a few piccies for the bikers

one of my favourite bikes, we didn't manage to track down the owners so I hope they don't mind.. the bikes were part of a vintage display.

Dolphin spotting

Hi

This is probably the last post about Scotland for the time being.

Just one or two places not mentioned so far, this is Avoch harbour on the black isle.

and from here we travelled to Fortrose Cathedral and the local sticky bun shop.

From there it was down to Chanory Point which is a popular dolphin spotting area.

Here the seats and tables are engraved with dolphin motifs which I laughingly suggested would be the only dolphins that we would see.

although this plaque revealed a weirder story...

more info here

The mist kept rolling in and out, at times Fort George was visible on the other side of the estuary.

As we walked out to the point, I turned round to speak and spotted 2 dolphins diving under the waves just a few yards away! Frantic rummaging around for my camera...eventually I managed to get a shot as them swam out to see. The little blob is actually 2 adults and a juvenile dolphin swimming off. We have seen the dolphins in the past from Fort George but that time it required the binoculars.

I never did tell you about the clootie well!

We had a day out to visit the Black Isle in Scotland, we have visited this area before and decided to retrace our steps to the clootie well. Last time was maybe 18 years ago? and we had to drive around until we could see some evidence of cloths hanging in a tree. This time it is well signposted as an attraction, there even a small car park and a very well worn track through the undergrowth.

I've found a brief story about it here on undiscovered Scotland.

The whole area is much bigger than we remembered and is now on the 'tourist' route as evidenced by a coach full of overseas visitors being there when we arrived.

Not just T shirts and socks adorned the trees, some items held messages or maybe a list of where they had visited?

The well still exists, water trickles into a stone trough and the is a plastic cup to drink from, if you dare!

chit chat

Hi

Hubby has been away this weekend so I'm trying to empty the spare bedroom so we can get a single bed into it. This is proving to be a major challenge but it does mean that all my spinning stash has to go back in my work room and I can see clearly that spinning even a fraction of it will be a challenge!

and did you spot the interloper? Ashford Scholar #1, the day after I gave away the Kromski, this turned up on my doorstep!! It came from a friend who I hadn't seen for some time. It works but is a bit noisy for me ( the workroom is next to the bedroom, hubby works early shift so goes to bed very early) so I may pass it on to someone who wants a wheel but can't afford it.

Please excuse me, I'm watching the sky as it looks like rain and I have some skeins of yarn on the line !!

The grey pillow slip in the first picture contains all the oddments of batts and braids that I found when sorting out the large plastic boxes, the idea is to spin these up to get them out of the way and at the same time giving me some oddments for some fingerless mitts.

This will also keep me busy during the dark winter nights which are now on their way :-(

I'm getting towards the end of my hat and will be blocking that along with the croft house hat next weekend.

The skeins in the background are Ryland, Dorset poll lamb and the mystery caramel fleece, ready for the next hat.

As for the crofthouse...its destined to be a beanie as I miscalculated the stitches and missed out a pattern repeat !! but I enjoyed knitting it so will have another go.

The weird thing is I just can't get a decent photo of it!

Scottish diaries. ..you call that an exhibition.???

Hi,  we have often passed the sign at Spean bridge advertising the gift shop, whisky shop and weaving exhibition and I think that we visited this 20 odd years ago at werent impressed.

However, always willing to give things a second chance , we pulled in yesterday to use the toilets and look at the exhibition.  After getting over the problem of finding that the taps weren't actually attached to the sink ! We had a look in the shop and found some sheep shaped shortbread which simply had to be bought but we failed to find the exhibition until hubby looked through the windows to find that right at the back of the gift shop there was a loom set up in the corner.  That was it, still disappointed :-(

As the weather was still iffy, we had a drive round and ended up at Glen coe mountain cafe for a bite to eat. We noticed that in addition to the electric hookups for motor homes and the small camp site they now have microlodges. A bit like hobbit houses with two single beds and a double at the back. At £50 per night and sleeping four people they make an interesting alternative to camping.

farewell old friend

Back in 2009 a friend lent me a beautiful spinning wheel as I had been using the guild wheels up till then. Its a lovely wheel but we never really gelled as a team and within six months I had bought the Sonata.

Over the last couple of years or so she has simply been gathering dust and all attempts to give it back to the owner have been met with 'I don't want it back, pass it on'

I have reached the stage where she is simply taking up space in my room so she has been passed on to another spinner who has promised to love and cherish her.

So I bid a fond farewell to this lady.

In my search for the bobbins, one of which had some spinning on it which closely resembled string! I found another 4 bobbins with yarn on them. The full one in the middle is the remainder of a mule fleece, the coloured one is a merino mix, the badly spun one may be Shetland and I haven't a clue about the other. I suspect that they are all from about 4 years ago but I will ply them separately  and see what I get.

that's a job for today along with skeining up these three which I spun on holiday, Dorset poll lamb, Ryland and the unknown breed.

back in real life...

welcome to October

looks like it might be a good day after the fog rises, not holding my breath though.

and a quick update on the knitting front

It looks like I will be saying goodbye to one of my spinning wheels, its been sitting unused for a couple of years so I'm passing it on.

have a great weekend xx