last trip of the year

 

Christmas is always a good excuse to grab two or three nights away and this year was no different. Van packed we headed back to the Norfolk coast and pitched up at Cromer on the Norfolk coast. The drive down was wet and dreary but it did get better.

Last year we had Christmas and boxing day here, this year its Christmas eve and Christmas day giving us an opportunity to check out some shops. In the meantime we hunkered down with a couple of episodes of Dr who.

Christmas eve was sunshine all day although rather cool nowhere as cold as the last week or so, we even sat with the van door and window open in the afternoon ( not bad for December)

Ian grabbed my camera and charged off to get a photo of the local Banksy whilst I enjoyed a coffee and the chance to knit a few rows in the latest hat.

The biggest disappointment was a small spinning wheel shaped ornament in an antique shop, sign on the door said gone to lunch ( it was 11.30 ) shop open times 10-2. We returned a 1,15 to try to buy it and the shop had already closed for the holidays :-(

However I did score in one of the charity shops with a bag of 60 DMC skeins, 18 Anchor skeins and a reasonable size piece of aida all for £3

Christmas day was cloudy but the sun tried to break through and we had another stroll round the town still discovering new things.

The story of Henry Blogg

A plaque to Priscilla Buxton whose father founded the anti-slavery society although, as a woman, she was not allowed to join. There is a monument to her father in Weymouth.

One of the famous Cromer goats that live on the cliff face above the beach huts.

When we came around to packing up the cab, we found that Puffin had obviously had a good time and that our newest addition ( the highland coo) was a little legless !!

We are now back at home, Ian's is back at work and the van is absolutely filthy on the outside with spray from the road so it seems that our new year will be spent up a ladder in the cold washing it down..

Till my next post (December crafty round up) take care and speak soon xx

I've had it with knitting !!

 Just joking, I'm taking a break simply because I'm running out of yarn so the next couple of weeks will be focused on spinning.

My knitting tally for the last two months is seven hats, five pair of mitts and four head bands, I still have plenty of oddments for headbands and mitts but I'm running really short of skeins for hats.

        (Sorry, terrible photo, if I close the blind, it doesn't make much difference this time of year)

I also want to put some time into the big red thing and try and get it finished as I'm aching to start a new project.

I've had this on my wish list for ever but its really big, however I'm really (much to my surprise) enjoying stitching on 18 ct aida at the moment and when I spotted that it was half price recently, I grabbed a piece big enough. I just need to decide on the thread colour as it is charted in this magazine using a burnt umbre but traditionally it would be stitched in black. I suspect that this will be a 10-year project haha.

If you are unfamiliar with this magazine, it is no longer published but you can buy a cd containing all the published issues. It's a mixture of patterns and needlework history and the cd contains 80 issues.

I've made a start on the spinning, one skein of mixed breeds i.e. all the odds and ends from my spinning where I've prepped the fibre but there is a lot less than 100gm left to spin.

So, for now, I'll pop the kettle on, get some housework done, finish last weeks cross stitch square then get the fleece done.

Have a great week xx

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 !

didn't we have a lovely time the day we went to .........?

 Kings Lynn.

Yep, dragged the van out again, packed extra bedding as summer has passed and headed down to Norfolk. We have travelled around the country for the last 30 odd  years by car, bike and now camper but there are still many areas that we are not too familiar with. One of these is Norfolk so we settled on Kings Lynn (why not)

As we only had a weekend, we booked the campsite that looked closest to the town and at just £22 a night it was a bargain. Clean utility block and a well-stocked site shop, about a mile from the bus route which is fine.

Arrived Friday afternoon and chilled for the evening. 

 odd

In case you are wondering, that's hand spun Aberfield yarn on the pins and Dr Who on the screen.

Saturday started misty but the sun broke through, we made the trek to the bus stop and arrived at the bus station shortly after 10. Our usual course of action is to search out the charity shops so Ian can hunt for CDs to add to the collection, and I just enjoy looking, rarely buying these days. Only having one day this time, we had decided that shops and a bit of sightseeing would be a good mix and if we spotted anything suggesting another visit then we would be back some other time.

We ended up at Purfleet Quay with its statue of George Vancouver and huge ships anchors. 

We found a ship that moved buoys around., I hadn't realised quite how big they are.

In the morning, I took some lovely photos of boats on the water, harbour area etc but whilst outside one of the old buildings I realised that my camera was on the wrong setting! so I retook some of the photos but the sun had moved so no pretty boat pics 😢

Beautiful buildings and small shops dotted the streets, a number of museums and churches have been earmarked for further exploration.

We stopped to grab a sausage roll at the bakers bearing this symbol. Sandringham Estate is nearby.

You may have noticed that I like to look at cinemas (my dad used to work in cinemas and theatres and as I child I would sometimes travel with him) and this time we spotted the Majestic Cinema.

Wonderful stained glass and so nice to see that it is still a cinema.

Another interest of ours is fairgrounds and Kings Lyn was the home of Frank Savage who invented the carousel mechanism

                                      

                                          

                                          Photo taken at Dingles fairground museum earlier this year.

The flower planters and seats outside the cinema reflected this connection.

A good day out, total charity haul just 3 cds and we will be back to explore the old town at a later date.

My usual woolly, knitting posts will resume next week xx

They've painted the town red............and blue and green

 Hi

I had to go into town at the beginning of the week for as eye test, yep new glasses are needed. On the way down I noticed that the paint pots have been out down Bridlesmith gate.

I'm guessing that they are trying to rejuvenate the area now that the shopping centre has been demolished, I hope that it comes back to life and the opportunity will be there to sit and have a coffee.

Other than that, I've been knitting a hat, mits and spun some ShetlandxDorset.

and I am still up to date with the cross stitch weekly patterns

Thats about it for this week, hopefully some coastal photos next week xx