provide us with a room?” As it happened Frank and Florence knew The Waller Family and kindly offered to go and ask. About half an hour later they came back with the good news that Blaze Farm would be able to find us a room and we made a date to go back and talk about it with Katy Waller.
After meeting with Katy it was arranged that we would be able to use the party room once a month on a Wednesday afternoon and we all set to planning advertising for the first meeting which was to be in November 2009. We decided on the name The Black Sheep Spinners after James Graham kindly allowed us to use an image of one of his Ouessant rams as our logo.
When the first meeting started we were a bit apprehensive as to how many people (if any) would turn up, but spot on 1.00pm in walked June, Marina and Sheila from Florence and Sylvia's Guild, followed by Jayne's friend Sally and her three girls (part of the reason for setting up the group). All heard of the group by word of mouth, so not a bad start. Diane had been talking to someone on Ravelry who turned out to be Dot Lumb later to become the founder and editor of YarnMaker magazine.
Everyone settled in and the room was filled with a warm, friendly atmosphere with the hum of spinning wheels and friendly laughter and chatter. Sally could already spin, but her two eldest had a go on the day and have become very good spinners and valued members of the group.
The group has gone from strength to strength from 16 people at the first meeting to 28 in August 2012. Our spinning friends come to as many or as few meetings as they wish and we expect nothing from them other than to have a good time with friends.
We would like to thank Katy Waller and her family for kindly allowing us the use of their party room. Many thanks also to everyone at Blaze Farm who continue to make us feel welcome.