Tuesday, 10 March 2026

Just a few more Bridlington pics

 We ended up having five nights on the campsite at Bridlington, lazy days spent walking the cliffs into town, drinking coffee, catching up with the gossip and scouring the charity shops for bargains.

The weather was cold but mainly dry, not too windy but we didn't bother with the kites.


We spotted this sign in the window of Boyes Department store and had to investigate.



Interesting use of audio cassettes, I also spotted some textiles.



All in all it was an interesting window display.


On the subject of shops, during our first visit we spotted a traditional clothing shop on the high street. I remember taking photos as it had just closed down but still held stock and peering through the windows we could see the old wooden display cabinets. I took photos of the frontage but can't find them at the moment.
Nowadays the shop is empty and has been up for sale for some time.



However this time we were lucky and were able to go into the store to have a look round at the fittings that were left.





I would love to have these units in my craft room !



A last walk round before returning home, the last few photos then its time to plan the next getaway.

























Saturday, 7 March 2026

Soed Idee Jubileum week nine

 I nearly forgot to post week nine progress.


As you can see we were still in Bridlington ( see next post ) and I added the Gansey Lass as Ian was in the boat shed helping to give the boat Gansey Lass a coat of paint.



Saturday, 28 February 2026

a not cross stitch post

                        Who enjoys Bridlington in February ? there was no one at the harbour



                                                              Most of the ships were in.

                                          
Although there was a man up a ladder. He is painting a mural on the end of the building so I may have to update you on his progress on our next visit as it has been raining for the last 12 hours or so.

                                    However, I think that the most fun was being had by the birds :-)



                                    



Friday, 27 February 2026

Soed Idee Jubileum week eight

 Week eight gave us more chickens and I've also begun to add the names of the places that we have stayed overnight in during the week. Slow start this year as we didn't travel in January due to illness but we will make up for it over the next few months.


Coleshill, near Birmingham was an overnight stay for a presentation dinner with the Round Britain Rally participants and Bridlington on Thursday was the start of a short break by the sea.

I'm now looking forward to being able to start part nine whilst enjoying coffee by the sea , at least that is the plan.


Friday, 20 February 2026

Soed Idee Jubileum week seven

 I must admit that this was a much quicker stitch and I had it completed over the last weekend between other projects.



Tuesday, 17 February 2026

and the sun came out

 After days and weeks of dull wet weather we suddenly had a sunny day, cold but so, so good to be out in.

I was up early, jumped on the bus on our road and decided to take advantage of the capped fare that allows use of the bus outside the city limits on a couple of the routes. It ws still below freezing and the car had some interesting ice patterns.

                                       

First stop was Nottingham where I resisted the temptation to grab a coffee.


I love the quality of the light in winter especially early in the morning. However I headed off to the next bus to Burton Joyce so I could have a walk down by the river..

This track proved to be a bit problematical. Although most of the flooding is receding it became obvious very quickly that this was not the way to go.


The main walkway had reopened so I had a happy hour walking followed by a quick visit to the craft fair and a cup of tea.


Since I now had my bus ticket, I jumped on the next one out to Southwell in hunt of a proper sweet shop.







and i found the sweet shop!! we are big fans of Dutch salted liquorice but its not easy to find locally. I may have bought a big mixed bag :-)
and the cost of five bus journeys ? just £8.00, bargain.




Saturday, 14 February 2026

Soed Idee Jubileum week six

Week six complete however I feel that it may need a little more adding to it, I'm having a think and a search round both google and my own files and books. Maybe some Blackwork motifs ?



Thursday, 12 February 2026

just a rambling post

 Will it ever stop raining ? I'm longing for some sun, blue skies, regardless of the temperature. Today I've stayed in and tried to get some sort of order in the workroom as I was faced with this earlier.


and I needed to make a start on prepping some brown Jacob ready to spin on my next trip.

slight improvement ! I did also empty a couple of containers out from the cupboards.
Back to the Jacob, it was already washed so I just combed it through, beautiful colour that will be very useful in my next bout of colour work knitting.



my current project on the needles is knitting up some early hand spun that I discovered in one of the bottomless pits, I think that it may be merino, I'm not sure who dyed it but I don't think that its one of mine. Correction, Its Polworth, dyed by babylonglegs and spun in 2010. No wonder I couldn't remember the details but here is a link to the blog post.



and the mittens finished 16 years later....









Tuesday, 10 February 2026

which colour's next ? Fox and Rabbit Mystery Sal 2026 January

Another stitch a long, this time Fox and Rabbit AI 1664. It is not AI, these are the initials of the girl who stitched the original sampler in 1664.

I would love to see the original that this is based on as apparently its around 3 feet long. Hopefully the full chart may be produced at some point in the future but for now we have an individual band to stitch each month.

I'm still mulling over my colour choices but we will see how this develops and fits together.





Sunday, 8 February 2026

wait for it ....... Jacob and the Argonaut

 I've been waiting to use that heading !!

Anyway, both bobbins of jacob are spun and replaced with an empty bobbin.


This meant that I could have another go at plying with the red beast but this time with a commercial yarn. The technique is, for me, definitely  a bit different to using the Ashford e-spinner.


It does work but I'm much more at home on the Ashford.


The end result id 105gm, 250 or so yards and waiting for a wash. I may buy a few more bobbins before my next long trip so I can avoid the ply as much as possible :-)