Back to BAAfest at Bellingham

 Once again we find ourselves in Northumberland setting up camp ready for a music festival, excellent Thursday night concert by Brook Williams and Aaron Catlow, enjoyed by humans and canines alike.

This dog was so well behaved, spent most of the gig lying down only pricking his ears up when one of the artists whistled and hit a particular pitch.

We had a wonderful weekend, plenty of good music, wandered down to the village for coffee and a tour of the local craft brewery.

I had coffee and scone at Tea on the Train 

Hunted down sheep at the heritage centre

Saw plenty of the real thing.

I worked on my scarf to go with my fisherman's smock

We bought raffle tickets, I won a tote bag last year and kept my fingers crossed for the basket of fruit this year :-) although this was the top prize which interested many people there,

And enjoyed the sunset.

All in, it was a wonderful weekend and we have booked the campsite for next year.

NB

We will pick up the guitar in a few weeks time !! Yep Ian had the winning ticket.

Soed Idee Jubileum week thirty six

 One week into our trip and week thirty six is complete. Its a little more awkward stitching from the pattern on my phone than having a printout but I did make a point of charting the destinations before we set off from home.

The alphabet has been faithfully reproduced from a schoolgirl sampler, the error is not mine !!

Started with a bang !!

 We have had this trip planned for a week or so, a mix of festival, countryside and seaside. we did not expect it to start like this.

It wasn't an old tyre, no cracks etc but the rear looks like it has bulged out and was rubbing on part of the suspension unit. Our theory at the moment is that the heat/sun got to it during the summer heatwaves and it finally gave up. A good reminder to invest in wheel covers ready for next year.

We made it to the festival just two hours later than planned after replacing with a spare and then finding a garage to fit replacement tyres.

Soed Idee Jubileum week thirty five

 WOW, week 35 so only 15 more to go ! I'm impressed that I got this far as usually on the annual stitch a long I throw in the towel quite early.

This may be the last photo of the whole thing for a while as its now as long as the bed.

Saxon Merino, a small sample update

 Any sort of  Merino is generally quite greasy so I was quite generous with the washing liquid and the very hot water when washing this small sample.

I didn't agitate it, blotted out the excess water and separated the locks to dry.

It is gorgeous and I will pop it on a spindle in the next few days. I won't get round to washing any quantity for a month or so but I think that it will be worth the effort.

Later....

A quick spindle spin, looking at around 24WPI with this, not super even as its a while since I've spindle spun and I was unsure how much it would fluff up.

it is so, so soft !!!

last Saturday of the month? It must be Guild day !!

 I don't get to that many guild days so when it beeped on my phone calendar I decided to head over and show my face.

It was a miserable day with the sun trying to get through but not really succeeding, I jumped on the bus to town to grab a coffee and char with the early birds before heading out to Guild.

town was really quiet,

just a pigeon or two enjoying the beach in the old market square

Then it was on to Guild, I'm always amazed at the wealth of knowledge and talent gathered under one roof.

Needless to say, I didn't come home empty handed .

A Zwartble fleece and a good chunk of Saxon Merion to play with.

 

road trip knitting

 I'm thinking ahead to our next road trip and what to pack. I've discounted the lace as I don't think that I will be sitting outside much and pins in the van carpet does not sound pleasant. I do have a small cross stitch project that I'm doing for my sister in law so I'll slip that in along with the big band sampler.

As usual it's a charity shop find but I'd forgotten a certain baby called Fox so it's now being claimed by his grandmother.

Spinning wise I've opted for convenience  and a selection of Petes Fibre Studio fluff along with some polworth that need finishing.

For knitting I'll chuck in my knitting bag with some natural yarns and patterns along with a road knitting project using again Petes fluff, This was one of my TDF spins.

It will be interesting to see how much I get done !

Spinning wheels and horses

 Saturday saw two of us spinning in one of my favourite coffee houses, they even told us to stay as long as we wanted :-) you may recognise my fellow spinner if you have been following this blog for sometime.

Pete now dyes fibres and I took the opportunity to stock up with some for my next trip as I don't have time to prep much fibre and I spun most of my prepped stash for TDF

On Sunday we popped down to Clumber park where the East Midlands Ukulele Project have been putting on a season of concerts by local (ish) ukulele groups so I took my chair and my wheel and finished off the current bobbin.

On our way back to the car we spotted some familiar looking vehicles and had to investigate. Carters steam fair stopped touring in 2022 and many of their rides have new homes although Joby Carter continues to paint the traditional sign writing.

Alongside stood a wonderful showman's wagon, I do have a soft spot for these works of art.

                           Two rides and one stall were in use, the Dodgems with original signage.

and this carousel.