Kate and Steph welcome you to Thread Bear!
Thread Bear is owned by Stephanie Crooks and Kate Ashton and we run the shop together with several good friends who help us part-time - Val, Nic, Jan, Jen, Lucy, Sue and Izzie. Our aim is to make Thread Bear an enjoyable place to shop, take classes and 'natter' with like-minded people! We like to make time to advise if you're stuck with a knitting pattern, need help calculating fabric amounts for your quilt etc ... If we're frantically busy and need extra help, we're always glad to invite you over at a specific time.
Expansion
Thread Bear started some 14 years ago as a small needlework shop near Sanderstead Station, owned by Jan Spooner, Jen Russell and Val Mitchell. Needing larger premises, after a few years they moved up to our present site in Hamsey Green. In 2003 time for family and friends was in short supply with the shop responsibilities, and retirement seemed very attractive for the three! We (Steph and Kate) were delighted to be able to take over the shop in April 2005, and Jen and Val didn't quite escape fully, as they still help us out looking after the shop! At that time, we expanded the business, adding patchwork/quilting and knitting and also increasing the haberdashery range. We now stock hundreds of bolts of quilting cottons (over 1500 at last count) and a large selection of knitting yarns as well as tapestry, cross stitch and embroidery kits and supplies. We have a special interest in American designs and have a very large selection of charts as well as the specialist hand-dyed threads often used by American designers.
Not done with expanding thus far, we found ourself a bit cramped with such a large stock, and we had a large extension built in 2007, almost doubling the shop floor area and making a much more user-friendly workshop space.
So what's it like having our shop? We did have a weird notion that when we owned a shop. we could spend lots of our time making things to display and have lots of fun doing our favourite things ... alas, we've never had less time! Still, it's a fantastic environment with friendly customers and in particular it's great to see what the class students come up with - and one day, when our web site's finished and the re-organisation is done that we keep planning and and and .... we may get time to do a little stitching!
About Steph and Kate
Kate - Kate left school without A-levels and au-paired in France and Italy for a couple of years, then studied to go to medical school. After getting her first medical degree, Kate realised being a doctor was not for her after all. At that time, her life was turned around when she became a Christian in 1990 and soon after she trained as a missionary and worked in Malawi for about a year, training volunteer village health workers in a beautiful remote area of the country. On returning she was able to use her medical knowledge working as a medical secretary for many years. In between times she worked for Oak Hall Christian Expeditions for a couple of years, first as team cook (still remembers the collywobbles at cooking her first roast dinner for 112 people!!) and then as administrator for the relief work they became involved with amongst refugees in Yugoslavia, when war broke out in the early nineties. She spent a year at All Nations, a Christian training college for missionaries, but opted to stay in the UK, continuing to work as a medical secretary but enjoying involvement in her local church.
When the 'big 40' birthday came, Kate had a long think about whether she wanted to spend the rest of her life as a medical secretary. Whilst in Canada as part of her missionary preparation, a lovely lady called Eva had taught her quilting, and after the big birthday Kate began to explore a long-held wish to have a quilting shop. Talking with close friend Steph, whose main craft at the time was knitting, and then hearing from Thread Bear that they were hoping to retire, we came to the decision to buy the business and indulge our passion for needlework crafts, patchwork and knitting all in one!
Kate's other major passion is ice cream. Let it not be said of her that she has ever passed a Baskin & Robbins stand without contributing to their income!
Steph - Steph is the more imaginative and creative of the two of us, being labeled 'window display woman' amongst other things! She keeps the shop running and keeps it looking pretty while Kate sits in the cupboard poring over the paperwork! Steph has re-invented herself several times over the years ... primary school teacher, opera singer, mother, grandmother ('nanny knit-knit'), shop owner ... Steph still enjoys teaching kids, with regular involvement in musical workshops in schools, and also here at Thread Bear with the After School Club and creative sewing workshops for children. She still warbles a lot too! She gets the occasional chance to sing with a touring opera company but does plenty of more local concerts, restaurant gigs etc. A highlight for Steph and her husband in recent years has been involvement in the Christmas services at Wandsworth prison, singing to and with the prisoners and staff, being enormously moved and encouraged by the vibrant faith of men who know exactly what it means to be loved and forgiven by God.
Steph's idea of bliss would be to have a little plot to grow her own veggies and keep a few chickens, her very own blackthorn bush (for the very fine sloe gin of course that we currently have to go foraging for!) and maybe acquire her very own pig! To help this dream come true, we need someone to buy our shop, so ...
Thread Bear FOR SALE
Notwithstanding all that has been said about our enjoyment of Thread Bear, nor the fact that the business itself is going from strength to strength in terms of its success, some unexpected health and family issues came to light about a year ago. Although not urgent, they are long-term issues that are serious enough for us to have come to the decision that it is right for us to move on ... so we are hoping and praying that one of you out there will take the plunge! Any serious enquiries are very welcome.
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