A very crafty afternoon in the Studio

This Saturday we enjoyed a very busy day here at Toft with a visit from the Knit Now magazine editor, followed by a taster workshop for 18 ladies keen to learn all they could about alpacas and knitting in three hours.

Kicking off at 1pm just after lunch we welcomed the group and then set off on a farm walk while the sun was shining. As ever the cria didn't fail to please and there were plenty of photo opportunities as they all played with each other in the field.

For those more advanced ladies who already knew their knit from their purl they set off knitting a phone sock- or upgraded to another one of the Toft knitting kits. 

This coming weekend we have our Intro to Knitting workshop.  Speand a whole day on farm knocking the rust off your skills or learning to cast on for the very first time for just £50 per person including all your materials and lunch. 

SATURDAY 7th JULY 2012.

BOOK HERE. 

The next date in the calendar is a first for us- in the form of  Giant Knitting workshop learning to use two very big sticks!  This is an afternoon workshop and just £33 per person including lots of cake and your very own set of 25mm knitting needles! Suitable for total beginners. 

FRIDAY 13th JULY 2012.

BOOK HERE.

If you've always been intimidated by cables and boobles but loved that traditional texture in knitting then our Aran Workshop is the one for you.  You will need to know your knitting basics (cast on, knit, purl, inc, dec, cast off) but we will take you through getting to grips with a cable needle and getting proper texture into your work.  This is an afternoon workshop and costs £35 including your aran weight yarn.

FRIDAY 20th July 2012.

BOOK HERE.

School’s Out Craft workshops with Toft Alpaca

We know it's only the Easter Holidays, but that means just one more term until school's out for the summer. Book now to get on one of our special summer holiday workshops- and don't forget to add our CRAFT OPEN DAY to your diary. Saturday 4th August. Don't miss out!

School’s Out Craft workshops with Toft Alpaca


Wet Felting Craft Morning
Children age 5-10 (accompanied by one adult)

This summer we will host two 3hr craft workshops aimed at mums, dads and their children. We are opening up our doors on Friday 10th and 24th August 9.30am-12.30pm.

The session will include a short farm walk to meet the alpacas including all the babies here at Toft at this time of year. We will then spend time doing wet felting in alpaca fleece. We will be making alpaca pictures in the fleece with traditional techniques using soap and water. At the end of the session there will be a chance to get your photo taken holding an alpaca on a halter lead.

The cost for the session will be £25 for one adult and a child.

This will include all materials, equipment and refreshments of tea, juice and cakes.

Places will be very limited so book soon to avoid disappointment.

Knit a Phone Sock
Young people age 11-18

This summer we will host a 3hr craft workshops aimed at getting young people knitting. We are opening up our doors on Friday 17th August 9.30am-12.30pm for this new workshop. We will teach knitting in a non-traditional way by not prescribing a knitting pattern to simply follow, but instead helping demonstrate how to create a pattern by measuring what you want to knit and make up your own design.

The session will include a short farm walk to meet the alpacas including all the babies here at Toft at this time of year. We will then spend time learning to knit from scratch. Attendees are invited to bring a phone or ipod that they would like to knit a sock for.

The cost for the session will be £25 per person.

This will include all materials, equipment and refreshments of tea, juice and cakes.

Places will be very limited so book soon to avoid disappointment.




To book online today visit here.

Some extra curricular knitting...off piste with a Pom Pom hat!!

Take one Toft beginner Pom Pom Beanie knitting pattern and eight old friends... Add lots of snow, a few mountains and a couple of hours embroidery time.

Team Toft hats are born...

This is a really easy and super quick knitting pattern and is unisex one size fits all- the lovely chunky garter stitch is very stretchy and a perfect head hugging shape.

We can now without hesitation assure with certainty that this hat is great for the slopes. Our survey confirms that they are incredibly warm, and due to the weightless Pom Pom they stay on your head at high speed.

Sewing the initials was a bit of a challenge initially- as you can see!

Maintaining the flexibility in the fabric was essential, so keep the stitches loose. Following several experiments the final letters were sewn using four strands of an Aran weight yarn. We chose to use a bright red Merino wool yarn- but any yarn including our Aran alpaca yarn would be fine.

Now we've cracked it there's no stopping us. A steel hat with a cream Pom Pom and letter for example will look fantastic.

The knitting kit for the hat can be bought here. The pattern is also contained in our Pattern Book.

For subscribers to the Toft Mailing List (sign up here) the knitting pattern for this easy beanie will be coming out to you FREE a bonus. You're welcome! Thanks for staying up to date with us.

Finally...send us your photos or share them with us on Facebook- we'd love to see them.

Crafty things made from... crafty things.

Take a look at these crafty items made from, well, crafty items.

Many of you may be familiar with knitting needle bangles and rings, 'zip' earrings, and needle point necklaces, well good for you. We'd just like to marvel at them for a short time and think about how lucky we are to be surrounded by crafting tools. We admire them not simply because they help us to create beautiful knitwear, or keep our knitting needles safe, or do up our jackets, but beacause they have their own pleasing aesthetics. It's a bit like buying a fur pom pom, just because it's so pretty, we know it's done and we know who you are!

Take a look at this article written in 2009 about designer Liana Kabel (maker of the craft jewelry) we're coveting several more pieces! We'll be showing you how to make your own jewelry from alpaca felt in May's shearing and felt workshop and Liana has provided us with lots of inspiration.

http://www.ecouterre.com/knit-wit-liana-kabel-recycles-vintage-knitting-needles-into-eye-popping-jewelry/

Carrie would like to thank her dear friend April for the beautiful cowhide needle case above and Liana Kabel knitting needle bracelet brought for her birthday several weeks ago and thereby inspiring this post!

Christmas Holidays & Yuletide Greetings!

As you may have guessed from our last post, we were feeling fully festive as of last weekend and the Toft Christmas Decoration Workshop, so today, on Christmas Eve Eve, that feeling has more than tripled! 

On Wednesday Carrie braved Coventry went along to the Christmas party at BBC Radio Coventry and Warwickshire's Afternoon Show with Vic Minnett and a whole host of her lovely (if slightly random) guests who have featured on the show throughout the 2011.  Vic's red reindeer jumper was a treat for the eyes (!) so much so that it was all too much for her to resist a beautifully homebaked gingerbread cupcake, so she didn't, it went down very nicely with a good cuppa.  She even had a quick chat with Vic about the completed Knitivity, the characters of which stood proudly in a specially commissioned stable. 

Yesterday was Christmas lunch day at Toft towers and what a feast it was!!  All thanks to Shirley who made a delicious meal for us all complete with crackers and cranberry sauce, plus black forest gateau for pudding - yum!

So today is the last, last minute shopping day in the shop.  Until 4pm this afternoon we'll be serving those who live life on the edge with their Christmas shopping and we have a lot to offer, so pop in and we'll fix all those present emergencies.  After today however the on farm shop will be closed and we'll see you again on 3rd January 2012 - you can of course order online and we will aim to get your parcels out just as soon as we can in the midst of all those bank holidays!

We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

See the full gallery on Posterous