It all began with 3 baby lambs

How to start a blog? Well, here goes – I live on Dartmoor, Devon with my family and 6 dogs, 3 cats, a horse, a pony, 3 sheep, 2 goats and 2 miniature pigs in the kitchen.

 My Spin A Yarn story begins with 3 baby lambs which we were given when we arrived on Dartmoor. We couldn’t eat these new members of the family so I decided to learn to spin and make woolly jumpers of them instead.

I learnt to spin at wonderful Bonehill studio in Widecombe with a group of extremely talented ladies.

Now that I was producing lots of beautiful handspun yarn, I began to get quite obsessive about knitting, buying lots of books and magazines looking for patterns suitable for my new handspun yarn.

My daughter bought me 2 angora goats, Alfie & Angus as a birthday present and I spun their mohair with the lustrous fleece from my beautiful Wensleydale sheep called Winston.

Then, when we were in New Zealand last Christmas for a family wedding I went searching for beautiful yarn shops as usual, accompanied by my daughters who are in their twenties. Expecting them to be bored, I was startled to see them react like small children in a sweetie shop. Grabbing armful of beautiful skeins they demanded to be taught how to knit.  

 We all decided that it would be brilliant if there was a similar yarn shop in Bovey Tracey, our nearest town.

 Then when I walked into town, the day I arrived back from holiday, a little empty shop at 3 Station Road shone out at me like a light bulb. It was meant to be! This time instead of holding back I decided to just “go for it”

O n 4 July this year I proudly opened Spin A Yarn for the first time.