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Hello everyone
Hope that you are all well and happy.
Seems longer than week ago that I was in Spain with those lovely blue skis 
My Mum had surprise day trip planned for me, I thought that it was going to be a new museum of religious art or a fab church but it turned out to be this amazing art deco house in a little town called Novelda, about an hour away from where she lives in the mountains. She discovered it in a DK book that my brother and sister-in-law bought her and first went to visit it last October.
Spain has a lot of Art Deco and Modernist art and I have seen many very lovely things, mainly fabulous doors and ironwork but this was really special.
If you didn’t know it was there you would not really notice the house, the facade is lovely but it is tucked away in a little street in the centre of the town and from the front it looks to be quite a small property but it stretches back a long way and like many Spanish houses it has a Moorish influenced courtyard garden inside the house.
The wonderful thing about the house is that most of the rooms are furnished with original Art Deco furniture and it looks so lived in.
The house is called Casa Modernista and was built between 1900 and 1903 – the DK travel web site has info on location and times info . It is well worth a visit if you ever find yourself in the area.
After lunch (tapas at a lovely little cafe round the corner) we had a little wander around the town and the market and then set off to find a church, St Mary Magdelene’s Sanctury and castle that we could see from the town and that Mum went to on her last trip there. After a few false starts and lots of communing with the locals we found it and it was really beautiful.
As far as we could work out it was built in the early 1900s and reminded me very much of Gaudi’s Sagrada Famila that I was lucky enough to visit a few years ago in Barcelona – on a much smaller scale. A very interesting church and look at those wonderful blue skies! These pictures were taken on the 4th of January!
So back to reality this week, a busy week at work but I had knitting group and a lovely relaxing weekend crafting and cooking so it was not all bad 
I have been working hard at creating new stock to take the craft centre, have some new heart ornaments made from recycled charity shop finds that I am just finishing off so will post them next weekend.
I have finished my hat – in beautiful James Brett variegated wool, this was an adaptation of a pattern that I had as a freebie booklet from a knitting mag. I changed the stocking stitch with Fair Isle main part for moss stitch with a stocking stitch crown when I realised how hard it was going it be to do the decreases for the crown shaping in moss stitch.
I am very pleased that it turned out so well and that I now have the confidence to play around with patterns like this. It is very warm and lovely and I just cast on for another one in the purple version of this wool.
This will be followed by matching scarves and possibly wristwarmers in both colourways , at some point in between everything else I want to do. I have still not managed to win the lottery so unfortunately crafting is still subsidiary to my day job – is just lucky I really enjoy what I do!
Exciting job related news – my next trip to China has been confirmed. I will be leaving for Beijing at the end of Feb for two weeks of teaching followed by a few days of exploring the city.I am so lucky, life is wonderful at the moment and I am so enjoying myself.
Like most of the rest of the UK it has been snowing overnight – not as much as I expected but here is the view from my window this morning.Hopefully it will last until the weekend when I can go for a walk on the snowy moors!
Hope that you have a good week ahead and thanks for visiting.
As you know I love history, spend much of my non-working life immersed in it one way or another but today like many other people in my town I got to be part of it.
The Olympic Torch relay came through just near where I live. At the end of my road was this coach loaded up with some special torches in a very snazzy holder along with lots of very nervous looking torch bearers!
About half an hour later the procession arrived with various vans from the sponsoring organisations. There were lots of flags waving as you can imagine and then the runners appeared.
By this point I was too far back in the crowd to get a good pic of the actual torch but I got a lovely pic of some of the ladies from my local yarn shop who were there with their knitted patriotic Olympic rings! Isn’t that brilliant.
Hope you have all had a lovely week, I have been very busy at work, the weather has been pretty wet here and I am so looking forward to next weekend when I will be camping! For my birthday – in my new little one person tent for the first time (the kids are busy so I am camping alone) at the beautiful Harewood House.
Will let you know how it went (and whether the new tent is waterproof!)
Take care and thanks for visiting.
Hello everyone – hope you are all well, just back from a very hot week in Spain – is raining here now just to make me feel very at home!
I have been very busy knitting- had not picked up my needles for a very long time but got back in the mood in the last couple of weeks and have finished two pairs of wristwarmers.
The first are these lilac and purple pair for Ellie, not certain what the wool was as bought it so long ago but the pattern is by Julie from Little Cotton Rabbits and has my favourite moss stitch.The link will take you to her Ravelry site with some lovely free patterns but you ought to go and visit her blog as well if you have not done so.
This other pair is knitted with Artesano yarn in a lovely variegated green that I bought from my friend Lydia’s shop Spun a while ago – it knitted up beautifully. The pattern is one I got from Ravelry and had been putting off trying it as it looked a bit complex but it was really easy to do. It is a freebie pattern called Inverness Diamonds and is by a designer called Creative Yarn.
My teaching year has nearly finished and I have been saying goodbye to this year’s students. One of them gave me these gorgeous Lantern Moon needles – they are so fine and will knit really beautifully, I am determined to master sock knitting this summer so these will be very useful as well as for knitting some of Julie’s cute little Xmas stocking ornies for my tree this year.
I have just got my latest order from The Silk Mill as well from their recent 10th anniversary sale – look at this lovely pink and blue silkiness!
I have started on some stitching for a baby gift as we have had a new addition to the family. Regular readers will know that my grandmother will be 100 in July and she has just had her eighth great-grandchild – a baby girl born to my cousins, they have named the baby Alice Evelyn as my grandmother is called Evelyn Alice so she is very pleased about that. Big congratulations to them all.
In other exciting family news Ellie has moved to Wales to start her new job, she is now living at the castle (as befits a Princess!) – in a house in the grounds that overlooks the beautiful Italianate gardens and starts work today. I am so proud of her, she is going to have such a fantastic year and really deserves it after all her hard work at Uni. Turns out there were over 80 applicants for the post so she did brilliantly to get it. I am hoping to visit her very soon so will be able to post some pics of her new abode!
Will be back at the end of the week with some pics from Spain for you – meanwhile enjoy yourselves and thanks for visiting.
As regular readers will know I like a glass or two of red wine and on my recent trip to Spain had a lovely day out with Mum which involved my favourite tipple.We went on a coach trip up into the mountains, we have been on quite a few trips with various companies over the last few years and they are an excellent way of seeing the country if like Mum and I you don’t drive, or like most people you doubt your ability to navigate your way up scary, winding mountain roads into unfamiliar villages!
The coach driver did an excellent job as there were lots of very tight turns and long drops and we had a lovely day. The first place we visited was a little village up in the mountains above Alicante called Polop where they have the most amazing village fountain which has about 100 water jets coming out of the walls in the square where people used to go to take the water. This pic shows just a few of these jets but they carry on all around the square.
Then we went up and up passing beautiful olive and almond tree groves right to the top of the mountains where I took these pics -
It was so beautiful – my pics do not really do it justice and it doesn’t look like the Spain you imagine at all – more like being in the Lake District or in Switzerland but you still have the wonderful blue sky and sea down below and it is so wonderful!
We then went back down the other side of the valley and stopped at a bodega for a little wine tasting (and buying!). Bodegas are where you can buy locally produced wine, all the wine sold here came from the valley and it operates as a co-operative supporting local vineyards. So not only could you taste and buy lovely (and very, very cheap wine) you have the satisfaction of knowing that you are supporting the local economy – how good can it get!
The smell when you entered the bodega was amazing! All that lovely wine and you could just sample any that you wanted – heaven!
There were wine tasting tables with carafes of all the varieties.
Then we went further down the valley for a lovely lunch then a stop off at one of the little coastal towns for a paddle and a coffee on the way home, it’s a tough life but someone has to do it and I will be that brave volunteer!
I have loads more Spain pics to show you but will post again with those from our visit to Elche as there was a very lovely market and some fab architecture which need their own post before this one gets too long!
Two of the things I adore about Spain are the sunsets and sunrises and the beach. I cycled down the beach a couple of times and took lots and lots of arty shots of my favourite bit where the walkway goes through the dunes and this is one of my favourite views. I just love the colours and the light – and this pic was taken on the 25th Oct!
I have posted one of my sunset pics in the last Scavenger Hunt but the following evening there was the most beautiful pink sky while I was sitting on my terrace.
And then there was this lovely sunrise one morning – apologies as the pic is a bit fuzzy but hopefully you can get an idea of how amazing the colours were.
It really is food for the soul seeing all that amazing natural beauty and it makes me very happy!
I have been having a great time since I have been back as well, a very nice week at work, my students are very lovely and I am really enjoying this year. I had a free weekend which was good as Christmas is fast approaching and I have two craft fairs to do so I was very busy making stock this weekend. I made lots of little Xmas stocking ornies to complement my Xmas hearts – below are pics of three ornies with picture details of the charms I have used.
I have also finished my latest wrist warmers, very useful now the Yorkshire temperature has dropped so much and winter is very much upon us!They will be very useful in the office when it gets so cold you cannot feel your fingers!
Will see you again at the weekend when I will have more Spain pics plus some more Xmas crafting finished.Have a lovely week and thanks very much for visiting.
It has been a very busy week here – term is in full swing and I am having a lovely time with all my new students. I am very lucky to enjoy my job so much, we are having lots of fun and everyone is settling in nicely.
It has been hard work and I have forgotten what a busy time this is – came home on Friday after another 13 hour day aching all over which is why it is very important to have lots of mellowness in the off work times. So I have been settling down to some lovely knitting (bit of stitching as well but only if I am very alert as am working on an impossibly small-scale project at the mo!).
I am making another pair of wristwarmers – this time for me – to take to work as it is still very cold in my office (not helped by the fact that we have had the builders in for the last few weeks so it is cold, dusty, noisy and last Friday I had no lights either). These are from a free pattern from the lovely Julie of Little Cotton Rabbits blog - if you have never visited do go and drool over the ultimate cuteness of not only the rabbits but foxes, pigs, bears etc that she lovingly creates. The woman is a genius!
These are knitted in my favourite Sublime wool – this time a four ply using one of my fave stitches, moss stitch and are a really simple pattern with no shaping – perfect for when you are really a bit tired and can’t concentrate.
So I have been coming home and lighting the candles to add to the mellow atmosphere and have been trying out taking pics of these as well. I love candlelight it makes me feel very peaceful and I go through loads of them in the winter.
I have been knitting while watching lots of lovely cookery programs (I always cook more in the winter, lots of warming stews and casseroles) including Rick Stein who is one of my favourites.I have just finished watching his latest series on Spain and have got that book on my Amazon Wish list for Xmas (hint, hint kids!).
I had a very lovely weekend – as well as working I went to visit my friends Taru and Bob who have just bought a new house in the lovely village of Marsden, they were having a ‘trash the house’ party as lots of things need removing before they can restore the house. I was only able to go for a couple of hours after work but did a bit of fettling and then went to another freinds’ house for takeaway and wine afterwards – a thoroughly pleasant evening!
I do hope that you have had a lovely week as well.The weather is very nice here at the moment – a real Indian Summer so I may get a bit more gardening done tomorrow – last bit before winter sets in.
Enjoy whatever you have planned for this week, see you soon and thanks for visiting.
I have just come back from a great week in Spain , I went this time with my lovely friend Kerry who very much enjoyed herself and it is now the end of term so after this week no more teaching . Hopefully I am set for a mellow summer – a lot of marking to be done but I am very much looking forward to the next few months. That is the very nice thing about my job that it is quiet during the best times of the year so that I can get my work – life balance better when the evenings are lighter and the weather nice (though we did return to good old Yorkshire rain which looks set in for the rest of the week!)
Very little crafting was done this week though I did manage to finish a square for Knit in Public Day on Saturday. Lydia from Spun yarn shop here in Huddersfield is having a Knit and Natter on Saturday to sew all of the squares together to make charity blankets – sadly I can’t go as I am teaching but Ellie is going and she has made some squares as well.
Here is mine – the pattern is Moss Stich Diamonds from my Knitters’ Bible book in some left over Sublime yarn.
And these are Ellie’s in garter stitch made from Escape – a lovely variegated wool.
I have also finished another Xmas ornie - a little JBW tree from the Christmas Keepsakes 2 chart from Sew and So that I have backed with pretty red tree fabric, this one I have added seed beads to as well on the tree and all around the edging.
Ellie was busy while I was away – she has used her birthday pressies to make the gorgeous Cath Kidston bag that came with her Sew book and to make some other little bags as well for herself and friends. She says that she is having trouble the straight lines with her quilt but she has made a very good job of the bag – I love the button detail on the side.
Now that I have the batting I am planning to finish off the throws for the sofa soon and am still cracking on with Xmas ornies. Am having a little problem with the pattern for the pink Sublime baby cardi so that is on hold till I can find a correction for the pattern as the instructions for the left front make no sense at all!
I will leave you with a few pics from Spain, the cactuses that I took pics of the last time I went have flowered and here is a lovely door in Oriheula at the cathedral – I could have saved this for the ‘architectural detail’ pic for this month’s scavenger hunt but have many lovely other Oriheula pics to choose from.
We went back to the park in Guardamar where we saw some cute little red squirrels and this time I took some bread for them. They were very tame, here is one letting me feed him with pieces from my hand and a close up of him later playing on a tree.
Hope that you have had a lovely week and are gearing up to Summer. Thanks as always for visiting.
Hello and a very Happy Mothers’ Day to you if you live in the UK. If you don’t Happy first Sunday in April and I hope that you are having a lovely day anyway! I would like to dedicate this post to all of my lovely friends who are mums both in real life and blogland as a celebration of your fabulousness. And of course to my wonderful Mum who has always been a brilliant friend as well as a mum.
Being a mum is fantastic and I am very thankful that I have such lovely kids who have once again bought me very thoughtful presents and cards.I had a bracelet and Mackintosh pattern box last week and today as a surprise I got this!
Sylvia's Bridal Sampler Quilt Book
I have wanted this book for ages and I was very impressed as normally the kids don’t buy me crafting books from my wish list (they think I have enough already – as if such a thing exists) So thanks very, very much!
I have lots of friends who have in the last few years become new mums and one of the things I value most about the internet is being able to keep in touch with them, to see pics of the kids and to be able to offer support through the power of a nice comment or two when they may be feeling a bit overwhelmed or the kids are poorly, teething etc. I am very lucky to have had a great group of local friends who I met through a Mother and Toddler group and we have kept each other going through the years and are now supporting through teenage and University issues and the joys of having more time to ourselves now we are becoming empty nesters!
I am always impressed by the mums who run their own businesses both ones I know in real life and through blogging. I have mentioned my very talented friend Kat lots of times before and her medieval headdresses and costume business Kats Hats . I would also like to introduce another friend to you who has recently set up her own business, Simply Yummy Cupcakes, which as you can probably tell is a cake business! The link is from Facebook so you might have to be logged in to see it. Now I know a lot of people do cupcakes but these are something very special – I hope she won’t mind me sharing a couple of pics with you of her work – look how talented she is!
These are obviously very topical for today!
These 'bouquets' are made out of cupcakes decorated like roses!
Laura also makes cupcakes to order for birthdays, weddings and other special events including some very unusual ‘cake pops’ that you can use as wedding favours – she is based in Newport , South Wales in the UK so if you need special cakes go and have a look at her creations.I am planning to do a little baking later on this afternoon for Jake – some chocolate orange cupcakes with chocolate frosting which I tried out on him last week and they got the seal of approval but they are not as wonderful as Laura’s.
Taking inspiration from another very talented mum, Hen House, I went to a Vintage Fair in town yesterday held in a little Victorian Arcade where my friend Lydia has her wool shop Spun. Hen makes the most wonderful things out of her vintage embroidery finds – adding them to quilts and cushions so look what I picked up.
Two crochet runners and a linen tablecloth
Look at those lovely flowers!
I have tried to learn to crochet but no luck so far but the little flowers on these two pieces are lovely and I thought that I could turn them into something nice with some denim that I have in my stash and some of the fabric that I bought from Lydia not long ago. Lovely daughter Ellie is home from University in May so hopefully we will be able to spend lots of time crafting and I thought she might like these. The tablecloth I plan to incorporate into a quilted throw for my lounge that I have some beautiful medieval prints for which I bought last year. Quite when I will get around to starting these projects I don’t know as I already have several WIPs to complete but it help to have all the stash handy for when the right time arrives doesn’t it!
I have done very well on my current projects – have nearly finished the stitched exchange piece. It has been a tricky stitch, not so much the pattern but the combination of the fabric I chose and the silk thread and the fact that the count is very small so I have to use the magnifying glass and it has been slow going. As I wanted something a bit more mindless to work on this weekend (we were watching a film where I needed concentrate!) and I needed something new for knitting group I have cast on for a baby cardi in my favourite Sublime yarn – this time a dusky pink. I could not get a good pic of the pattern (Blossom from Let’s Knit magazine August 2010) so apologies but it is a tie front cardi with an eyelet detail in the body (which I have not tried before) and lacy diamond pattern sleeves.
WIP on the back showing eyelet details
Knitting with the Sublime yarn is wonderful after using the Marble Chunky for my hat. It was quick to knit but not as easy to see the stitch pattern at all whereas with Sublime you can see exactly what you are doing. I am going to Spain again next week (lucky, lucky me – it is my Mum’s 70th birthday in a couple of weeks so we are celebrating out there) so this will be my holiday project along with the JBW pudding ornie.
Speaking of the red chunky hat here it is modelled by me this morning (thanks Jake for taking the pic!) I think it works very well as a slouchy beret and will use the rest of the ball to cast on for a scarf in the same pattern later in the year – not as much need for scarves here in Yorkshire now hurrah!
I really like the colour changes in the yarn that give it the stripes and the lacy rib pattern
Well am now off to spend the rest of the day doing my favourite things – lucky me! Hope that you are all having a lovely day wherever you are and thank you very much for visiting.
I have been working lots this week including teaching on Saturday so have not had as much time for crafting as I hoped and only made one of the three knitting sessions that I had planned. However it has been a very nice week – I have been out and about observing my students teaching which has been very interesting. I consider myself very lucky to have a lovely job that I enjoy and hopefully it will continue – massive cuts in government funding ahead so who knows!
I have made pretty good progress with the hat – I am making this out of the same James Brett marble chunky that I used for my wristwarmers knitted over Xmas. I thought maybe I wouldn’t get the wear out of it being so late in the year for hats but it has been very much blowing a gale this week so I have been very cold when out and about so will be glad of it. Some parts of the UK have had snow but luckily not us – yet! Though snow at Easter is not unheard of in Yorkshire. The pattern is another freebie from Ravelry called Springtime Sloppy Beret and has a lacy pattern on the main body of the hat. I might try the same pattern for a scarf and put some fringes on each end as well.
The variegated wool looks good on this longer repeat
I have also finished another one of the JBW Xmas Stocking ornies for my tree – this has yet to be made up but I am doing ok so far with my one a month – though this is actually Feb’s ornament as it was started then so will have to get cracking on March’s one. Thinking of doing the Xmas pudding one next. Have also just signed up again for the Seasonal Exchange Blog Spring exchange (missed the Winter one due to slackness on my part of checking blog) so will have to have a think about what to do for that.
Look at all the pretty little trees!
I would like to share with you a blog I have just recently found – this is not a crafting blog but a gardening one and belongs to Dave who is the brother of one of my old friends Pete. Pete posted the link on Facebook and I read all of his old posts last night and loved it. He has a brilliant and very funny writing style and the photography is amazing. He is a professional gardener who mainly works at a Tudor Priory in Sussex. The blog is called The Anxious Gardener so do go and have a read.
Well here’s hoping we all have a nice week ahead, I have a very nice weekend planned at the end of it – a sewing day on Saturday with the quilt group (might finally get the bunny quilt cut out!) and a sewing day with the girls from the medieval group on Sunday. Am trying to give up housework for Lent so have to find distractions to stop me being tempted!
Thank you very much as always for visiting.
I have recently started another blog for work that I am doing as a way of keeping in contact with my students while they are away from University on their teaching placements. I had thought about using blogs for work before and have done some short inputs about using blogs but this year I have had a couple of students who have been very keen so we are all doing it. I have also realised that it is a very good way of keeping all my good ideas, links etc. in one place for my students to be able to share and comment on.
Doing all this and explaining what I see as the benefits of blogging have made me realise just how much I get out of having my own blog and how much I really enjoy all the contact with my ‘imaginary friends’ as Thimbleanna calls them. I am thrilled that so many people visit me – around 4000 a month now – about half of whom are looking for info on re-enactment or historical subjects and love the fact that I am part of this big network of people all sharing things.
The first two blogs I ever read were Mary Kathryn’s needlework blog and Crazy Aunt Purl’s knitting and general coping with life blog. These two women have had a big impact on me in so many ways over the last four years which is remarkable as we have never met nor are likely to – though I hope to go and visit their parts of the USA sometime soon.
I have been very impressed by their craft skills, their attitude to coping with life’s little (and big!) ups and downs and have loved the way that they have shared so much of their lives and their passion for all the things they do. Other blogs have been added to my favourites along the way – usually as links from people’s blogrolls or posts and I have been entertained and awed by so many talented people.
It is very difficult to describe what you get from this to non- bloggers as I know people (and my kids!) often look at me a bit strangely when I try and describe how I feel about being connected, inspired, uplifted, amused and generally made very happy by reading everyone’s posts. To me it is like having lots of pen pals – with the added advantages of seeing pictures of so many lovely things all the time Hen House’s gorgeous vintage quilts, Do You Mind if I Knit’s cute doggies, beach walks and fabulous art, Crazy Mom’s lovely quilt work, Don’t Look Now’s wonderful original designs to name but a tiny few. You are all wonderful imaginary friends and thank you so much for sharing.
As well as all the craft love and the free patterns and the like I also love the ‘extras’ that blogging brings to my life. One of these has been the chance to read a really good book as I have been participating in Crazy Aunt Purl’s latest book club. It has been a very last-minute participate as my copy only arrived on Friday and we are going to post about the book tomorrow so I have spent most of the weekend reading. The book chosen is When We Were Strangers’ by Pamela Schoenewaldt based on one of my favourite subjects, that of emigration to the USA – in this case an Italian seamstress in the late 1880s. It is really good, I am intending to finish it tonight and would recommend it to anyone . I will be passing it on to my Mum when I next go to Spain as I am sure she will love it.
It has been a very literary week one way and another - I have not done much in the way of crafting this week, have been very tired so have been going to bed early with lots of good reads , a friend from knitting, Cath, lent me two of the Benni Harper quilt murder mysteries by Earlene Fowler and I have really enjoyed those. I have always loved a good murder mystery, being a lifelong Agatha Christie fan, and have recently read Agatha’s biography and autobiography ‘Come Tell me Where You Live’ which was very interesting. The Benni Harper books are particularly good in terms of the way the characters are written, I really identify with the main character and can’t wait to read more of the series.
This week there was of course World Book Day which I have always promoted as part of my job and the new World Book Night where a million books were given away by people who had registered with the scheme. My friend Barbara from knitting who has a wonderful blog about knitting had registered to get copies of Nigel Slater’s autobiography Toast so I went along to my friend Lydia’s wool shop, Spun, yesterday to collect the book and have a little knit and natter. As soon as I have finished the book club novel and the other couple I have one the go – another Laura Ingalls Wilder biography and a history of the National Trust Ellie gave me for Christmas I will start on that one then pass it on to my sister-in-law Amanda who is a very keen cook.
I love reading and am a huge fan of print books - I have seen and admired other people’s Kindle’s and i Pads but I think I will be sticking to my old-fashioned books for a long while yet – I love buying books and spend far too much on them (aided by the lovely Amazon wish list!) but just think it would not be the same to have a download rather than a thud on the doormat when another lovely tome is delivered.
To conclude I will leave you with a pic of what little crafting has gone on this week - I am still at cast on stage with the new hat as the other pattern I was having trouble with got even more troublesome so I abandoned it and am about three – quarters of the way through the latest JBW Xmas stocking. So the only thing I have to show you is the pair of Moss Stitch wristwarmers in Aqua Sublime (which are not even sewn up yet!) and some lovely Artesano Hummingbird yarn that I bought yesterday. These are both presents for family member (not Ellie in case she reads this and gets excited!)
Lovely colours and look there is sun - in my dining room, in Yorkshire - hurrah!
I have a lovely week ahead, as well as all the reading there are three knitting groups this week so I should get a bit more done on the hat and then a dinner party at the weekend that I am holding for my brother and sister-in-law. I hope that you have a lovely week as well and thanks as always for visiting – to paraphrase Fleetwood Mac -’you make blogging fun!’
Well in household news today the big story is the fact that my boiler has broken! Hopefully it should be fixed on Weds as the engineer came yesterday and will be back with a new part. Please keep your fingers crossed for me as it is a very old boiler and I am dreading having to replace it! It broke on Friday so I came home after a day out visiting students with very cold toes to no heating or hot water 
Luckily we have a spare heater that usually lives in the garage and a gas fire in the lounge so we have been wrapping up warm (hurrah for fleeces and wristwarmers) and sitting in sleeping bags. It is a good job we are used to being outdoors and are hardy types but it takes me back to a few years ago when the kids were little and we didn’t have central heating ….. I have really got used to being able to come home and get up to a warm house! It makes me really appreciate warmth. Thankfully Jake’s shower room has an electric shower in so we won’t smell!
I have actually been very cosy the last couple of evenings sitting in my thickest sleeping bag knitting away and have finished another pair of wristwamers, the moss sitch ones that I cast on last week from Creative Yarns . Here they are in all of their lovely pinkness!
Knitted in Sublime yarn again
Managed to get to my new Tuesday evening knitting group again this week (hurrah) and met even more lovely people and also managed to get into town to pop in to a new yarn shop in Huddersfield that my friend Lydia has opened up. The shop is called Spun and as well as wool has fabric! I was bemoaning the lack of pretty fabric for quilting the other day but look what she had. Lydia is also running workshops on all kinds of textile subjects – check out her website for details.
I have forgotten the name of the brand but it is very pretty!
I did also buy some wool from her – the black is for a hat for Ellie that I cast on yesterday -she wants one like the lilac one I have just knitted for her friend ( I am resizing it this time as the last one was quite loose) and the lovely green is a treat for me – very luxurious Manos yarn that I am intending to make a hat and wristwarmers with.
The hat for me is a bit of a priority as I appear to have lost my Noro beret!
I am not doing very well with keeping hold of my accessories as I lost my lovely thick gloves before Xmas and have yet to find a suitable replacement pair – roll on Summer then I won’t need all these things.
My friend Judy (she of the egg cosies!) came round yesterday for a bit of a knit and natter - or in her case rag rug and natter. She went to one of Lydia’s recent workshops and is making this lovely cushion using the rag rugging technique with wool instead of rags.
Isn't he cute!
The lack of heating has altered my plans for the weekend as it is too cold to be cutting out quilt fabric in the conservatory so I have decided to treat myself to an afternoon of catching up on blog visiting – that won’t be too much of a hardship!
I have quite a busy week ahead but am really looking forward to another weekend with no marking at the end of it ! Things are slowing down a bit at work so am looking forward to stepping up the craft time again!
I do hope you all have a lovely week and thanks again for visiting and for all your comments, that really does give me a very warm heart.
