My name is Christine Casey, and I live on the Ards Peninsula, between Kircubbin and Portaferry. I learned to knit over 50 years ago, and have been on a quest to learn new crafts ever since then! I also coach horse riding, and practice a range of equine and human bodywork and energy work.

My Grandmother, Mother and Aunt were all knitters and crocheters.  My Grandmother knit and sold Aran jerseys to America in the 1960s and 70s, and could turn her hand to nearly any textile craft. Between the three of them they taught me to knit and crochet and gave me every encouragement to learn more crafts. I learned to spin at the ‘Womens’ College ‘ in Belfast (sadly closed a long time ago), in the early 80s, and have been spinning ever since. I have demonstrated spinning at various venues for a number of years and started to teach friends to spin, then became a member of the then Ards Council Creative Peninsula collective which opened up more demonstration and teaching opportunities. More recently I attended the Ards Business Hub excellent ‘Go for it’ programme, and was subsequently assigned a mentor to help me write a business plan. Ards and North Down Council have been very supportive in helping me to create and advertise ‘craft experiences’, and the DAERA Rural Development Cluster group also, in offering opportunities to benchmark with successful experience providers, and in funding the development of a website. To date, with this support, I have run a number of successful, fun workshops where participants have learned to spin, use a peg loom, and make friendship bracelets, amongst other things.