crafty update

 We have been back home for a week now, the first few days were spent madly trying to get the washing up to date, emptying the van and draining everything down incase we get locked down and can't use it again this year.

I must admit that it has been hard to find my rhythm again and I have been reading various things on line that suggest that hitting a wall at six months in any venture is not an unusual occurrence. It has been six months since I finished work so this is probably what is causing the problem.

As I know that it will pass, I took the opportunity to have a quick sort out in the craft room and I have dug out several paint sets, all my commercial yarn (mainly acrylic that I've used for weaving bands in the past) a large cross stitch kit that I have found that even my new glasses can't cope with !!and my colouring pencils. Hopefully, having a new selection of craft items to hand will spark some creativity.

Whilst on holiday I spun around 500 gm of yarn and this has now been washed and labelled, I still have more prepped ready to spin in the evenings.

I have made some more progress on the lace, I'm enjoying this design so will continue with it for a while.

The cross stitch fabric is on the frame and a clip on magnifier has been ordered :-)

As for the yarn, I'm undecided whether to weave or learn some crochet ( I can do a granny square but that's about it ! ) I have seen some beautiful throws on revelry which were originally released as CALs so may look into them a little more.

I've even ordered some more guitar/mandolin picks so now I have a selection of thicker picks to use with the mandolin.

Next week I will let you know if I have made any progress with any of these crafts but for now housework awaits.

Speak soon xx

I'm back , we took a little road trip :-)

 Hi

Yep, I'm back ! We took a two week road trip down to the Isle of Wight, a chance to grab some fresh air and relax after the isolation of lockdown. As Ian has worked all the way through since March, a change of scene was needed .

Years of travelling to France to start holidays have left me with the feeling that a ferry is needed to get a holiday off to a proper start, this time we sailed from Portsmouth. We have previously sailed into Portsmouth from France with a broken down motorcycle but this time it was a relaxed, short crossing.

I must admit that sifter being at home for pretty much six months, I wasn't prepared for the sheer volume of traffic especially as our Scottish trips are usually at the end or beginning of the season and relatively quiet. We had realized before we travelled that using the van for getting around on the Island may prove challenging and wanting to have a stress free holiday, we arranged car rental before leaving home. 

This is the first time that we have felt the need to hire a car and the original idea when booking was to get bus passes but the virus sort of got in the way.

The Caravan and Motorhome club site on the island was very organized re covid and all the hedges and trees reminded me of the sites in France.

As we had the car for five days, we spent our time doing the tourist bit although I managed to meet an old friend for breakfast one day.

 

As you can see, the weather was pretty amazing all the time that we were away !

 

But there wasn't enough wind to fly the kites (again)

we did get to see some animals

and trains 

walk on the beach and watch people on the water.

even spotted the odd bird !

All in all we had a really good time and managed a meet up with more friends on our way back through Somerset.

I didn't do any knitting but managed to spin around 500gm of fibre so the next post will be a crafty catch up x

PS

I forgot to mention that I raided the charity shops wherever we stopped so I now have the beginnings of a new wardrobe. This time its size 18/20 rather than my more usual 24 plus :-) :-)

___

sorry I'm late

 Hi

Life has got back to normal since the excitement of the power cut and garden excavation!! I've even been on a bus or two and done some shopping on my own out there in the big wide world.

Craft wise, just a bit of knitting and some lace to show this week as I've been busy trying to assemble a holiday wardrobe, not easy when most of your clothes are 2 sizes too big. Fortunately elastic waists on skirts help and I've found one pair of jeans that sort of fit.

My Mum came to the rescue and handed me four pairs of leggings that she had never worn, they had been bought for her whilst in hospital and she never regained the weight that she lost ( which she is pleased about) so they may not be my style but will probably be worn under skirts for most of winter.

One thing I have discovered is that if I go shopping on my own, that chocolate bar will jump into the basket !!

Anyway, here is the lace..

and the knitting

Have a great weekend x