Another Island

by special request

In my previous post, the spinning wheel is stood on a hooked rag rug. Carolyn of Love stitching red has asked for a photo of it, so here it is.

new lodger

some stitch as promised

OK, here we are, firstly a postcard now on its way to the states ( postal strikes permitting)



wip- a winter shawl for myself, project designed to use up oddments of wool that have been sitting around for years ( not handspun)



wip- a gathering of bobbins on my pillow, pairs slowly being added as I work down the pattern.



spot the common colour theme?

have a good weekend everyone :-)

Another Island

Please excuse the continuation of our Scottish island hop but it gave me chance to get to grips with my Cannon. Usually we holiday on the bike so my faithful little Fuji goes in a pocket but being in a car gives me the chance to concentrate more on the photos.

So, (please stop here if looking for stitch, there will be some in my next post, honest!!) here are the moods of the Isle of Skye.

do you do purple?

Wild Woman in Purple

Merino, silk and other assorted fibres, Blue Face Leicester curls and stray beads..
on the way to Bettina :-)

Orkney Textiles and Artists

Between taking photos and wandering around neolithic remains we found time to visit and chat to some of the local artists. We had the chance to admire Pam Farmer's photographs at Appie's Tea Rooms and enjoyed locally produced food, worth the trip down the bumpy lane to get there.
Stopped off at the Woolshed and Had a very enjoyable time chatting to the owner ( sadly I failed to get her name and the web address seems to belong to a builders contractor and funeral director! however I have found a link here if you are interested. The small shop/workshop sold handspun/knitted and woven items, a selection of handfelted bags and washed and carded North Ronalsdsay fleece. I even got to spin on her Louet spinning wheel to see how it compared with the Ashford.
Hoxa Tapestry Gallery features the work of Leila Thomson, Large scale tapestries that can be seen here.
In Stromness, we came accross Ros Bryant who is also a tapestry weaver and lovely to chat to. Her work is on a smaller scale that Leila with more texture and less vivid colours which we both preferred.

Of course I took a drop spindle with me and spun up a storm with this shetland (shades of brown) and Merino ( cream with silk? not sure what the other fibre is but it feels nice)



For those who are feeling the Autumn chill, I leave you with the peat fire used to distill whisky at Highland Park distillery.



And for those who can here the wind howling ( I know I can at the moment ) I give you a Norwegian Sailing ship in Kirkwall harbour.




Breaking away from the holiday theme, I have some stitching to do this weekend and we will be visiting the Nottingham Goosefair tomorrow which is a travelling funfair that sets up every year making it possible the biggest fair in the country however this honour sometimes goes to the equally large Hull fair.

Have a great weekend everbody and thank you for all your kind comments on my photographs :-)

Destination revealed

Time to reveal that the three photographs were taken at our first holiday stopover which was Orkney, Yes Chris you got it right. In fact many of you came very close as Orcadians consider themselves closer connected to Norway than the UK. Thank you for taking the time to comment.
We stopped in a lovely self catering Victorian terrace house in Kirkwall and spent our time exploring the islands. I know Biker Ted will be writing the trip up in detail on his blog at some point so I will just post some photos if that is ok.



Dunnet Head Lighthouse, Scotland



Leaving Scotland behind



Standing Stones of Stenness



The Ring o' Brodgar





The last three photos were taken within 20 minutes of each over, as you can see the weather was changeable to say the least! At one point during our stay the wind reached over 80 mph forcing the cancellation of the ferry services

Lise, I did tell Ted off for not wearing his scarf ( See first photo) he did wear it later and thanks you very much.

I hope to take inspirations from my photos over the winter and will keep you posted on my progress. Also, I bought back a couple of small items from one of the other Islands that we visited and will be giving them away at the end of my holiday reports so anyone who has commented so far plus anyone who comments over the next week or so will go in the draw.

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

I'm back! did you miss me?

Hi, we got back about 4 hours ago, tired and in need of a meal and a drink. As I have around 1000 photos to sort out, I thought I would post just three today just to get you guessing.







Can any one guess where we were? I know that around three of you know as I replied to e-mails whilst there, but does anyone else fancy a guess?

fluffyness tamed

now I need to practise my knitting !!

make me something pink

was the request from a friend so out came the embellisher




is she pink enough?

Birthday Hawaii Camp

Yes, Ian reached the big 50 and spent the weekend with friends at a pub near Uttoxeter. Much beer was drunk, stories exchanged and reunions took place with friends not seen for a number of years. Looking across the bar on Friday night it became evident that the only long hair these days is on the girls although beards are still popular :-)However there was still a healthy number of motorcycles in the car park.

We camped in a field next to the pub with a couple of unexpected guests who obviously felt that they had been left out. Firstly a small dog who grunted like a pig joined us for some fuss.



Then a horse from the adjoining field decided that he preferred our company to that of the other horse.




On Saturday I visited the local Churnett Valley Railway with a couple of friends ( Ian preferring to stay around the camp site to welcome visitors) and spent the day riding up and down the small line and sitting in the tearooms to sample tea and cake. Thanks Eric and Rab for your company :-)




Some (Biker ted) found the celebrations on Saturday night just a bit too much!




Sadly, we had to return home on Sunday but have made firm arrangements to meet up again for at least two more birthday celebrations next year.



Denny and Frank packed for the journey home.

it comes from where!!!

A chance conversation at work has made me realise just how little the next generation know about textiles. After explaining that I was knitting some handspun yarn (practising knitting squares) and that the little fluffy bits were sheeps curls, we went on to talk about silk and where it came from.
Yesterday I even took some silk and silk cocoons into work to help explain. It seems to me that a gap is developing in basic knowledge and it is supported by the number of people who seem to think I am weaving when they spot me relaxing with my drop spindle. This is making me even more determined to be seen making lace, stitching or spinning in public, am I alone in feeling like this? surely not!

Now....stitching photo of a keyring.



Off to get things ready for stitched up tonight.

taming the fluffyness

wheel on loan from the guild.

a grand day out part two

After succumbing to temptation at the spinning fair, I made my way down to the Lincolnshire Museum of Rural life. Free admission makes this little gem worth visiting.


As photos are allowed for personal use only, here is a link to their website.

In answer to Sally's' question, yes I did stop for tea, more than once and here is the evidence.


A pot of tea and toasted teacake £1, bargain at the museum!

Next call stop was a Ellis' mill which unfortunately closed but still looked wonderful,




then back down towards the town


where I spotted this Indian street artist




you can see more by the artist Janak Chauhan here and here


I hope you have all enjoyed this short trip as much as I did.