Epping Group Weekend Getaway

marketing, accounting, photography, helping customers with queries etc. She finds it hard to say no to requests as she does not like letting people down – but she is learning to do so!

Rosemary, Erinna’s mum (@petite_tini on Instagram) runs the business with her. They started to crochet together and as the dolls started accumulating and the yarn budget exploded, decided to start an Etsy business. The first shop opened was ‘BubblesAndBongo’, which began by selling their finished items. As the design side of the business started to expand, they opened a second shop called ‘TheLittleHookCrochet’. Now, Rosemary’s handmade finished dolls are sold through BubblesAndBongo, whilst TheLittleHookCrochet sells patterns and crochet supplies.

In 2020, their website www.thelittlehookcrochet.com was launched. Here they retail digital patterns, amigurumi supplies, yarn, pattern and yarn packs. This site represents a significant milestone in the journey that this mum/ daughter pair embarked on to create a little cra ing space in the world. In addition to Etsy and the website, Erinna’s patterns are also available through other crochet platforms such as Amigurumi.com and LoveCra s. Her excitement levels rise as she talks about her crochet kits that are now available for sale through the Melbourne Museum store. These special edition kits were launched to coincide with the remarkable Triceratops exhibition that opened earlier in 2022 at the museum. Who knows where else we shall see Erinna’s future crochet kits available for sale in various suitable retail outlets?

Email: contact@thelittlehookcrochet.com Instagram: @littleaquagirl Website: www.thelittlehookcrochet.com

Asher the ox free crochet pattern - www. thelittlehookcrochet.com/patterns/ ashertheox

Back in 2019, some of our members attended the Guild Gathering for two days and reported back to the group about how they had enjoyed themselves. Some long-time members then reminisced about when Guild camps went for three days over a long weekend. New members were enthused about the idea of a three-day camp and I, as Convenor at the time, said I would investigate venues and a ordability. Online I found Hartzer Park Retreat and Conference Centre in Buradaroo, just out of Bowral and three of us set o to have a look at it. All the rooms were single with electric blankets and a li between the three floors, with no need to go out in the weather to access meals or workshops. It was a lovely tranquil place in the country. The group voted for us to go ahead with organising a camp in 2020, a year in between Guild Gatherings. “Weekend Getaway” sounded better than “Camp” to us and so planning began. We started with three local groups: Epping, Epping Crochet and West Ryde with the intention of inviting some other groups if needed for numbers. Then came Covid! We rescheduled for 2021 and then rescheduled again for 2022. In September we finally got to go to our Weekend Getaway. 30 ladies were to attend, but three had to pull out at the end due to health or family reasons. There were people from the original three groups invited plus some from Kiama, one from Southern and two from EWES (Epping Weavers Embroiderers and Spinners), a local hand weaver and spinning group that several Epping Group ladies attend. There were some workshops in which local Epping ladies shared their skills or there was always the option to work on their own projects, do some spinning or to walk in the beautiful grounds or in the Labyrinth. Some of us went to Sunday Mass in the Convent Chapel with the four resident nuns and people from the local area.

On Friday evening Belissa Cashmere gave us a wonderful description of their cashmere goats, shearing them and processing their fleece before they sold some of their yarns. Jill Rowling also had some of her Marlyn Alpaca yarn for sale. On Saturday evening we had a very entertaining fashion parade, wearing something we had made for ourselves, even if it was 50 years old, and a Show and Tell. Those who had knitted or crocheted a Camp Scarf, patterns courtesy of Yvonne Fazzolari, laid them out to show the various colours and techniques for a group photo opportunity. On Sunday evening we played some word games and trivia games. The list of celebrities who knit, crochet or do both where everyone had to guess what they did proved educational as did the knitting, crochet and other yarn cra s trivia game.

From the feedback received, everyone enjoyed themselves, the venue and the activities with a couple of people finding minor faults. There was interest in having another Weekend Getaway, but that will have to wait for a couple of years and we will schedule it in a year without a Guild Gathering so those going to both will not be broke at the end of the year.