Its that time of year again

 Its October so that must mean that its time for the 1940's weekend at Papplewick Pumping station. We have been members at the station for around 20 years and try to attend as many events as we can. Its usually a good excuse to visit the cafe for a bacon cob and coffee  on a Sunday morning.

It was an over bright autumn morning so not the best for photos, either too bright , too dark in the shadows or two many people around but here are a few snaps.

We still enjoyed our trip out and got back in time to get the washing in before the rian.

Weekend show and tell

 I feel a bit like I'm back at school and sharing what I did at the weekend and , to be honest, if the weather hadn't been so good I wouldn't have a post to share.

Saturday started out fine and sunny so I walked over to the monthly bobbin lace pop in session about 2 mile from where we live. I try and get to one of these meetings whenever we are around on the right date.

Nottingham Bobbin Lace Society have been running these meetings for several years and it gives both members and anyone who is interested in lace to see lace being made, get some advice etc. All abilities are welcome and these are often lace makers there from the various classes being run in the area.

I took one of my travel pillows with a strip of lace in progress, this piece has been ongoing for some time but I hope to get more a few more inches made over winter.

Of course I had to see what everyone else was up to as well.

Plenty of 2nd hand bobbins and other pieces of equipment for sale, the pillow I am using came from the sales table earlier in the year.

These bobbins are amazing and I may have to track down one of these bags.

I did make a purchase or two, a box of pins to supplment my current stock and a few bobbins which mainly relate to the society previous lace days.

Disaster !

 My favourite winter mitts, these have kept my hands warm for the last 2/3 winters but today I realised that I had caught them on something sharp over the weekend.

Out with the magnifying glass, needle and an oddment of similar yarn I set out to try and mend them, Not too bad a result and hopefully I won't have to knit replacements just yet.

Soed Idee Jubileum week forty one

 Only nine more to go !! here is week 41 and I enjoyed stitching this one. My thoughts are beginning to stray over to next years challenge. I want to do something similar but maybe incorporate more about our travels? I'm not sure how at the moment although a long stitched band has been easy to carry around but maybe twelve panels to be stitched into a book at the end? I think I still need the push from somewhere to stitch weekly though. Anyone have any thoughts about this?

Preprinted cross stitch from china, would you buy one ?

 I must admit that I am a bit of a crafty hoarder when it comes to kits in charity shops but there is a gem of a reason for doing this.

1 I like to think that if I am confined to he house I will have plenty to do.

2 The small simple kits are often given away to people who want to try out cross stitch or embroidery. In fact I purchased a couple of small ones on Wednesday and one of them found a new home the very next day.

3 I like the challenge of a new style of embroidery when I come across one ( not the best at finishing things though)

4, This is the main point of this post. I'm curious about the influx of cheap, preprinted cross stitch from China although I would never buy any as often the artwork has been stolen etc. I understand that some brands are completely legit and I'm not complaining about them.

But whilst in Stonehaven I cam across one in a charity shop, a complete kit, unstarted ( in fact unopened) for a couple pounds so I bought it just to see if it works. 

The kit comes with 11count fabric so I'm not expecting any detail :-) I have since seen a kit with 18 count fabric which would be a lot better so maybe a more sensible choice? If I spot one at a cheap price I will try that also.

The cover picture depicts artwork not a completed stitch ( red flag moment) and a quick search found it on Amazon for around £8, reviews were interesting though, several were 5 star but one mentioned poor quality floss and having to redraft the pattern.

This is what I got.

Paper Pattern, I hope that I never have to refer to it as its really small and not gridded.

It looks more like a bunch of flowers but the colours do seem to be printed in line with the stitches. but we have symbols on the key which are difficult to read on the paper pattern or fabric

The instructions on how to cross stitch are printed on the transparent sleeve with an unremovable sticker across the part that explains how many thread to use at a time for different size fabrics.

another instruction sheet is included. There are clear instructions to only leave 1cm of thread when starting and finishing stitching so I suspect that the thread amounts may be the same across the three fabric sizes quoted on the cover sheet for this design. This makes me a little concerned that running out of thread may be an issue.

Threads are pre sorted, it remains to be seen how they hold up to being pulled through the stiff material.

They state that everything is included to start although though snips look a bit lethal !

I think that I may start with a couple of squares in the middle just to get an idea of how it works, I'm not holding my breath at all haha

If I don't like it, next up will be this heritage bookmark spotted by Ian which he has asked me to stitch for him. Comes complete with fabric, needle, backing material, threads, design story and even a tassel. Bargain £1.50 at the charity shop in Lochcarron ( I also picked up a lovely new cotton traders cardigan to wear over winter)

To conclude, I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised by the stamped cross stitch. Although my preference will always be for counted stitch designs I would like to know whether this kit, which is advertised as a beginner kit, is actually suitable for a newbie.

Holiday knitting round-up

 I usually knit quite a lot when we are away in the van but this year the never ending cross stitch sampler has been taking up quite a lot of my time.

 You can see from my previous post on Soed Idee Jubileum that I am working on part 40 so only ten more parts to be sent to me. However, I will probably add two more to take it up to the end of the tear if I have enough space on the fabric. You can catch up with the previous stitching here if you are new to this blog.

I did find time to pick up the needles can cast on this shawl to wear with my fishermans smock, this is an ongoing project until I run out of yarn.

A couple of Petes fibre studio braids found their way onto the wheel.

and three hats found their way off the needles.

Killin - Barnard Castle - Bridlington - Home

After a weekend spent in a pub carpark meeting up with friends we started to head south.

 

It had been a very wet and windy weekend but about 50 or so of us crammed into the pub and had a good time. Travelling back down to the Borders I kept my camera handy and soon realised that we were following a couple that we knew. You could tell when the rider was chatting to her husband in the sidecar over the intercom the movements of her head .

It gave me chance to play with the camera settings and capture the occasional bridge.

Our last three destinations are all places used as stop off points over the years. First up was Killin so I could do a full wash and clean out the van a bit after the last two or three weeks. We were heading for the caravan club site as I knew that it had laundry facilities, a Co-op nearby for food and a couple of cafes on the high street.

misty start next morning but the sun soon burnt it off.

I love these reflections, they get even more interesting when you turn the photo around .

This sign on the campsite made me laugh.

After a couple of nights, a restock of clean clothes and food we were back on the road again heading back into England.

Our next stop was Barnard Castle, the town getting its name from the castle which is still fairly impressive and offers views over the town. ( which I failed to get a pic of !! )

The last stop was Bridlington for six nights, totally relaxing, walking round the harbour and trips to Flamborough and North landing.

post box depicting Bridlington lobster 

Coffee at the leisure centre, one of my crafty venues

North Landing, waiting whilst Ian was out on one of the boats.

https://www.flamboroughmanor.co.uk/flamboroughmarine/

not a lot left of Flamborough castle

Ghostly post-box topper

Bridlington looking very quiet now the tourists have gone home, to be honest I quite like it like this.