The promised crafty bits.

 Hi, 

Its been a wet week and today the temperature has dropped drastically from the 16c that we had in Kings Lynn a week to around 6c and wet.

You may remember that whilst in the van last weekend I cast on a hat, on Tuesday I finished the hat and cast on a headband. Which soon decided that it also wanted to be a hat.

lOn Saturday I cast on some mitts using some of the huge bags of oddments.

This morning I cast off the mitts and added them together with the hats to the finishing bag ready for an end weaving and coffee session in the next few weeks.

I will soon be in the position of having no yarn unless I get my skates on and spin some.

I've caught up with the cross stitch sal, just about to start this weeks square. The blackwork Sal is still way behind but hopefully I will get there soon.

On my recent trip to town to pick up some new glasses, I found that the remains of the old shopping centre have now been covered with a new sign welcoming people to Nottingham and hopefully there will soon be some shops or restaurants in the new bus station/car park development.

These photos are taken from the same point looking in opposite directions ( the sign is the route into the city, the other is the route to the train station.), in spite of the sign it doesn't look terribly welcoming if you don't know that the city centre is the other side of it !

Autumn is here

 The leaves are changing colour and its definitely getting cooler. The heating is not yet on but we have switched from salads for most meals to cooked meals and the kettle is definitely getting more use.

I finally finished the holiday washing, all bedding and towels etc repacked ready for the next trip out.

Evenings have been spent knitting and spinning so most of the holiday fibres have now been plyed and washed ready for labelling and a further 200gm or so prepped and spun.

 The wensleydale x zwartbles is interesting, quite a few short cuts unfortunately and the sun bleach tips break off easily, so care is taken whilst combing. A lot of waste but this is mainly down to me being quite particular about what I like as a spinning fibre. These two are ready for a wash and soak once I've finished my coffee.

The grey hat is finished, washed and will be on its way to a new home soon. Another hat is on the needles and sat by the armchair ready for a few more stitches later tonight.

sorry, not a brilliant photo

On the cross-stitch front, I have completed the first week on both SAL and will start the second squares later today.

Thats really been about it for this week, take care, speak soonx

touch of punk and a temporary change in direction.

 Hi

Last weekend saw us out and about again in the van, this time heading towards Shrewsbury for Shrewkfest. This is an ukulele festival held on a farm with the stage in a cowshed ( a very clean cowshed )

This was the last event that we had planned to go to in 2020 that we actually retained the tickets for, others were either cancelled for good or we requested our money back.

We set up camp, flew the flag ad reconnected with friends not seen for some years.

Admittedly we spent a ridiculous amount of time sleeping, didn't get to see many bands ( we had seen some before) but at 10pm on Saturday we made our way down to the stage for 2 hours of punk music from Not Quite Dead Yet. Excellent set as usual :-)

We enjoy these small festivals, local bands and not too expensive.

Knitting update

I have noticed that I'm getting some pain in my right wrist and I'm not sure if I've pulled or strained something or whether previous injury is making itself known.  I've made the decision not to knit for a couple of weeks and see what happens, I've finished the last of the latest batch of hats but will not process any more fibre as the wool combs may cause problems as well.

My main aim is to be fit for the next holiday !! and I can't imagine not having knitting with me.

To keep me busy, I have started a stitch project that I've been itching to do for a while. Some time last year I bought an old rolling pin from a charity shop, the kind where you hold the handle and it rolls freely., for the princely sum of £1.99. 

My idea is to do an ongoing band sampler and keep it wrapped round the centre. I want to include more than cross stitch and use a couple of bags of threads that I've had handing around for maybe 25 years, and the cross stitch fabrics picked up from charity shops together with some linen and cotton in my stash. Hopefully it will become a stitched scrapbook or similar.

I'm starting with some 32? count fabric and a band from a magazine that I have on a cd.

Hopefully this will let me continue to be creative but not put too much pressure on the wrist and maybe  try out some of the small cross stitch patterns that I have stashed away. The plan is to keep the same width, sew fabrics together into a log roll and make a lace edging. Sharon from Pintangle has made one of these sampling different stitches and I have seen Dutch? sample rolls that include different technique and roll up so I admit that this is by no means a unique idea but I like the idea of wrapping it round the rolling pin so it looks like a scroll.

Billy No Mates

Follow the Atlantic Highway down into Cornwall they said, beautiful views they said, they lied !

Wet and foggy!! All the way to our next campsite. A couple of weeks ago we messaged some friends who live in Cornwall to say that we would be in the area, most replied to say that they were heading to the motorhome show in Bath that weekend but one couple said they would join us on the Saturday.

We therefore arrived on the Friday, booked a table in the pub and expected a quiet night, we even had the campsite to ourselves.

Unknown to us, the news of our arrival travelled fast and by 9pm we had taken over the corner in the pub and another van had appeared in the car park along with some bikes. Brilliant night, a long time since we have staggered out of a pub at 1.30am.

Ian took time out to cycle back to the nearby airfield on Saturday so I've included some of his pics.

Saturday evening was again spent with friends but we did have a slightly more sensible bed time :-)

From  this site we negotiated the narrow lanes and the local traffic jam and made our way to Tavistock C&CC Site which we had booked early in the year.

 We had planned to visit Dingles Fairground Heritage Centre but found out last week that they had not re-opened as planned. Unfortunately we were not impressed by the site, we were directed to what must have been their smallest, most uneven pitch. We were hidden away next to 4 empty safari type tents and couldn't even get the van level with our ramps. After complaining twice, they relented and gave us a tarmac emergency pitch.

This is the first time that we have had an issue with this club but it left a bad taste.

Still, next stop will be a holiday park, I wonder what that will be like?

Crafty update,

Headband No 2

Minehead revisited

 We have visited Minehead a couple of times before, once a few years ago on the bike as part of the Round Britain challenge and again three years ago when it snowed.

This time it was somewhat warmer this time, 29c in fact which is rather a lot more than their usual September average of 17c 

Once parked up we went in search of ice cream at the site reception and headed into town taking the  shadiest route possible,

First stop was the pinball arcade (of course) where we picked up a couple of free games that had been left on the machines and then had a challenge match which, to my surprise, I won !

This was followed up with a walk along the front and a tour of the charity shops,

Parked up in the shade was a nice classic, small motorcycle and we had seen another couple of similar aged vehicles riding around.

As usual we called in at the railway, trains weren't running due to work being carried out on the nearby level crossing but we found some shade on the platform.

One last thing about Minehead , they have padlocks !! I'm guessing that this is something to do with covid as we haven't seen them before. Some have names and dates, others a re blank but any lettering may have worn off in the gales.

Crafty update

Ist headband completed, the request was for rustic hand spun so I've used a dk/aran weight and I've just realised that this is a photo of the back and you can see the join. I knit in the round, aim for the part of the pattern with the fewest details and will embroider in any missing stitches at the join so the 'jog' in the pattern isn't so obvious.

I also finished bobbin no 2 of yarn.

Speak soon xx

fair exchange? and charity bargains again

 Hi,

 Firstly, my Scottish charity shop haul.

The fabric all came from the same shop on sky and will be so useful especially as I hope to volunteer again to work with young people doing crafts once things settle down again. The two books came from a shop in Moffat. I have now made a spreadsheet for all my fabrics to save me having to rummage through each time to check sizes.

I also had a call from a friend who wanted to know if I would like her grandmothers tapestry bits and pieces and I agreed on the condition that she exchanged them for my mothers card making equipment and papers ( my friend also makes cards )

In spite of being told that there was a box of threads, I was quite unprepared for what appeared on my doorstep !!

and a bag of threads, possibly enough to do most of these pictures ! These pictures are huge and there are a few yards on the bigger roll of canvas.

To be honest, I may make some of these up into kits and pass them on.

Anyway, I'm off back to my knitting as I've had a request for hats and gloves, hats I have been able to supply but I need to knit a few pairs of gloves in the next few days x

weekly round up #1

This has been my first full week at home, a bit strange and weird but I will get used to it. At the moment I'm spending time doing extra house work ie wiping everything with disinfectant, washing my partners uniform as he is still a key worker.

I'm even spending more time making meals due to his altered shift times !

I've been baking when I can get hold of flour, just basic biscuits and the occasional cake. I hope to lose weight in spite of this and so far I seem to be successful and hope to slowly shift the pounds as I no longer have access to crisps, chocolate etc which were always a huge challenge when I was working.

Most importantly, my work room needs some attention, I would like to pick up on some crafts that I haven't touched for some time but at the moment I can't access the cupboards.

Yep, that is my mandolin, bough a few years ago and hardly touched! I'm now picking it up most days and trying to get my fingertips used to the metal strings at the moment.

I have finished another hat, this one is black cheviot with an unlabelled white, both handspun. I'm pleased with the results.

IAs you can see from the photo, my espinner has been in use and I've spun a couple of skeins of Portland fleece, spun up as a aran/chunky. I spin a thick yarn every so often for practise as I usually spin four ply for my knitting. I've also spun up a braid of dyed british wool ( I've lost the label) Dyed by Velvet sixpence and purchased a couple of years ago. Its a bit weird spinning dyed fibres, not something I do much of these days.

Meanwhile, in the garden spring has finally arrived and the blossom is on the cherry tree. I'm hoping to have some outside seating sorted for the summer since it looks like we will still be confined to the house with few exceptions.

Well, that's about it for now, I'll check in again next week :-)