Wool and fibre products
About TurnAcre
Living in the beautiful countryside of the Calder Valley, West Yorkshire Julie is inspired by the natural landscapes and nature she has surrounding her. From the deep valleys with rivers and canals in their bases, to the wind swept moors on the hill tops. From the dry stone walls that edge the open fields to the bluebells in the woods sheltered by magnificent oak trees. Her muse is all around her.
Julie Turner has two grown up children and is granny to five grandchildren. She has been married to Peter for 30+ years and is generally a creative person.
TurnAcre wool and fibre products came about after her son and daughter-in-law founded the Bouldacre Ryeland and Roseacre Coloured Ryeland flocks.
How Julie fell in love with Ryeland wool.
After the first shearing took place her creative juices started flowing and she decided to have a go at hand cleaning, processing and spinning those beautiful fleeces. Julie didn’t know anyone else who did this so she turned to books and the internet for advice and just got stuck in. Her first attempts were long and labour intensive and did not produce the best spun yarn, but it was yarn, useable and she enjoyed the process. She had some of this yarn knitted into a toy sheep by a friend as a keepsake. Oh how excited and hooked she was on this new craft!
Julie now had the basic skills and equipment to enable her to develop her skills further. After much practice, the purchasing of more specialised equipment, lots of trial and error and the passage of a few years, TurnAcre Ryeland wool products was developed to showcase and share her knowledge and skills through exclusive and bespoke learning experiences in the heritage crafts of spinning, weaving and felting. Julie now works with a variety of wool and other fibres too.
It takes a skilled spinner many hours to produce small quantities of hand-processed, hand-spun yarn. The yarn Julie produces is expertly used in the products she creates. A variety of which can be seen in the online shop and gallery. Weaving and felting was a natural progression. As well as the introduction of other animal and plant fibres.
Commission work came next. Hand spinning for people using the fleece from their own sheep, goats, rabbits, and other creatures to create bespoke keepsakes from their cherished animals to treasure forever.
This truly is a family concern as Julie's husband, children, their spouses and grandchildren are all involved in some aspect of TurnAcre, be it rearing, shearing, designing, making, modelling or selling.
