on the road again

 After the heat of last week (39c which for us in the UK is HOT) the weather changed, cooled down and even rained so we headed back out in the Van. This time we headed for Leyburn in the Yorkshire Dales.

The Caravan and Motorhome Club site is situated in an old quarry, we have visited before and love the fact that it has the pitches on different levels and the whole site is nestled amongst the trees.

There are many birds, rabbits and a resident peacock named Gerald who will take food from your hand. Especially crackers.

Please excuse the terrible photo of me, I had quickly pulled on an old fleece not realising how awful it looked.

Most of the weekend was spent relaxing, lazy morning followed by a walk into Leyburn then back to the Wensleydale Railway.

Unlike many of the heritage lines that we visit, this one operates diesel locomotives and unfortunately does not draw in the crows like the steam engines do.

On Saturday I think there were only a handful of people travelling from Leyburn to Leeming Bar.

Back on the campsite I walked round to the remains of the Lime kilns before heading back to the van.

My spinning wheel accompanied me but didn't get a great deal of use but I did manage to bag some decent knitting time and made good headway on this hat.

True to form, you can see the join in this photo. I usually try and make sure it's at the back but I'm tired (or at least that's my excuse) 

that's about all for now, plans for the week include unpacking, repacking, knittin , spinning, fleece prep and maybe an itsy bitsy bit of housework.

Speak soon.

Too busy to take photos

 I know I promised yarn bomb photos but it didn't pan out that way. Netherfest was great fun, history talks, music, dance all managed to lure me away from taking photos. On Friday I found myself standing in , leading a workshop on making puppets where nearly every attendee was under five !! Certainly an experience and everyone enjoyed it even if I did spend sometime peeling the glue off my hands haha.

Saturday saw me leading a workshop on spinning, just six of us sitting in the sun and having fun with fluff. We over ran by about 45 mins as we were having such a good time.

I spent the rest of Saturday spinning and answering questions at the craft fair also I can now add gazebo erecting to my list of skills.

If you are on Facebook, festival pictures and videos can be seen on the Nertherfest group site.

As for the promised photos, I offer a teapot

and a dragon.

Speak soon xx

Punk at the Pump ( Steampunk not the safety pin type ! )

 We seem to be in the grip of a rather warm spell with the forecast saying it will get even warmer ( for the UK ) This meant that the best plan of attack for Sunday was to go out for an ice-cream.

We headed off back to Papplewick Pumping Station which I have mentioned before several times on this blog, we are members, get free entrance and they have a cafe that sells ice cream.

Last weekend was the annual steampunk weekend with the Victorian architecture providing the perfect setting.

Plus the chance to show off a few steam engines.

Amongst the entertainment were Boggarts Breakfast Morris.

Videos of the other acts can be found on the Facebook page.

I'm busy over the next few days with Netherfest which involves music, dance, art and craft and plan to follow the yarn bombing trail tomorrow if I get chance.

Speak soon xx

I'm back, did you miss me ? ( Tour de Fleece update )

 I have my laptop back so I'm taking the chance to try it out whilst grabbing a coffee and sausage sandwich at my favourite cafe.

The offending files have been removed and since this used to be my mother laptop , I asked him to remove her profile, pictures and documents as I have these backed up elsewhere.

So what have we missed, a couple of weeks ago we went to the Major Oak festival at Edwinstowe. In case you don't know, the Major Oak is a very old tree famous for its connection with Robin Hood.

                                  As you can see, the last 800 plus years have taken their toll.

People had the chance to try our various wood crafts, textile crafts, archery etc.

                    Diane from Murmuring wheel and Nancy provided the spinning demo.

                We spotted these wonderful gates as we left, studded with small creatures.

A few days later I was walking around Netherfield, admiring the new Festival banner and spotted some mosaics made by the local children.

                                                            Netherfield Arts Festival

 Fibre, knitting, Tour de Fleece update.

 Tour de Fleece, I've decided not to participate this year for a couple of reasons. I've found that I am spinning most days and have now reached a natural break to do some stitching for a change. I also have a busy couple of weeks coming up with the arts festival and a couple of trips away. I hope to be back with the tour next year.

Fibre, I'm busy taking advantage of the good weather and washing fleece most days,

Latest knitting and spinning.

I think I'm all caught up now, I'm going to try and get back to my weekly posts :-)

Missing in action

 My apologies for not posting but my laptop appears to have picked up a virus of some kind so it's currently disconnected from the net awaiting repair. Posting from my phone is awkward so I  will be back with a proper update as soon as possible x

I have a project to keep me busy in the mean time.