Open day and Grand opening

To celebrate our move to our new premises, we’ll be holding an Open Afternoon on Saturday, 21st April, from 2pm to 5pm. Members of the public are welcome to come and see a display of our work, and to try some hands on spinning and weaving.

We’ll have an short ‘Opening Ceremony’ at around 3.30pm, with champagne to celebrate, and afternoon tea to follow.

Update: We’re delighted that our local member of State Parliament, Richard Torbay, will be able to attend  our Opening.

Armidale Show photos

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Jenny and Robyn spinning at the Armidale Show in Friday. Yes, we spent two days there, surrounded by amazing superfine merino fleeces (our region specialises in superfine wool) – but I don’t think any went missing

Our display was informal, because we couldn’t be there all the time (the Show runs until late each night), but people seemed to appreciate being able to handle the items we put out on the table. Quite a few people ‘had a go’ at the table loom, inkle loom, and on a spinning wheel, and kids in particular (but adults too!) appreciated being able to take away their lengths of handspun yarn. We unwind what they’ve spun from the bobbin, and let it twist on itself to form a 2-ply, and voila, a child has something to show family and friends.

Margaret won first place in the woven item from handspun yarn…

…and first place for an item of handspun, and Champion of the spinning section. Well done, Margaret!

Linda entered the show for the first time, with her wonderful twill scarf – her second piece of weaving ever, and beautifully even.

My rainbow scarf won in the handwoven item from commercial yarn, and made Champion of the weaving section…

..but it faced some very strong competition from Margaret’s beautiful scarf!

Sadly, this year there were very few entries in the knitting section – so Jenny’s hand-dyed Jaywalker socks and my socks duelled for honours in the sock class.

Armidale Show

We’ll be demonstrating spinning and weaving in the Main Pavilion at the Armidale Show tomorrow and Saturday. As well as a hands-on demonstration, we’ll also have flyers about this years spinning and weaving workshops – please see the ‘Workshops’ link above.

Our agreement with the Showground means that the Show Society uses our room during the Show, so we’re not doing a display in there. But perhaps we might have an Open Day sometime in the near future – maybe even an official opening! (Any excuse for champagne )

Members have done a great job sorting out and setting up the new space, and I think all are agreed that it’s got a good ‘feel’ to it – welcoming, comfortable, and pleasant to work in.

(Yes, sanding back the big work table and the chairs and repainting/staining them are on the ‘to do’ list! )

Moving…

One of our old rooms, with almost everything gone. Leaving here marks the end of an era – the group has been meeting in this building for 20 or more years.

Settingup and unpacking in the new room – which has the advantages of being a larger, single room, and – most importantly! – with no stairs. We can park right outside the door, and easily cart looms, spinning wheels etc inside through wide doors.

Four of us got a fair amount achieved in just a couple of hours – we’ll finish off most of it this afternoon, and gradually settle in and build the ‘homey’ feel.

The big move

We’ve been busy, getting ready for the big move to our new premises under the grandstand at the Showground. We’ve been clearing out 15+ years of accumulated bits and pieces, packing up, and planning what will go where in the new space. Yesterday we had a garage sale to sell some excess equipment, and while we didn’t sell everything we’d decided we could do without, we did sell a fair amount of it.

The new space is probably a similar size to our current space, but it’s all one room, rather than three, and we’ll be sharing it with other groups, including groups with kids who might find our equipment too tempting to ‘play’ with. So, we’re only taking what we’ll use, and can stack in one area of the room that can be screened off. (As much as one can ’stack’ table looms and spinning wheels!!)

Friday the removalists are coming at 9am – we hope to be all moved by about 11am! Since our present rooms have external, wooden stairs and many of us are not young and fit, we decided it was worth the expense of getting removalists to do all the hard work of carting gear down the stairs. (One of the big things in favour of the new premises is that there are NO stairs!)

Saturday 17th will be our first meeting in the new premises – and we’re looking forward to unpacking and making it our new ‘home’. Hmmm… this event might call for some champagne. Or some wicked chocolate cake. Or both!