Dalesman Rally 2011 ( one for the bikers)

OK, for the few bikers who still read this blog, here are a few pics from last weeks rally. Held at Leyburn in the Yorkshire Dales and organised by the Dean Vally MCC. Leyburn is a very pleasent market town, quiet and fairly sedate, popular with the tourists.







with a few pubs and restaurants including the Sandpiper where we had an excellent meal on the Saturday night.

As for the bikes.....there were old ones, newer ones







some with sidecars








Trikes with tiny sleeping trailers.






In the next field there stood the remains of a tree that had possibly been hit by lightning.



and wandering round the site early on the Saturday morning... a lone spinner still working on her Tour de Fleece challenge.





Have a great weekend, whatever you may be doing :-)

on the road again

but cheating and traveling by car! as this was our club rally, we travelled to Cornwall by car so we would have transport if required for food shopping etc.
The rally in question was the Deja Vu held by Drake MCC, usual tent in a muddy field event, drinking evening on Friday followed by a band and Vicars n Tarts party on Saturday I will spare you the photos of hairy men drssed as tarts though :-)

So , it was a cold and frosty weekend as the photos will testify!!

not a good time to stay outside with your bike!! however this frozen biker turned out to be a little less alarming close up.

but it was easily cold enough for the bikes to grow a frosty overcoat.

I occupied myself with a bag of the mystery fleece to sort and comb out and a play on my drop spindle. Fun was had as alcohol was consumed and I have many blurry pictures that will not mean anything unless you were there yourself! On the way home we stopped off in Honiton to grab a paper and I spotted several tiled pictures including these two.

I now have the challenge of spinning 100 gm of wool that was sorted etc under the influence of alcohol, maybe not such a good idea but who can resist partying with these guys?

Hope you all had a good weekend :-)

Update

Hi

How come its already 2/3 the way though August!!! where does the time go? Well, at the end of July we headed up to Yorkshire for the Dalesman Rally run by Dean Valley Motorcycle club and enjoyed sunshine and beer with many friends that we had not seen for a few years.








I attended Nottingham Mela and listened the music whilst spinning some merino on one of the drop spindles.




Also dropped in at Pagan Pride with some friends and Wikkidknitter demonstrated a different form of spinning to that usually seen :-)










The Nottingham Riverside Festival saw The first meeting of the Ravelry 'spinnotts' group. We are a bunch of spinners who like to go out and spin anywhere and we couldn't pass up the opportunity to spend the afternoon spinning and listening to music.




I've finished some spinning so this....

became this...



and this......


became this...



Oh nearly forgot, we had a lively meeting at the guild as all the spinners decided to try and sit together and catch up with the gossip.



Finally, In my next post, I will have some news for knitters and spinners in and around the Nottingham area :-)

City Pulse and country chill

Hi
It's the start of a holiday weekend here in the UK and we will be spending some time down in the city centre at the City Pulse. For anyone near Nottingham, this is a free music festival spread over 3 days in the city centre with four venues being used, all but one outdoors (the other being in a marquee) Full details can be found here. Bikerted is really looking forward to seeing Dr Feelgood whilst I will be happy to listen and spin to anyone. I suspect the drop spindle will get plenty of use :-)

For a taste of what is in store, check out these posts by Bikerted .reviewing previous city pulse events.

What have I been up to recently? well our bike club (Drake MCC) had our annual summer rally last weekend and for the last ten or so years these have been famous for their bad weather. Thunderstorms and torrential rain are usually the norm for this event seeing soggy bikers sat in the control tent or hiding in the pub. However this year thinks were a little different !!





On the fibre front, I was able to do quite a bit of knitting over the weekend and a little spinning whilst hiding in the shade. It was the hottest weekend of the year so far and we all had a great time although I suspect the ride back may have been a little painful for one or two sun burnt bodies!!



I also had the opportunity recently to catch up with fellow raveller Wikkidknitter for an afternoon of knitting and spinning and drinking coffee!











The weaving attempts continue with a little untidy tablet weaving, some more texture with hand spun silk and one of the spinning wheels has alpaca/merino on it. The other wheel, the sonata, has some Shetland along with a practise bobbin for when I take it out with me.








Todays tasks are to tidy the house then head out and enjoy the music, umbrella ready in case. After all this IS a British bank holiday, its bound to RAIN!!

Have a great weekend everyone, and thanks for reading, I really appreciate your comments and friendship.

playing soldiers

Whilst we were camping in Cornwall the other week, we learnt a couple of new games:-

Save the Jelly Babies...drown a jelly baby in your pint then save it with a straw



Stupid things to do with balloons.



Soldiers...........everyone has a toy soldier either green or brown



On the first whistle assume the same position as your toy soldier.



On two whistle blasts rally your troops, fortunately for me the green troops rallied at the bar!

Santa wasn't quite sure what to make of all this :-)



However all our mess was cleared up before the cleaners arrived thanks to Phyl and the team who mucked in inspite of hangovers.



By the way, it's a little cold and frosty camping in Cornwall in December!

got there, eventually !!!

In need of a night out, we had booked to go to the Last Drop Rally early Saturday afternoon with the intention of meeting with our club chairman to finalise things for next weekend ( Armada Rally) and enjoying a few drinks.

Plans were sabotaged by the bike dumping the engine oil very quickly all over the bike and road a short way from home, fortunately no one was injured and a quick phone call was made to Saddlesore MCC who were organising the rally. At most of the rallies we attend there is a strict no bike-no entrance policy unless arrangements have been made with the club to attend in a car so a big thank you for letting us sling the bags and tent straight in the Skoda. ( after Ian mopped up the oil pool, twice!)

We missed Robbie but about 15 mins but were able to put our tent up in his spot and head for the bar.

Put any number of bikers with any quantity of beer and great silliness erupts including how do you eat the marshmallows hanging from your hat with your hand clasped behind your back?



Also had fun with bursting balloons , all big kids at heart.

The moon came out for us.


The banks of the river Severn proved to be the perfect site to pitch our tents.



A Big thank you to Saddlesore for organising this one, if you are reading this - see you in Cornwall next weekend :-)

And, Yes, I did take my drop spindle with me!!

mix and match hobbies

We drove down to the Deja Vu rally in the car as we had the new (to us) control tent to pass onto members of our bike club. As we live 270 plus miles from the rest of the club, we often have to combine various errands with the one trip.

A great time was had by all, the local social club provided drink and food in the evening and these guys were the breakfast chefs in the mornings.

thanks Ian and Robbie ( and Val and Rosie)

beautiful sunrise Sunday morning

As I knew that I would have time on my hands whilst manning the control desk, basically ensuring that people had tickets and passing out badges, I took my drop spindle.



Must have been a strange sight but I did get some spinning done between answering questions about it.

I even got to do some extreme bobbin lace by braiding a friends hair, he was most impressed and took away the instructions as to how to do it. ( half stitch plait).

See. I said I was mixing and matching my hobbies!!