and the sun came out

 After days and weeks of dull wet weather we suddenly had a sunny day, cold but so, so good to be out in.

I was up early, jumped on the bus on our road and decided to take advantage of the capped fare that allows use of the bus outside the city limits on a couple of the routes. It ws still below freezing and the car had some interesting ice patterns.

                                       

First stop was Nottingham where I resisted the temptation to grab a coffee.

I love the quality of the light in winter especially early in the morning. However I headed off to the next bus to Burton Joyce so I could have a walk down by the river..

This track proved to be a bit problematical. Although most of the flooding is receding it became obvious very quickly that this was not the way to go.

The main walkway had reopened so I had a happy hour walking followed by a quick visit to the craft fair and a cup of tea.

Since I now had my bus ticket, I jumped on the next one out to Southwell in hunt of a proper sweet shop.

and i found the sweet shop!! we are big fans of Dutch salted liquorice but its not easy to find locally. I may have bought a big mixed bag :-)

and the cost of five bus journeys ? just £8.00, bargain.

just a rambling post

 Will it ever stop raining ? I'm longing for some sun, blue skies, regardless of the temperature. Today I've stayed in and tried to get some sort of order in the workroom as I was faced with this earlier.

and I needed to make a start on prepping some brown Jacob ready to spin on my next trip.

slight improvement ! I did also empty a couple of containers out from the cupboards.

Back to the Jacob, it was already washed so I just combed it through, beautiful colour that will be very useful in my next bout of colour work knitting.

my current project on the needles is knitting up some early hand spun that I discovered in one of the bottomless pits, I think that it may be merino, I'm not sure who dyed it but I don't think that its one of mine. Correction, Its Polworth, dyed by babylonglegs and spun in 2010. No wonder I couldn't remember the details but here is a link to the blog post.

and the mittens finished 16 years later....

Thurs 8.01.26 and we have a snow warning

 I'm always a little excited by snow warnings as we don't normally get much where we live and over the last couple of years or so we've see more snow when visiting the coast or north of the border than we have here in Nottingham.

Still , I popped out for a walk and made it back whilst it's still light although the temperature has dropped to around freezing.

I have an appointment at 9.30 tomorrow which I may or may not be able to attend depending on the state of thing in the morning.

Today I've stitched a bit more of the hem and I'm working on one of the items on my craft list, knitting the hat using hand spun Jacob and ryeland.

later .......

it might be snowing, will update you tomorrow as to whether it hung around overnight.

Thread finds in a charity shop, Sheep and a quick chat

 HI, I'm still here although I've not blogged for a while. I have a question, I have photos etc of our travels going back to September, is anyone interested in me doing some catch up blogs and maybe posting them in January?

Threads in a charity shop, Toucan. This kit has been started and I'd love to post a photo but I've left it in the van which means it will possibly be a couple of weeks before I see it again.

To make up for this, I have started a new kit called Ewe are my Sunshine, purchased in Bridlington at the beginning of the month in a charity shop. More expensive this time but so cute. Costing £4.50 but will hopefully give me hours of enjoyment. 

 

I've had a look on the website and it looks there are a few of these kits in the same set. full overage but small 12.5 x 9cm so shouldn't take too long.

I've been trying to add a few stitches everyday, here's my progress so far, days 1-4.

 Original artwork by Thomas Joseph.

I have been spinning, knitting and making lace so will update in the next post.

2025 plans, should I make any?

Good question, I have a few targets for 2025 apart from the usual lose weight, get fit, save money etc that everybody seems to come up with every year.

Realistically none of the above will be achieved but I do need to complete a few things. The workroom tidy up being one of them although I have made a start and thrown out a large number of random cables and pieces of obsolete technology, thus freeing up a couple of drawers in my desk.

I have made myself a sort of bingo card where each box relates to a shelf/cupboard etc and I can cross them off once completed.

book destash in progress

I do need to spin the contents of the pillowcases stashed in the corner and in the big bag thus making way for the 2024 fleece that still needs to be washed.

Cross stitch projects to be looked at and hopefully one or two finished before starting a new one.

Otherwise its business as usual, a bit of this, a bit of that depending on my mood and as usual I will blog my process.

Unless anyone has any requests? more embroidery, lace,  travel etc ??

In the meantime I am still coughing, still knitting

nothing to report

 Hi, I've been posting daily as a challenge to myself and this is the first day ( Friday)  that I don't really have anything to write about.

I usually write the post last thing, then schedule it for 9 am the next day, but its now 9.30 on the next day (Saturday ) and I really don't have much to say about yesterday other than I pottered around, undid a couple of old projects that weren't going to get finished  and cast on a mitt.

So, have a good day all and I'll be back as usual in the morning.

Monogamous crafting, is it even a thing ?

 A few years ago I watched a short you-tube video about a lady who had no crafting stash whatsoever. She simply bought all she needed to make an item, made the item and disposed of any oddments that were left. 

Is this really a thing? do people do this? 

After all, life would be a lot simpler, no storage issues for multiple crafts, no storage issues for even one craft although having the right equipment would still be a thing.

I've been thinking about this since I bought another lace pillow from a local charity shop. The new pillow fills a gap in my collection as it has a wider roller than my other pillows, has a built in stand and looks like it will be easier to use when making sample strips which I spend most of my time working on.

If lace making was my only hobby, you would think that storage would be easy but looking round my room from where I am sitting I can see six lace pillow of various sizes and types !! plus two boxes of bobbins, and threads, two shelves of books and files of patterns. I'm already in the realms of needing a cupboard for just one hobby.

This is the same for every craft that I do, cross stitch materials fill a large box and I have several ongoing projects.

Spinning wheels , I have three at the moment but countless fleeces both raw and washed waiting to be spun all the equipment to prep the fleece and countless spindles etc.. Inkle looms numbered four at the last count along with small looms and a Kromski rigid heddle that has sat in a bag since before covid.

Yarn, knitting needles, tatting shuttles , you name it and I have it and not to forget the four or five sewing machines lurking in the next room.

Sketch books, paints, books on assorted crafts and techniques that survived last years cull now fill shelves and cupboards.

Back to the question, does anyone only do one craft, only have one project on the go or do we all flit from one thing to the other? My current ongoing projects are a bobbin lace strip, two knitting projects, narrow band on the inkle loom for bracelets and a couple of cross stitch and embroidery pieces. Ooh and two latch hook cushion on the go.

All this leads to another question, when do hobbies split into two, for example, is collecting cross stitch patterns almost a separate hobby to stitching them?

And, dare I say it, when does it switch from hobby stash to hoarding?

Any thoughts on this?

Ona lighter note, the robins are nesting just outside the kitchen window :-)

workroom update

 Remember the workroom? well 4 black bags of rubbish, one box for the charity shop and a bag of bits for the local craft club later.....

You can even see the rag rug now.

Not perfect but a lot better plus I now have enough space to reskein and label the yarn.

Some progress on the sampler band, I'm just looking around for a nice font for the starting date (2024)

That's about it for now, If you celebrate Christmas have a good one and if you just take a break , relax , as that is exactly what we will be doing :-)  xx

 

It's been a while, November round up.

 I'm sorry that I've been missing for a few weeks, we've been busy and somehow I never got round to updating the blog.

So, where have I been ? mainly out and about with my camera.

We have an arboretum in Nottingham and I spent a couple of hours with the local U3A photography group capturing the autumn colours and well fed wildlife.

W visited Papplewick Pumping station and were entertained by a Japanese drum group....

whilst we hunted down krampus.......

before finally catching them in the cafe. ( had a great conversation with them )

The next trip out was to Chesterfield where we got battered by a storm, we did however pop into the church with the twisted spire and a spinning wheel in the stained glass.

The rather large motorhome parked next to use did a very good job acting as a windbreak at Poolsbrook campsite near Chesterfield.

It was a little bit breezy !

I took a trip to the Knitting and Stitching show with some friends, forgot about photos until we stopped for coffee, Beautiful building :-)

Some crafting has been done, I'll show you in the next one as now I have to pack again just in case we get the urge to move on haha.

Speak soon xx