Sorry its been so long

 Unfortunately I've been busy, then ill and haven't had chance to post any kind of update. We have just decided to cancel our Christmas trip as I now have a wicked cough which would be a nightmare in the van. 

Quick knitting update, I've now finished the third fair isle beanie, this time using the yarn unravelled from the shawl that I fell out of love with.

These are all knit with Bowmont (Shetland Merino cross ) and Shetland.

brrr, its been cold and breezy

 Hi, we popped over to the coast last week for a few days. No van this time, instead we spotted a nice rental at a reasonable price, 10/10 rating and fully refurbished just 2 years ago.

Walked in the bedroom and the handle to the ensuite fell off !! thinking it was a new 'thing' I left a message for the owner. Looking through the guest review book where everyone said that the property was awesome etc we noticed that the handle originally fell off in July, August, September and November. We made a list of small problems and won't be going back again not just because of the numerous niggles but the open plan layout meant that it didn't feel comfy.

Plus I felt like I needed a degree to work out how to use this.

The first day was bitterly cold with a strong wind by the sea front, This was down at Hornsea and we retreated to the leisure centre to watch the waves break whilst enjoying hot drinks and a bite to eat.

The next day we did our usual round of the charity shops in Bridlington. Ian picked up a couple of books and I bagged a jumper and a T-shirt. The T-shirt was new and at a whooping 50p something of a bargain.

We visited the new sculpture at the Railway Station, lovely attention to detail, even had a starfish in his bucket along with his spade.

I liked the cat fussing round his legs.

On the way into town we passed a couple of old shop frontages.

and checked in on the harbour.

Our last day was damp and cloudy so we went to the auction house for a while, bid on an antique sampler but was outbid by a dealer then off up to Flamborough head for lunch.

You can see the rain coming in across the sea. All too soon it was time to come home, still we will return next year.

glimpses of Nottingham

 I had to do some shopping in town so I popped into the castle to renew my annual ticket. After a coffee I had a wander around the grounds before heading back to the busy shopping streets.

I'm not sure whether these guys are cleaning or fixing the roof of the nearby building.

That's not snow although it could be mistaken for a ski scene

Meanwhile, back in town I remembered that we have many passage ways between the streets with steps.

It looks more like textiles or maybe that's just the way that I look at things. Here's the entrance to the same passageway looking towards the steps.

So much better than plain walls...........talking about plain walls, I noticed this beauty near Weekday Cross, I'm not sure how long its been there as I haven't been around this area for a while.

All in all, not too bad for a dull and dismal day.

the lace lady

 This is a project that I had intended to start in the summer but didn't get round to it. The lace lady was purchased in Dunster in the summer for the princely sum of £1.00.

My aim is to replace the lace on her dress ,and the lace that she is making, with handmade lace.

I've made a start, she now has a knitted shawl

and I've removed the price tag. I must see if I can sort the glasses out.

I'd not used my travel pillow for some time so I set up a very basic pricking, just 11 pairs of bobbins , to make a narrow band of lace.

I'm beginning to realise that my camera no longer likes to do close photography, been dropped too many times.

I also took the opportunity to replace the ribbon on my pillow with inkle woven bands, looks much better.

I realise that she  appears to have three very large bobbins. One fell off and is actually safe by my printer. I'm trying to think of a better way to do these and it may involve cocktail sticks at some point.

Goodbye November

 I set out to blog every day in November.................Fail

I set out to document tidying my work room.........Fail, well, ongoing

November ended with the AGM at our Guild of Weavers, Spinner and Dyers. Shortest AGM ever haha, then we chatted and admired each others work. We now seem to have a few more men joining us which is good and there are also nearly 50 of us, quite a healthy number .

Whenever we go out as a group to do a demonstration, we take various pieces of equipment including the Saori loom which we encourage people to have a go on.

A new member from Latvia bought in her knitted mittens

Many members are skilled at way more than one or two crafts,

Plait making with a difference

I'm not going to promise daily blogs for December  but back to at least once a week as I work through my stash and generally continue to slowly tidy up.

lace, wool and stitch

 Today my lace has been getting some of my attention

200 gm of yarn has been plyed

and we have started row six on the blackwork sampler

Crafty update

 I finished the grey mitts and also knitted up some of the random oddments into another pair. I still have quite a few very small balls of yarn so may just make a pair of stripy mitts as well.

I've also turned my attention back to the blackwork band sampler that has been hanging around for a while.

You may have noticed that I'm often in town, this is mainly because all busses around Nottingham run to the city centre meaning that I will often end up catching four busses in one day. Yesterday I realised that I could get yet another different view of the market!!

Cold but sunny day yesterday (Monday)

 This is going to be  a quick post,maily because I'm late getting up and need to head out as soon as I've finished my coffee.

Firstly, I missed posting on Sunday but didn't really do anything !

Yesterday I was down the bottom end of town, Broad Marsh which as the name suggests used to be marsh land many years ago. More recently there was a shopping centre of that name which has been partially demolished. The land is slowly being returned to the wild.

I'm looking forward to seeing the new sculpture zoom in for more details or click here

This is what is should look like, based on the photo.

                                                        named Standing in the Place

I then walked on to the railway station and the canal.

Looking back into town , I could see evidence of the Christmas market above the buildings.

Crafting........some knitting, a bit of stitching and some spinning. Here is the spinning update, more on the others in the next post.

just one more bobbin to spin then I will start to ply.