February 2024

Hello to all our lovely Tadcrafters’ team and supporters,

There’s lots of really exciting things going on in Tadcrafters world at the moment so make sure you take time for a quick read of this jam-packed newsletter with information about a number of exciting events coming up that you won’t want to miss.

News

Over the last month we have had donated a huge amount of excellent quality crafting materials, yarn, fabric and other items. Thank you to everyone who has contributed as this means that we have lots of stock to keep our team busy making things for worthy causes.

In January we donated:

14 bags to St Leonard’s Hospice
9 draught excluders, 5 hot water bottle covers, 7 twiddlemuffs, 2 blankets, 12 hats, 4 scarves, 1 worry monster and 1 personal effects bag to Carers’ Resource
3 draught excluders to Tadcaster Foodbank
12 twiddlemuffs to York & Scarborough Hospitals Charity
4 large blankets and two patchwork quilts
4 bat boxes went to Street Space in Shipley Street Space (wearestreetspace.org)
And we ran a 3 week “Getting started on the sewing machine” course.

The “Getting started on the sewing machine” course proved to be very popular and we had to have a waiting list as the course was full. This was a trial run to see what the demand would be like as we try to work out an affordable solution to our lack of space. Without a workroom of our own it is very difficult to run most of our activities due to the amount of equipment and resources that need to be moved around. Let’s hope we can work out an affordable solution to this eventually.

Over the last few months we have been working with researchers at York St. John University to help make Tadcaster a little more environmentally aware and map the sustainable initiatives already happening in here. There are two events coming up very soon that you might be interested in attending.

The Yorkshire Film Archive presents “Nature Matters” a short film that explores one of the most important issues of our time: the impact of climate and environmental change on our natural landscapes. This unique event brings together regional archival footage and a special Tadcaster edit. The guest speaker and YFA lead will be Martha Cattle.

This event is part of a York St John University Community Research Grant project in collaboration with Sustainable Tadcaster

Tues 13th February from 6.30 to 8.30pm at The Barn. Booking is not required for this event.

We are delighted to announce that the amazing Sarah Corbett from the Craftivist Collective will be joining us at our next Tadcrafters drop-in session on Friday 16th February giving a talk about craftivism at 1pm.

Craftivism is “using thoughtful, beautiful, crafted works to help themselves and encourage others be the positive change they wish to see in the world.” As part of our work with York St John University and Sustainable Tadcaster we hope to promote changes to reduce waste and promote a thriving Tadcaster.

This is expected to be a very popular event and places are limited so if you would like to come, please book your free place following this link soon:

I’m really excited about this as I have read Sarah’s “How to be a Craftivist” book and I am eagerly awaiting her new “Craftivism Handbook” coming out in May. If you would like to know more about Craftivism or are interested in ordering her book for yourself visit the Craftivist Collective website https://craftivist-collective.com/our-story/

At the end of last year we gave a lot of hats and scarves etc to Spirit of Christmas. At one of the parties they give for struggling families they laid out a table full of them for people to take if they would like. Here’s two pictures the table taken 5 minutes apart

Last year we contacted by locally based Community First Yorkshire who asked us if there was anything they could help us with as an activity to do at their Christmas party. We provided them with a big bag of wool and some instructions and in January we got back a big bag of pom poms and a few bonus twiddlemuffs. What a lovely thing to have done.

Please have a look at the calendar at the end of the newsletter for a summary of our future events.

TadCrafters Tadcaster Group Update

Hopefully we have got in all the hats, scarves, and gloves etc. Please don’t start any more so we don’t end up having to store them over the summer. Thank you for all the twiddlemuffs. Please try to decorate them if you can as we currently have an awful lot to decorate before we can distribute them. As ever, we always prefer quality rather than quantity, so please take the time to use a wide variety of contrasting colours and textures, as per the instructions, to make them as interesting as possible. We have plenty of fancy yarns you can collect at the drop-in sessions. If you want something smaller, try making some flowers, leaves or characters that could be attached to the twiddlemuffs, or knitted hearts that can also be used for a variety of different purposes including anxiety and bereavement relief. We are likely to continue to need larger blankets throughout the summer so please keep on with those.

The next Tadcrafters drop-in session will be Friday 16^th February 10am-12.30pm. Please note the change of day due to it being half-term. We will also be finishing our usual activities a little earlier than usual due to having our guest speaker, but we’d love you to stay for it. Please try to book on the link above to be sure of a place.

The February drop-in session will be the last chance to help prepare for the Yorkits workshop sessions at York Minster, celebrating international Women’s Day/Week on Tuesday 5^th March. If you are able to come along your support would be very much appreciated (but be prepared for arctic temperatures in there). Please book on https://yorkminster.org/whats-on/event/yorkits-workshop/. There are lots of places but they do go quite quickly, especially for the morning session.

Sherburn Crafters Update

Sherburn Tadcrafters started off 2024 with a busy session, making up Twiddlemuffs, stuffing door stops and hearts. We had a lot of finished projects at the end of our 2 hours and we all felt very chilled having put the world to rights. Everyone was very excited about the Poppy Project at All Saints Church that we’ll be contributing to and plans were made to get knitting and crocheting. We would be particularly keen on a supply of red yarn if you have any spare.

We meet on the fourth Thursday each month at the Old Girls School and generally follow the same projects as the Tadcaster drop-in. You are welcome to attend both if you wish. The dates are in the calendar below and the next session Thursday February 22nd 11am-1pm

If you would like to join the group just turn up at the session and email tadcrafters@outlook.com to ask to be added to the Sherburn mailing list.

TadGrafters Wood-working Group Update

The TadGrafters team have made 11 bat boxes for organisations working with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, 4 of which have gone to Street Space, an organisation that aims to bring joy and social connection to the streets of Shipley. https://www.wearestreetspace.org/. The Grafters are hoping to make more bat boxes and bee hotels for distribution locally over the next few sessions.

The Grafters are next due to meet on Friday 16th February 1.15-3.15pm at The Barn. If you would like to help, or just come and see what the woodworkers do, just pop along to a session. You don’t need to bring anything with you.

Gardening Group update

The recent storms have resulted in one of the trees in the QBG being severely damaged with only half the original tree remaining standing. Whilst the fallen part of the tree is not causing an obstruction, the resulting debris will need to be cleared.

We will be starting again before long so if you are not already a member of the gardening group and would like to get involved, please contact Sue T at tadcraftersst@outlook.com and contact tadcrafters@outlook.com to be put on the mailing list.

Beekeeping Group Update

It’s too cold for the bees at the moment but if you are thinking of joining us you might be interested in doing some training. If you would like to join us, you don’t need any knowledge or training but a short beginners course would help. You can join one of the two local beekeepers groups (Barkston Ash or Leeds) and they provide some basic training. However, if you are interested in joining the group, we may be able to put on a basic course. Please contact us though the Tadcrafters email. If you would like to join us, just for a look or to help with regular inspections please contact us on tadcrafters@outlook.com.

List of Current TadCrafters projects

We welcome anyone new who would like to join us but ask you to please stick to our current projects as other items can be hard to find homes for. We need to focus on a few projects at a time so we can support everyone, maintain our standards and supply items that are wanted by worthy causes, in appropriate quantities. Some items originally intended for one cause may be re-directed to another or find their way onto our tombola stall to help raise funds. We supply materials for free at our drop-in sessions and instructions are provided by email or by links, if provided below; if you need help, please ask!

Sewing– supplied in kit form at the drop-off sessions

Personal effects bags for hospice patients and bereaved families at St. Leonard’s and St. Gemma’s Hospices
Syringe driver bags for hospitals and hospices
Drawstring book bags for the Banana box toy project
Liners, shields and drawstring bags for YorKits feminine hygiene kits
Heart-shaped cushions and drain bags for breast surgery patients (in sessions)
Draught excluders (in sessions)
Tombola items- miscellaneous kits

Knitting/crochet– yarn and needles available at the drop-off sessions

Larger Blankets only (between 3 x 4 to 5 x 8 feet) for Martin House Children’s Hospice
Flowers and other small items that could be used to decorate twiddlemuffs.
Memory Hearts https://www.hospiscare.co.uk/how-to-make-memory-hearts-for-patients-and-families/# or https://youtu.be/tfKj4Q3dnSI for completion in workshop sessions. (deadline February to prevent too many being made)
Twiddlemuffs for people living with dementia. (NB no metal parts, and ideally have tape for a name to be added and a Tadcrafters label.) https://www.qvh.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Twiddlemuffs-knitting-instructions.pdf
Knitted tombola prizes

Other projects

If you can’t knit or sew there are non-sewing tasks such as threading drawstrings and decorating twiddlemuffs that are really useful to the team, please ask.
Picking-up/dropping-off donation or supplies for people who are unable to make the sessions. You could maybe team up with someone who cannot drive or has other commitments on session days.
Join our woodwork, gardening, or bee-keeping groups.
If you are interested in doing something positive to help tackle climate change, however small, follow the Sustainable Tadcaster Facebook page. Please get in touch if we can support you to kick-start a new initiative such as running a repair café, library of things, recycling or other circular economy scheme etc.

Wish list and other ways to help

A huge thank you to the many people who have donated many, many things to us and have kept us going. If you have some surplus that you would like donate to us please be aware that we are short of storage space so please try to stick as close as possible to our wish list, or speak to us first. Smaller donations can be made at The Barn, ideally at one of the Tuesday drop-in sessions. NB We cannot use worn, dirty or smoky clothes, fabric or yarn. Fabric that is only fit for rags can be put directly into the collecting point outside the Salvation Army and save us a job. They have their own facilities to shred and recycle fabrics. We welcome:

New or clean, nearly new polyester/cotton or other lightweight woven fabric
New or nearly new knitting yarn. Any colour or weight but double knitting would be great.
Items, especially hand-crafted ones, suitable for our tombola stalls
New or clean, nearly new winceyette (brushed cotton) sheets/fabric for Yorkits
Spectacles for Specsort who take them to people in developing countries
“Gently worn” bras and new pants for “Smalls for All” http://smallsforall.org/
Vintage fabric, equipment and haberdashery *

*Any items not suitable or surplus to our own use we give or sell to people who really appreciate them, whilst also raising funds for our projects.

If you would like to make a financial donation/direct debit to help us do what we do you can do so on the Local Giving website which can be found at: https://localgiving.org/tadcrafters
Please share our social media posts and encourage others to join in.
Sign up to Easyfundraising to raise money for us at no extra cost to you when you shop online, https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/tadcrafterscic/
Visit our Etsy store to purchase top-quality fabric remnants that are surplus to our requirements https://www.etsy.com/shop/tadcrafters/ If you live in Tadcaster, contact us direct for a discount. NB these items are not stored at The Barn or available for viewing at sessions.
Support our campaign to find a place of our own. If you know of a local business that could provide us with sponsorship or free space that we could use to store goods and run workshops from please put them in touch with us.

Keep in touch

If you need to get in touch with us, and need a response, please use email. This is to protect your personal details and because messages and conversations on social media become lost. Someone will get back to you, but it might not be straight away due to other commitments. The Tadcrafters Chat Group or Sherburn Tadcrafters Chat Group is a great way to keep in touch with other Tadcrafters and be inspired. You can also follow the Tadcrafters page, (and Tadcrafters Sales page) on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and Instagram (@Tadcrafters).

To be put on the emailing list/s (wherever you live) please request it by emailing tadcrafters@outlook.com and add us to your list of contacts so we don’t end up in your junk. There are usually only one or two emails a month.

If you would like to be kept up to date about any of the specific group activities please email us and ask to be put on the relevant group mailing list and your email will be forwarded to the group leader.

See you soon, Su.

Directors Tadcrafters CIC: Su Morgan, Lynne Howard Sandra Levitt and Sue Tennant

Calendar

Date	Event	Time	Location
Tues 13^th Feb	History Matters Film	6.30-8.30pm	The Barn
Fri 16^th Feb*	Drop-in workshop session	10am-12.30pm	The Barn
Fri 16^th Feb	Talk by Sarah Corbett of the Craftivist Collective	1-1.45pm	The Barn (booking required)
Fri 16th Feb*	TadGrafters	1.15-3.15pm	The Barn
Thurs 22^nd Feb	Sherburn craft session	11am-1pm	Sherburn Old Girls School
Sat 24^th Feb	Yorkits workshop session <	10am-12pm	Hartrigg Oaks, York
Tues 5th Mar	Yorkits IWD workshop	am & pm tbc	York Minster (booking required)
Tues 12^th Mar	Drop-in workshop session	10am-3pm	The Barn
Weds 13^th Mar	TadGrafters	1.15-3.15pm	The Barn
Tues 19^th Mar	Talk	10.30am	Burton Salmon
Thurs 28^th Mar	Sherburn craft session	11-1pm	Sherburn Old Girls School
Sat 30^th Mar	Yorkits workshop session <	10am-12pm	Hartrigg Oaks, York
Tues 9^th April	Drop-in workshop session	10am-3pm	The Barn
Weds 10^th Apr	TadGrafters	1.15-3.15pm	The Barn
Thurs 25^th Apr	Sherburn craft session	11-1pm	Sherburn Old Girls School
Sat 27^th Apr	Yorkits workshop session <	10am-12pm	Hartrigg Oaks, York
Tues 4^th May	Drop-in workshop session	10am-3pm	The Barn
Weds 15^th May	TadGrafters	1.15-3.15pm	The Barn
Thurs 23^rd May	Sherburn craft session	11-1pm	Sherburn Old Girls School
Sat 25^th May	Yorkits workshop session <	10am-12pm	Hartrigg Oaks, York
Tues 11^th Jun	Drop-in workshop session	10am-3pm	The Barn
Weds 12^th Jun	TadGrafters	1.15-3.15pm	The Barn
Thurs 27^th Jun	Sherburn craft session	11-1pm	Sherburn Old Girls School
Sat 29^th Jun	Yorkits workshop session <	10am-12pm	Hartrigg Oaks, York
Tues 9^th Jul	Drop-in workshop session	10am-3pm	The Barn
Weds 10^th Jul	TadGrafters	1.15-3.15pm	The Barn
Thurs 18^th Jul	Talk to WI	7.30	South Milford
Thurs 25^th Jul	Sherburn craft session	11-1pm	Sherburn Old Girls School
Sat 27^th Jul	Yorkits workshop session <	10am-12pm	Hartrigg Oaks, York
Fri 16^th Aug*	Drop-in workshop session	10am-3pm	The Barn
Fri 16th Aug*	TadGrafters	1.15-3.15pm	The Barn
Thurs 22^nd Aug	Sherburn craft session	11-1pm	Sherburn Old Girls School
Sat 31^st Aug	Yorkits workshop session <	10am-12pm	Hartrigg Oaks, York

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