April News

We’ve made a change to our programme – our April evening session (24^th) will be spent looking at modular knitting (the triangle weaving session will now be done in July).  So please bring knitting needles and some coloured yarns (the brighter the better)  - we will make sure that there’s lots of different ideas for you to try out!

Also – do remember our beginner’s spinning day on 21st April.  We plan to start just after 10 and aim to finish by 4 pm and in-between we will cover the basics of hand spinning – from how to obtain and prepare fibres, to spinning and plying them into a yarn that is usable for a given project.  We’ll also take a quick look at the different types of tools and fibres that are available today.  Don’t worry if you are not a beginner, we would love you to come along – the day is open to everyone and there’s always something new to learn!

Looking forward to seeing you soon

March Update

Our March evening was truly fascinating and inspiring one.  Ruth Winterbottom came along to share her experience of studying for the Certificate of Achievement in Spinning from the Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers.  She was awarded the certificate in 2011 – and truly deserved it

She gave us an entertaining and detailed insight into the time, effort, energy, will power and perseverance that is required to succeed in obtaining the certificate.

She talked us through the two main phases of the certificate, technical skills (50%) and design skills (50%), using her wonderful samples, detailed documentation of her working methods and her final show piece.  A really inspiring evening

Until next time

February – Needle Felting Fun

We had a wonderful time creating various little creatures, pictures and objets d’art under the watchful eye of Rachel, our instructor for the evening. Some beautiful new objects were created out of ‘thin air’,  well,  fleece and felt using only the power of our imaginations, some fantastic guidance and a lot of stabbing with a sharp needle.  Check out the photos below for the results of our efforts

Well done to everyone who took part

January – Wheel Maintenance

A bit too early for spring cleaning?  No – we’re always ready to encourage spring to arrive more quickly – who knows, maybe sprucing up our wheels helps the winter to realise that its past it’s best and that it’s now time for the warmer weather to have a chance (okay, okay – it was worth a dream for a moment).

Those of us who did the wheel maintenance now have wonderfully clean and smooth running machines – yay! and we had chance to catch up and prepare for the year ahead.

Welcome to 2012

Happy 2012 to you!

Where did the time go – Christmas has been and gone in the blink of an eye! Now we’re looking forward to our own Jubilee year, yes – the Stafford Knot Spinners are 25 years old and we plan to celibrate in style this summer.

Our 2012 programme is here.    We hope you find something of interest – note that the entries in bold are our meetings, the other entries are for events that we plan to be involved with in some shape or form.

Enough for now – don’t hesitate  to contact us if you have any questions

Open Evening Invite

We’re holding our annual Open Evening on November 22nd and we would love you to come along and see what we’ve been doing this year.

Our doors open from 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm, entry is free and refreshments are provided.

Friendly alert – Attendance may lead to a life-long addiction to all crafts involving fleece and fibres – you have been warned

As Promised – Here’s our video !

Just click on the ‘Our video’ link on the right and choose run with windows media player to see our group in action.

With thanks to the Adult Community Learning Service at Staffordshire County Council

Happy viewing

Welcome!

Welcome to the Stafford Knot Spinners web site – lovely of you to drop by – we hope you enjoy your browse!

We are a group of around 20 enthusiasts who meet on a regular basis to share our love of spinning and allied crafts – that’s knitting, crochet, felting, weaving, dyeing to mention just a few !!

Our meetings are held in the village hall of a lovely place called Hyde Lea which nestles in the countryside just outside Stafford, in Staffordshire, UK (ST18 9BG).

We meet on the 4th Tuesday of the month from 19:30 to 21:30 and occasionally in-between, either for one of our own workshops or to attend fibre related events around the country.

If you live in or near Stafford you may have seen us at one of the local shows – if there was someone with a spinning wheel there,then it is highly likely it was someone from our group.

To give you a flavour of what we do, why not look at our 2011 and 2010 programmes.

We are hoping to be able to show you what we look like soon – but more of that next time

Until then – happy spinning