Introducing Penberth Yarns
Hi and welcome to Penberth Yarns! I am really excited to be here and to start this new chapter of my small handspun yarn business. First a little bit of background on who I am, where I am based and how I got into spinning.
My name is Sarah Whittle and I am a hand spinner and fibre artist. I am lucky to live in beautiful West Cornwall and Penberth Valley which is situated near Land's End and has some of the most fantastic beaches and coastline in Cornwall. I work from an 18th century farm cottage surrounded by woods and fields full of flowers and minutes from the hamlet of Penberth Cove. I am constantly inspired by my surroundings my love of nature and the sea.
I love yarn, you will here this a lot! In fact I love yarn so much about seven years ago I started making my own and from there my obsession has grown. I have always been a knitter having been taught from an early age to knit by mum and my gran. All I can remember is them knitting all our cardigans for school and Christmas presents from gran always consisting of a knitted jumper. I must admit when I had children of my own out came the knitting needles and many baby outfits, toddler clothes, knitted socks etc have been produced over the years.
I got into spinning after a trip to Woolfest in Cumbria. I had originally gone just to stock up on some hand dyed sock yarn but was mesmerised by all the ladies demonstrating their hand spinning. So I bought a drop spindle and thought I would give it ago. A few weeks later my husband was passing a local antique shop and saw an old spinning wheel in the window and went and enquired whether it "worked" and bought it for me the same day!
Well the spinning wheel turned out to be a very old Victorian spinning wheel that just needed a drive band which I created out of string. After looking up online what all the pieces were meant to do I managed to figure it out and spin some yarn, in fact I managed to spin quite a bit of yarn with only one bobbin! A couple of new Ashford spinning wheels later and I started to be able to produce consistent yarn which I decided to start selling through Etsy. I have been selling yarns and fibres on Etsy for a number of years now and this year I have decided to take the plunge and develop my own website.
You will find in my new online shop a collection of handspun yarns, art yarns, spinning fibres and handmade gifts. I love sharing my yarns and hand dyed fibres and also all the things I make which includes knitted and hand woven gifts for the family and the home.
On the blog I will be sharing the behind the scenes of my adventures with wool, including hand spinning, dyeing, weaving and knitting, plus tips, tricks, patterns and most of all my love of yarn!
Hope you will join me!