spotted by my Mum

Should cider ever be this colour?

Just asking?

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 :-)

worth saving?

As I left the guild on Saturday, a carrier bag was pressed into my hand with the words....I was going to put this on the compost heat but then I thought maybe you could do something with it!! So here it is,




what do you think?

unexpected knitting encounter

After the guild meeting on Saturday we made our way to the Round Britain Rally (RBR to those in the know) presentation dinner. The RBR is a challenge to visit landmarks in every county of the country using a list of memorials, places of interest etc supplied by the organisers. The idea is to locate the landmark which involves a fair amount of research, visiting it and taking a photo of your motorbike by it. This keeps my hubby busy most weekend through the summer whilst I am out spinning etc.
So, as you would imagine, I was surprise to find fellow spinners there and wished that I had taken my wheel. Watch out next year, the wheels will be there, we have made arrangements!!



we caught the sunset on the way across.

Knitting made a surprise appearance in the form of a auction prize, do I didn't win it!





and I ended the evening in true spinnotts style, spinning in the bar.



OK, photo taken with empty spindle but I did do some spinning, honest!!!

Wheely good at the guild

Saturday was guild day and although I had to leave early to attend another 'do' we managed to have a lot of fun, chat and laughter. So less of the chat from me and more of the pictures....Firstly one of the small group of spinners, I think if we all tried to sit in a circle it would be too big for the room some months so now we tend to spin in groups when there are a lot of wheels around.



Odette bought in her aeolian shawl to share, hand spun and knitted...jealous, really need to practise my knitting!!







Also accompanying Odette was this cute dragon.



We also had a visit fronm Steve from Anglersgifts.co.uk who is just starting to make drop spindles from recycled materials. The spindles are designed to to used as top or bottom whorl and have weights that can be added in 5gm increments. I have two of the spindles on trial so the spinnotts peeps can have a play at the next meeting. The general concensous was that, with a few minor adjustments, these are very nice spidles, have a nice long steady spin.

Mablethorpe Sand Racing

Freezing, dull and breezy. Not a good combination for taking photos at a race meeting! Big thick gloves on , hat on, large coffee to warm hands on and a dash to the chippy after watching for instant hot food (chip butty) A few photos but nothing spectacular compared with previous ones taken there.











Hope you all had a good weekend xx

Nottingham Light Night 2011

Its back, Nottingham Light Night, the festival to aimed to try and shed the winter blues. First night was last night and it continues again tonight. Warning, this will be a long, photo heavy post!! This is the fourth Light Night and once again the buildings were lit up and the city centre was dotted with street performers,art installations and light projections. Indoor and outdoor events for all ages were proving popular especially as the temperatures rapidly dropped.

As ever, the big wheel was back in the square, I love having the wheel in Nottingham especially as it can been seen from several miles away.



This year it was accompanied by a crazy golf course!



One of the large car manufactures came up with a very pink car.



The opportunity to put graffiti on the castle walls was proving popular though I must point out that this was achieved with light projection rather than cans of paint...this dinosaur slowly appeared as we stood watching.



Ian, from 'what a palaver ' was having a few problems with the fire juggling simply because it was dark and the light from the fiery end of the sticks made it difficult to see the cold end! but they were proving to be as entertaining  as ever.



Down at Brewhouse Yard, the aliens had landed and were making friends with the crowd.







These were amazing puppets, each operated by three people.

In keeping with the spirit of the night, the trees were lit up and light sculptures abounded. The local Morris Men also put in their traditional appearance but as some of the musicians commented, its b****y cold on the fingers !!






There is a secret garden in the centre of Nottingham behind Bromley house and last night it was home to Prodigal sunbeams, an installation by Tim Haynes.






Inspired by landscape, identity and place.

The castle put on music and light displays in the grounds.




We didn't get to see everything and look forward to doing it all again next year.



As we wondered home down atmospheric streets we decided that this post will finish with some music provided by the Nottingham Ukulele Club in the council house arcade last night.



Thanks to BikerTed for the video.

still a knitting newbie

I have been tried to improve my knitting skills since being involved with the shop, just seems to make sense that if you are a partner in a knitting shop, you at least need to have some knitting ability! I conquered magic loop last year and made a hat but DPNs have been a sticking point, too many needles at the same time. So on Sunday I sat down with 4 needles and some hand spun that had turned out to be a bit of a disaster and started to knit,I did pull out the wrong needle a few times but eventually I found my rhythm. This is not going to make any thing, just a tube but I feel a little more confident on 4 needles now.

The yarn is over spun wenslydale and quite coarse to the touch but I am liking the colours so may rescue the finish piece and use it somehow.

another lacey post

I've been trying to make some sort of sense of my bobbins especially the now overflowing tin full of odd ones which deserve more love and attention. So here are a few of them, not sure how old they are.





the spangles are obviously an after thought



these have rings on them



these have sadly lost their beads



although some are still hanging on



I have a feeling that some of these may have been homemade



I must find a better home for them and my newer bobbins which are probably 15-3o years old now.

they've landed!!!!

Wandering through town yesterday and spotted this.......is it a spider.....war of the worlds alien?..No It's the big wheel being prepared ready for Light Night on Friday and then remembered that one of my photos had been used on Twitter recently to advertise the event.

I was on my way to the Heart Art event being held to raise funds for British Heart Foundation and being organised by Knit Nottingham and Davenport Shop of Originality. We were asking people to make a donation to either knit a square or chose one that a busy bunch of knitters were making and pin it to a big heart.

 Kate sat in the doorway greeting customers

 passers by intrigued by the wheels being used in the shop window

 These are now known as my spinning trousers!!!

 the heart is filling up

coffee break?

Unfortunately I don't have photos of the knitters downstairs but they will appear on the shop page on face book and the shop blog. The heart is nearly full and we still have to add squares donated at the shop. Guess who has the job of making some sort of sense of it all?

Calling embroiderers, what do you think?  a bit of sparkle needed? For the background I'm thinking of using words as people were encouraged to leave messages on a board giving the reason for the donation so maybe embroidered small heart shapes. Also need to colour the background, and stabilise it...seems ages since I've had my stitch head on!!!

The local paper turned up and took photos...fame at last ? doubt it but it was a fun day.