Quick crafty update

 Hi

Just a quick craft update before the New Year arrives, the craft destash finally amounted to 7 carrier bags full which will be donated to a playgroup/afterschool club.

I finished the hat which I was knitting whilst away in the van, using my most recently spun yarn. My mannequin head is a bit small especially as she doesn't have any hair and this is really a mans hat.

A couple of months ago I purchased some 20 count gridded Aida (20stitches to the inch) as I had never used it before and was a little curious about it.

I wasn't too sure about it but the instructions said that wash at 60 degrees and the lines disappear, so I did just that.

Please excuse the bad lighting, the lines did disappear and the fabric became a lot whiter and denser. I'm now stitching a small design just to experiment with plus I'm feeling like I need to stitch in something other than black or red for a while. Each square is 10 stitches so 1/2 inch.

As for new year plans ? I've not really got many, just trying to spin down as much of my fleece stash as possible. Obviously we will try and get away as often as work allows and continue to destash the house.

Do you have any plans for 2022?

speak soon xx

Cold, wet and windy !

 That just about sums up our short break, super windy Christmas Eve with gusts in excess of 30mph made sleeping interesting with the van rocking slightly. Nowhere near as bad as the storm on the Outer Hebrides a few years ago when we had to keep moving the van because of the wind hitting with so much force that it felt like it would tip !!

Breakfast as usual, no pressies to open etc due to not celebrating but a wonderful chance to take our time and actually have chance to chat without other things pressing on our time. This has been one of the biggest bonus's of  getting away so often, simply giving ourselves the time to chill.

Beds made, pots washed and we had a stroll into Cromer. Like an idiot, I just picked up my camera without bothering to check the settings so by the time I noticed, I only had a few reasonable shots. Our original plan was to head back down town on Boxing day and  challenge ourselves as to who could find the most interesting subject to capture but I think the weather may stop us.

camera on wrong setting

Slightly better.

We spent the evening watching warehouse 13 which is currently our van dvd  binge set.

Boxing day dawned, wet , breezy and decidedly cold so we were reluctant to put a foot or even an arm out of our sleeping bags but eventually someone was brave enough to venture out of the warmth to put the heating on,

My current position as I have 4g on my phone for the first time since we got here and I'm making the most of it to catch up on vlogs etc, still raining outside but I have some knitting to get on with.

Later

We decided to brave the drizzle but postponed the photo challenge until next time. we played the penny falls in the arcade and I won three keyrings one of which I gave to a small boy who had been watching me all the time I was pushing the 2pz in ( his mum spotted me and said thanks )

We were surprised to see how many places were open and judging by the crowds heading to the pier I guess that there was a show on in the theatre ( I checked later and it looks like the Pier Christmas show was on )

Cromer also currently has a selection of pictures of classic artworks scattered around the own, we spotted maybe four of them before the weather defeated us.

The record fair seemed a sensible place to shelter from the rain at a cost of 2 dvds and a box set. We headed back to the sea front and slowly back to the campsite, didn't spot any of the famous Cromer goats so I guess that they we tucked up somewhere nice and warm for the winter,

The day was rounded off with a pint ( coffee for me) in the campsite bar watching Nottingham Forest being beaten by Middlesbrough ( I sat with my knitting)

In spite of the weather we had a good few days, the water leak has not reappeared, the new batteries work a treat so its just the floor springs that need sorting now,

I now have a week of fibre prep planned after sorting through the gear from the weekend. I left the fridge/freezer to defrost whilst we were away as it had bee freezing up so its fingered crossed that it does the job,

speak soon xx

I think this bobbin might be full ??

 The boiler repair man was here yesterday so I shut myself in the workroom  and popped my fibre odds and ends through the drum carder. This is a mix of Jacob, Black Welsh Mountain, Texel, Shetland and Cheviot, all in different quantities. 

Its a bit of a rustic spin and will probably end up as a hat with some sort of pattern on it. Hopefully it will be dry before we head out next in the van.

 Speaking of van, we have half a repair done so far. The charger turned out to be working but the batteries had failed so we now have two brand new leisure batteries onboard which sets us up nicely for any festivals this year. The strange noise has been identified as needing new floor springs, these have been ordered but may take some time however they have assured us that it is safe to use albeit a little noisy when moving around inside. The water leak has not been traced but it is thought that maybe a release valve activated for some reason so we will keep an eye on it. 

Back to hats, I failed to show you the last one completed so here it is plus the last couple of pairs of mitts.

The hat is black cheviot from the Isle of Skye and the mitts are knit from handspun oddments in my stash.

In other news, we have our car back all nice and shiny following the repairs, another boilerman turned up just after 8 this morning and replaced the faulty chip so we now have heat ( I've also done the washing so we can take full advantage of the heating to get it dried ). I've successfully done the food shop and am now contemplating popping the coffee machine on.

And this mornings sky was beautiful.

Speak soon xx

Sorry I'm late, been a bit busy

 Hi

I've been busy over the last couple of weeks so not a lot of crafting. I managed to knit another black and white hat and gave some attention to the big red thing.

Vehicle update, car has been collected by the garage for repairs and we have a very new hire car for the time being. Van repairs have stalled due to covid hitting the dealership, we popped down earlier and hopefully we will have the van to use over Christmas assuming that the electrical charging problem is down to bad batteries and will drop it back off with them for the other repairs in the New Year.

My time has been taken up by making headway on the destash. Books have been rehomes or prepared for sale, magazines thrown out once useful patterns have been saved.

Whilst sorting the magazines I spotted a familiar design on the cover of one from the 1980s'

This is the Midland Bank Griffin, the bank even had large plastic griffins in their banking halls at one point, they were taken over by HSBC many years ago.

Thread have been sorted and fibres bagged up for the local guild. Two trips to the tip and one very large car full to the local charity shop. I have three bags of craft items to gift to nearby groups.

I've only just started to scratch the surface with the clearout but the scratch is getting deeper !!

Time to relax with some knitting.

Have a great week x

Its that time of year again

 I don't want to be all baa humbug but you will not see a great deal about Christmas festivities on this blog. we gave up celebrating it a few years ago mainly because of the over commercialisation, the debt people find themselves in afterwards ( I used to work in finance) and not being of the Christian faith. ( I was bought up in the church but left many years ago)

We will hopefully get away over the break, walk on the beach and fly the kites. In the past we have been on various campsites, getting out for a walk and spending time reading books.

In the meantime, the city centre has a Christmas Market, although smaller than usual but it brightens things up especially as it was cancelled last year. I was actually in town to meet friends for coffee and catch up on the gossip as I hadn't seen two of them for several years.

It also appears that one of our car parks has had a revamp recently,

and since Nottingham is know as the lace city, the wet weather was showing off the lace design in the concrete of the Contemporary Art Gallery.

Speaking of lace, the mini workshop on Saturday was great fun, both student showed an aptitude for it probably as they both came from a machine knitting / weaving based background. I must confess that I totally forgot to take any photos until the very end, so here is one of the lace pillow ( the other student had already left)

Since then I have been mainly stitching on the big red thing, knitted another hat  

(the celtic knotwork one ) which is now soaking with the previous two.

I've been flu jabbed, baked several batches of cakes and biscuits, spun up some black cheviot. packed up more boxes for the charity shops and this afternoon I will settle down to cast on some more mittens. My crafty space is the warmest room in the house and has become my comfy retreat now the colder days are here.

have a great weekend, speak soon xx