First trip of the year (warning, long post)

 We have just got back from our first trip of 2023, cheated a little by taking the car and staying in a Premier hotel but looking at the figures using the van wouldn't have been much cheaper especially taking bus/taxi fares into account.

We were once again based in Bridlington and another reason for having the car meant that we could have a look round the surrounding area more easily.

We finally reached the coast  on Thursday after popping into the motorhome dealership to book a service and some other bits and bobs and the bike shop to book a service after which we were hoping that we would have some money left! 

The bay windows on the older houses always remind me of the ones in Cromer.

The post box had a trio of sailors on it, I'm not sure who is responsible but I had heard that there are one or two knitting groups around.

We had a good trawl around the charity shops, picked up one or two bargains which I will share in the next crafty post.

We stopped off at the pavilion to admire the wrought iron work, grab a bite to eat and watch the sun set.

The street lights were on by the time we left making the sky much more dramatic.

The next day, after stuffing ourselves with breakfast, we headed out to Hornsea which is famous for the pottery produced there until 2000 although it is probably best remembered from the 50s-70s. The museum was closed but we will return to visit sometime.

I found a lovely little craft shop called Dizzy Birds ( the owner was lovely) and I suspect that I will be going back again at some point.

We also found one of the many puffins scattered around the coast, I think they are around until the end of March. The local charity shop may have made a few bob out of me as we staggered back to the car with a couple of bags of goodies !

Our next stop was Withernsea which unfortunately seems to be suffering like a lot of towns from lack of funding, closed shops and looking a bit shabby. I know its winter but after Hornsea it was quite noticeable. Also very obvious was the lack of the pier, there was one once but it was very short lived and after several boats hit it, it was torn down leaving just the stone towers at the entrance.

See Withernsea in pictures for details of the history and plans to redevelop the little that remains into pleasant seating and viewing area.

The lighthouse still remains as a museum and you can climb the stairs to the top, apparently there are 144 of them !

We returned to Bridlington for another attempt to capture a sunset.

Saturday saw us traveling North to Filey, past the sheepy roundabout ( I'd forgotten about this) and managing to park on the sea front.

Ronald Falck was well known as a sculptor.  One of his most recognized works is  'The Dotterel Shepherd Dog & Sheep' located on the A165 Scarborough to Bridlington Reighton roundabout.

At the end of the front was a scale model of an aircraft to commemorate the flight of the Blackburn Mercury Mk1/2 from Filey to Scarborough in 1911 along with a model Edwardian beach hut.

After a quick visit to the local craft/wood/ model kits shop we travelled back down to flamborough just outside Bridlington to see their lighthouse. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of the old lightthouse but I'm sure we will be back as there is a cafe at the end of the road :-)

BTW, if any of my old biker mates see this, there is hardstanding free parking for bikes behind the toilets in the car park.

Back in Brid the frost hadn't thawed at all so it was time for a cuppa in the Spa and watch the boats head in on the tide.

All in all it was a wonderful break inspite of the temperatures hovering around zero for most of it, the drive back was like a winter wonderland with a heavy frost but sadly my camera picked up only a little of it as we travelled.

Thats all for now, sorry its been a long travel post, more of the usual crafty nonsense next time xx

Life has been quiet

 over the last couple of weeks since the New Year, I've met friends for coffee, managed to get some yarn washed and labelled, done a little spinning, some fibre prep and some knitting.

I'm not a fan of winter and tend to want to hibernate until spring arrives so in a bid to chase away the winter blues we have been planning out our next big road trip round part of Scotland. The general route is planned so now to find campsites and point of interest to visit in the area. This involves a lot of map studying and google searching as these days we find that the sites get booked up so really don't want to leave it to chance as much as we hate having a set agenda.

Yarn washing, the skeins had a good blow on the line on New Years day so just needed to finish drying overnight in the work room.

Back to the spinning, the yarn now looks neat and tidy and has been bagged and stored.

I'm getting to the end of my washed fleeces and given the fact that its not really drying weather at the moment, I may buy in some ready washed fleece from a mill and see what I think about the quality, just to tide me over until the weather improves.

My prep bag is full so its time to dig the wheel out again.

I have had a small amount of Bond hanging around since forever so I combed it over the last few days and finished spinning it today, well almost, it still needs plying.

Some of the washed yarn jumped into the dye pot, the purple will be hat knitting on the way to a short hotel break later this month, the green will be fingerless mitts.

On the knitting front, two more pairs of mitts, my target is 10 pairs so I'm now well on the way in spite of a certain person selling some at Christmas to office girls with cold hands  😁

As for my stitching, the tiles stitch a long is up to date but I haven't really touched any of the others,.

I mentioned car knitting earlier on, fingers crossed that it doesn't snow as we will be taking a trip to see the sea again later this month.

And that's about it, nothing really exciting except the big yellow bird in the garden ( actually on the field behind the garden but still really noisy)

The field has occasionally been used as a landing site for the air ambulance as was the case this time.

That's all for now, speak soon xx

Cross stitch, spinning update for December

 At the beginning of December I said that I was done with knitting because I needed to spin some more yarn. I am am slowly making inroads into the fleece stash and the wash bag is filling up ready for a sunny, breezy day when I can get all the skeins on the line.

some of these will go in the dye pot but again I will be waiting on the weather.

I may have lied about the knitting 😁 I have occasionally had my needles to hand, especially when visiting the local cafe.

One thing I am up to date on is the Cliffside stitches tiles SAL, we are on week 14 and I have just finished stitching week 14. 

You may remember that I was thinking about condemning the Blackwork SAL to the bin after the first square, I'm still not sure but have done a little work on it.

Three projects that I would like to finish in 2023 are the big red thing, mainly because I can't start another really big project until this one is done.

The black sampler that I started for Black Sampler November 2021

And this small Quaker sampler which is languishing because I'm not too keen on the colours, I'm even wandering if it would be better as a monochrome ?

There is lace on my pillows but as yet nothing on any of my looms so this is about it at the moment.

There are a few very old projects lurking and I'll will probably leave them exactly where they are !!

As usual I have a lot of fleece to deal with over the next couple of months and the spinning and knitting are very much my main focus at the moment however I will keep you update.

In case you missed it in my last post, the charity shop haul was amazing  and I may use some

 of it to make up small kits for friends.

So, have a great New Year and we will speak soon xx

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