Dalesman Rally 2011 ( one for the bikers)

OK, for the few bikers who still read this blog, here are a few pics from last weeks rally. Held at Leyburn in the Yorkshire Dales and organised by the Dean Vally MCC. Leyburn is a very pleasent market town, quiet and fairly sedate, popular with the tourists.







with a few pubs and restaurants including the Sandpiper where we had an excellent meal on the Saturday night.

As for the bikes.....there were old ones, newer ones







some with sidecars








Trikes with tiny sleeping trailers.






In the next field there stood the remains of a tree that had possibly been hit by lightning.



and wandering round the site early on the Saturday morning... a lone spinner still working on her Tour de Fleece challenge.





Have a great weekend, whatever you may be doing :-)

Wensleydale Railway

Ok, the reason I've been a little quiet............we had a weekend away at a bike rally in Yorkshire. On the Saturday we went out to play on the Wensleydale Railway which runs along 16 miles of track from Leeming Bar to Redmire.

We waited for the train at Leyburn to start our journey.

I'm not sure why the man was standing on the engine, maybe something to do with taking on water.
The carriages retained a lot of their original features but sadly they still had their original springs in the seats.This made knitting almost impossible due to the bouncing around.Some of the other compartments looked like  they had been restored.


The passing scenery was beautiful as ever and we all took the opportunity to enjoy it without the hindrance of crash helmets etc.

We stopped at Redmire so the engine could be placed at the rear of the train to pull us back up to Leeming Bar.

















Then we travelled back to Leeming bar and Bedale where we stopped for lunch and a pint.


Then we boarded the train again for the run back to Leyburn and the steady trudge back to the rally site.

pattern suggestion?

Hi, as part of tour de fleece I'm plying this beauty, 100gram, 4 plyish, prob 400 ish yard ( still plying)



Now looking for a holiday knit project to take away when we tour on the bike, nothing too complicated though!


Any ideas????


Have a great weekend!

tour de fleece

OK, I'll admit that I've lost count of the days but I am still spinning and have now finished the falkland singles ready for plying.


amazing how different they look coming off the two wheels even though they both have the same amount of fibre on.


I'm busy working out how to pack my spindle and knitting onto the bike for our next holiday, last year I just took my knitting but really missed having my drop spindle so hopefully I will find a place for it this year.

As I mentioned. my mum turned 80 last week and she had a party on Sunday for her family and friends, doesn't she look amazing!!

tour de fleece

spinning for texture ?

rainy day Tour de Fleece catch up

Not the sort of day that I had hoped for, wet and dreary when I got into town.



The food market was making a brave attempt to attract customers but nobody was really in the mood to buy much, least of all stand around to eat it, although I would recommend the roast potatoes. The workmen are putting together the decking for Nottingham Riviera which looks like it may be a wash out if the summer doesn't arrive soon !



The fountains just added to the dampness of the day.





So I trundled down to Costa and had a quiet spin with occasional company from small children asking what I was doing. Managed to fill a bobbin the ply up two more, not my best spin/ply but I rarely spin from fleece and these two skeins still need a good wash.





Finished the day by calling in for tea with Wikkidknitter and one of his friends and took the opportunity to tidy and tie off his bobbin lace sample





so neat :-)

Then bumped into an Indian customer of mine from my day job on the way home who wanted to know what was in the bag, I explained it was a spinning wheel and we embarked on a discussion about Gandhi , sadly I had to decline the offer of coffee and make a dash for my bus.

Tonight we have tried to reserve a room on a French Hotel only to find that Great Britain, UK, England, Angleterre, Grande Bretagne etc not listed as a country that we can travel from!

Tour de Fleece Day twelve

Not a lot of spinning going on today, just a bit on the spindle. The reason is that my Mum is starting to celebrate a big birthday and we visited last night to take a card and present. As the celebrations take place over the next few days I suspect that the next major spin session will be on Saturday.

On a totally different note, we will be in France later in the year, around the Nantes area so I wondered if  anyone has any recommendations of any places to visit/stay?

Tour de Fleece Day Eleven

Yesterdays spinning took place at knit club amongst a buzz of conversation about motorbikes. I was still fighting with the teeswater, wikkidknitter had a gorgeous braid from feltstudiouk to work with and acadlia is working from her own batts to spin enough for a jumper. We are are all also spinnotts members so there was also chat about the next spinnotts gathering which will be at the Riverside festival in Nottingham (Julie, are you reading this? hope to see you there again)



A quick apology to non- spinning folks, I know the blog has been very biased towards the tour de fleece and I will try to rectify this :-) the challenge finishes in two weeks time coinciding with a bike rally so things will get back to normal. Whatever normal is !!

Tour de fleece day ten

OK, back at work so just a little spinning



and a little plying



thats all folks

xx

stonebridge city farm

I'm always up for finding new places to spin so on Sunday I hopped off the bus a couple of stops early and found myself at Nottinghams Stonebridge city farm where there are rumoured to be sheep and goats.

The rumours are true there are goats

sheep

cows

donkeys with hair nets

ponies, pigs, ducks, hens, rabbits and a tortoise

and flowers

 

add to that a decent cup of tea and a cheese roll, money well spent!!

Tour de Fleece day nine

very little spinning, some experimental plying and a few animals ( see next post )







I have a project in mind that means some texture adding to it so this should give it a lift :-)