Toft Manor; Alpaca farm and Cute Crochet HQ

The very lovely Sam from Betsy makes had a giveaway last week on her blog for any comments made on her charming Dave Scuttle and I was the WINNER yay!!! The prize was a family ticket to the Toft alpaca shop near Rugby, where Kerry Lord was running demonstrations, workshops and a farm tour as part of the launch of her new crochet book 'Edwards Menagerie: Birds'.  Dave Scuttle was based on a seagull from Kerry's new book which is packed with beautiful variations of birds.  A novice to crochet and a county neighbour to Warwickshire, this was an opportunity not to be missed and so off I went with my sister and our 4 children in tow.


We set off early but traffic it took us over an hour and a half so we arrived after Kerry had begun her workshop.  The cheerful and kind staff happily entertained us with pom pom making before we had delicious cake and coffee in the swish cafe.

The children then did some wet felting although they didn't have the greatest of patience or perseverance in the presence of hunger and so we hastily had some lunch before a tour of the farm.  I can't stress enough how important the staff were in making our day so memorable as our tour guide Caroline was superb with the children .  They held her hands as they walked around and asked questions and she was patient and kind to them and Monica was super with making the pom poms which all made me calmer and more relaxed, thus enjoying the whole experience a lot more.

 We arrived back after the tour as Kerry was beginning to discuss her journey into crocheting and how her 2 books came about.  I have seen her on create and craft previously and knew a little about the luxurious Toft Alpaca wool that she uses in her patterns but also enjoyed listening to her talking about the books.  She was friendly and engaging throughout the day and even signed my book which I purchased with my sister after seeing the demonstration pieces in the shop.  We also bought some alpaca finger puppets for the children which were packaged in lovely totes; very useful for future yarn projects such as the panda called 'Fiona'.  That is an intermediate pattern so may not be attempted for a while yet but along with the book, I received an additional 10 patterns by email which includes a reindeer, sloth and badger.

The quality of the Toft products are certainly luxurious and can sell themselves. I'm really keen to get started but the main thing I took away from the day was that it would not have been what it was if not for the staff.  I will definitely revisit Toft Manor, perhaps without the children so I can really focus and improve my crocheting, but Kerry did mention another open day in December 19th where there will be more opportunities to visit the farm, see demonstrations and further activities for children which I fully intend to attend.

Huge thankyou again to Sam as I would never have done this if not for the giveaway you did :D