Emmaline and Rose The Crafty Cafe is one of the businesses at The Old Needle Works in Redditch. It is a great place to meet friends and when I am teaching Experimental Textiles we always have our lunch in there. Joan and Sharon are very funny and fabulous hosts - they make wonderful cakes and sandwiches and you can choose your own tea pot and cup and saucer from a display on the dresser. It really is all very civilised. When I was there last weekend Michelle Edinburgh was running a sock monkey class in the cafe.  A happy group creating gorgeous monkeys. Michelle is an art therapist and uses the making of sock monkeys as part of the therapy - however the class in the cafe was purely for the joy of making monkeys. Any kind of sock can used. The decoration is always the fun part, deciding what kind of hair and eyes. Do you use buttons or beads? Decsions, Descions . . . . I love the spots and stripes that are being used. The creature on the le...

Claire's wonderful zingy ginger cookies.  The weekend was fast and furious and started on Friday night with The Old Needle Works Christmas/New Year party. It was great to see everyone again - it had been quite a while since we had all been together. There was lots of excited chat and of course fabulous food created by The Crafty Cafe. Our wonderful leader - my dear friend Brenda Killigrew.     The wonderful Linda Lavin who does her best to keep the office (and Brenda) under control.     The seemingly inexhaustible Sharon of The Crafty Cafe,     . . .  and the lovely Joan who does more than anyone realises for everyone else - she is a STAR!!!  The party finished at a reasonably sensible time as we all had a busy weekend ahead with several classes due in. The Old Needle Works like many thousands of businesses was flooded not once but twice - the second time just after the the floors had been m...