Movember

This is just a quick post . I promise I'll do a full update soon.

You're probably wondering about the title today .

Movember is to raise awareness for Prostate and Testicular cancers.

Men have to grow a moustaches during the month of November and be sponcored for doing so .

This year Papa and DS3 have joined forces to raise money for this good cause .

They will start off clean shaven today and won't shave there taches for a month.

You can read all about Movember on their Website HERE

If you wish to donate to Papa And DS3 they are The Cads & Bounders .

Just click on donate and type in The Cads & Bounders.

This cause is now very dear to my heart as my only brother has just been diagnosed with this horrible disease.As you all know how I was when I lost my darling Bobby  nearly 3 years ago you'll know how I feel 

Also Papa lost his Dad 14 yrs ago to it.

Please help my boys raise loads of money for this worthy cause.

Thank you in advance :0)

The Wedding.

There's been a wedding in the Bear Family :0)

The youngest of our Cubs got married on Sunday.

In the words of Pa Larkin it was"Perrfick"

We had a dodgy moment at lunchtime when it heaved it down but as the wedding wasn't until 4-00pm it had time to fair up again, which it did .It stayed fine for the rest of the day .Thank you Dad.

The Somerset branch of the family came up for the weekend,which was good as we hadn't seen the boys for over a year.My how they'd grown.

Gathering of Bears

 The Somerset Branch of the Family.

 The Rishton Branch of the Family

And our only daughter with her Partner

All the She Bears 

The Groom and his Best Man

Waiting for the Bride

Nervous Groom

 Taking their vows.I just love this pic So much love :0)

 Scene stealer Baby bear

Signing the register

 The newly weds.They left the ceremony to Morecambe and Wise singinbg Bring me Sunshine.What a classic song and it says it all.

 Cheers

 With the parents

Don't they make a handsome couple

 Baby Bear with her Uncle

and her Auntie

 Papa with his new daughter in law

The Groom entertaning the wedding guests.He's a profesional singer and he said he's sung at everyone else's wedding so why not his own.

It was a lovely day and was so relaxed.

I hope you have enjoyed sharing it with me :0)

Patchwork and Friends

Greetings Readers.

I have been busy again :0)

This time the patchwork bug has bitten again and I blame Gemma from out Knitting Group.

She has been making some stunning quilts and it inspired me to take up patchwok again after a 15yr+ break.

I'd always bought my fabric in fat quarters or by the yard but now you can buy Jelly Rolls that make life a lot easier

They come in all sorts of colours and it was hard choosing which ones to buy.So i bought lots.

This is my first quilt using Jelly Rolls.

It was made with someone very special in mind.

As you know I have often blogged about my friend Artis-Anne and Tony and how we go down to Wales to stay with them. I met Annie about three years ago through Ravelry and we hit it off straight away.We both have a love of all things woolly be it knitting , spinning or weaving and both have a wicked sense of humour. When I was ill 2yrs ago she rang nearly every day to see how I was and we have forged a very close bond .Recently she to has been ill ,having to have major surgery. She has recovered quite well from this but still can't get out and about on her own and sometimes has down days.Unfortunately we live 130 miles from one another so popping round to give her a hug isn't an option .So I made her this quilt as a hug from me .Now when she has a down day she can wrap the quilt round her and know that it's got lots of love in it :0)

We ahve just had a few days down in Wales and I took the quilt for her.It is now known as 'Annie's Hug '

And here's the lady her modelling her Hug .BTW she was feeling fine I just made her have her pic took under the quilt Lol

My next blog will be super duper one as our youngest DS is getting married on Sunday so there will be lots of pics to share with you .:0)

A Major Catch up ;0)

Well it's been along time since I posted .Sorry to all my readers and I hope you haven't all desserted me.

Life has been so hectic this year.I've been dyeing up a storm since Christmas getting ready for shows and feeding my Etsy shop.The there's the normal life things like cooking and cleaning , walking Meg , babysitting and on top of all that helping with wedding arrangements for DS3's wedding in August.

But anyway I have at last made a bit of time to bring you all up to scratch with the happenings at Chez Bears.

Right where shall i start ??

Wonderwool I think 

 My Devon Yarn display

The Stall

What can I say about Wonderwool . It was a bit like the Curates Egg .Good in parts .

It was bloody freezing and wet.On the Sunday the temperature plummeted to 3 degrees C.I have never been so cold in all my life . But it didn't stop the customers coming out and we had the best ever Wonderwool as far as takings were concerned and I got my first ever wholesale order . A big downside was that yet again I had some stuff stolen. You don't expect it of the woolly world but that's life I suppose. It hasn't got me down though as there are loads more good people than bad .

A cople of weeks after Wonderwool we decided a bit of R&R was in order and we arranged a few days on Anglesey with Artis-Anne and Tony .They in their camper van and us in the caravan.

I love this photo of me and my dear friend Annie .

We had a lovely few days just chilling. Walking , knitting , nattering and generally catching up. Shortly after Annie had to go into hospital for a big operation from which she is still recovering.We are hoping to be able to go and visit her for a few days very soon.She's had to miss all the shows so we are taking lots of goodies for her.

Now for June

At the begining of June we all got together for DD's birthday and it was one one of the rare days in June when we actually had sunshine.A lovely day was had by all as usual :0)

Then we had Woolfest and again the weather Gods were against us. We had bright sunshine at the start of the week but by Thursday when we went up to Cumbria to set up it rained. It rained all Thurday night and all day Friday and well into the early hours of Saturday morning .And it blew .I was pretty scared as the caravan fairly got a rock on at one stage . But again it didn't stop the customers and we had a great time .

I didn't get round to taking any pics but my friend Claire ,off Ravelry sent me this one of me and Puddytatpurr

I've known Sam for a couple of years now through Ravelry and Twitter and she and Claire always cometo see me . And buy yarn of course lol. As you can see she's very colourful.

Speaking of colourful she wasn't the only one 

I erm aquired this shiner whilst I was at Woolfest.Let this be a waring to you . If you use the bungy cords with the hooks on the end. Make absolutely sure the end is secure before you stretch the cord. I didn't and nearly had my eye taken out :0(

Oh and before I forget Sue from Hamilton, Canada came to see . Hi Sue , see I'm back blogging :0) was nice to see you.

July and no change in the weather :0(

We did our last big show at the weekend and true to form for shows this year it rained.But this time we weren't tucked up in the dry buildings of the other two .We were on a field and in marquees and there was mud . Lots of it. I think we were one of the lucky ones as we had a reasonably dry pitch but in the other two marquees it reasembled the Somme.I didn't enjoy it as we had packed up doing the agricultural shows because of mud. I was on pins the whole time dreading my yarns being dropped. As things turned out nothing was spoilt ad we manged to get packed up without getting mud on everything. I was glad to get home .

The last thing I have to tell you is that I have ventured into the realms of pattern designing.

 Celestine

 Arbon

Garter Stripes

These are my first three offerings . I designed them to showcase my yarns and it seems to have worked. I 've had the printed patterns on sale at the last three shows and people have bought the patterns and the yarn to knit them. I'm hopefully going to design some more things as it does help sell the yarn :0)

Well I think that's about it for catching up . Now that the bid shows are over I may get a bit more time to pop back in here . Though I still have a wedding to help with .:0)

Introducing Devon .

Things remain very busy at Chez Bears as I get ready for Wonderwool Wales this weekend .

I've just popped in here to give you all a preview of my brand new yarn.

It has been spun especially for me .

It's totally British , having been grown, processed , spun and dyed in the UK.

I knew right from the start what I would call this yarn and what I wanted to achieve with it .

I have had a love affair with the Devon coast for years and the fact that most of the processing is done in Devon it, to me, was a no brainer .

Devon is a blend of Exmoor/ Blueface and Alpaca and is so soft and bouncy .

It comes in three thicknesses , Aran , Double Knit and Four Ply .

All the colours reflect the Devon coast and coastal villages .

So without no more ado I give you Devon.

L to R Thrift - Instow - Sea Lavender - Budleigh.

L to R Ocean - Lynmouth - Tussock - Hartland 

L to R Devon Blue - Clovelly - Sunshine - Salcombe 

L to R Branscombe - Tor - Topsham - Dune .

Hope you like them.

The yarn will have it's first outing this weekend at Wonderwool Wales .

We will be on stand T8 this year so i hope some of you will come along and see the yarn in real life .

I promise I'll Blog all about the show when I get back.

Who Stole March ???

Right , come on ,own up . Which one of you lot stole March ???

Seriously I don't know where the past month has gone . It's been murderously busy here at Chez Bears and something had to give . Unfortunately it was the Blog so I'll fill you in now .

I'm going to have to wrack my brains to remember everything that has happened.

As previously posted Papa had his birthday back in Feb .The Cubs had bought him a swanky new field scope for his bird spotting so he had to try it out . I surprised him with a visit to Martin Mere Wildlife and Wetland Trust Site to see the Winter visiting Whooper Swans. Every year we say we will go and never do .Well now we've been and what a sight .

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There were hundreds of swans and shelducks feeding at teatime.

This is papa in one of the hides using his new scope . He's wearing the Johnny Kingdom coat that the Cubs bought him for Christmas .It was a good day out.

The 10th March heralded my birthday . DD and DS 2 paid for me to got to see Oliver at the Palace Theatre in Manchester . DS1 is working on a swanky new website for me and DS3 got me vouchers for Hobbycraft. I got two lovely fibrey books from Papa.Two days after my birthday we drove down to Wales for a lovely five days with Artis-Anne and Tony. We so love going down there they are such warm friendly and generous people .We spent the time chilling out spinning chatting and eating far to much cake .We had a lovely day out at Machynlleth market.Got a new bed for Meg and some bits. Could have spent a fortune in the Hippy Shop there. All to soon it was time to come home and get some work done.

These past weeks I've dyed a fair few kilos of yarn and fibre ready for the shows and I've had to keep updating the Etsy Shop as it has been busy there to .I've just finished a mammoth update today . Why not take a look .

Well you'd think that Spring had well and truly sprung if you looked in my garden.And last week we had record breaking temperatures . Hence the mega dyeing session. But today the weather is rather Baltic with icy winds .Snow is on the cards for Easter , i hope not.

Well that's it March was busy to say the least and April isn't going to be much different. We have two big shows , for which I'm still dyeing , and the caravan wants sorting out before we can go away . It's all go .

Sorry for the long gap . I can't promise I'll be back soon but I'll try :0)

And the Winner is

Sorry it's a day late but I've been busy . Hmm what's new :0)

I put all the names of people 'who had left a comment on the Blog since the 18th of February ' into Papa's big hat.

Then asked him to draw out a name .

 He has got his eyes shut . Honest.

And the winner is Pookledo.

Whoever you are please email me at info(at)laalbear(dot)co(dot)uk using @ and full stops

Or if you are on Ravelry PM me with your address .

Thank you 

Puddytatpurr

Artis-Anne

Dajon

Auntienoo

Moonandmuttley
Nic

and Sue 

for taking part. Better luck next time .

Come Take a Walk

Well another week has gone by .Today is Papa's birthday.Happy Birthday Chuck ( for my American readers Chuck is a North Lancashire term of endearment ) I've just reckoned up and realised we have been a couple for 43 years this year :0) married for 42.

I have been knitting and dyeing fibre this week. The fibre will be put in the shop shortly the knitting is being kept under wraps at the mo as it's all new designs and the patterns need tweeking.

So as there aren't any pics of projects etc I've decided to take you for a walk .

A few weeks ago we bumped into a man whilst on our usual railway walk and we got chatting about different walks . He mentioned Worden Park which is a park on the edge of a near by town . Now I have lived in our village since I was born and I'm ashamed to say I'd never been. The walk sounded nice as it was by water.

So off we went to explore and he was right .It was lovely . Loads of birds to see which was right up Papa's street as he is a keen birdwatcher and load of nooks and crannies for Meg to explore .`

Any way here's a walk through the woods .  :0)

 Snowdrops

 Masses of them

First of the ponds

 there's a little railway runs all round the park in Summer

 One of the stations

 Papa looking for birds

 Daffodils in bud.In a few weeks this banking will be a mass of yellow

First of the weirs

 Papa striding out

Second weir. The sound of water falling over these weirs is great

 Third weir

 The tree to which these roots belong was to tall for me to get it in a picture

 Papa in his Johnny Kingdom jacket the cubs bought him for Christmas

 I love this huge burr on this fallen tree

 Another pond

 Bluebell shoots.By May this will all be blue

 Last of the ponds .
Hope you enjoyed the walk. I plan to take pictures throughout the year to show the changing seasons .It should be interesting.
Well guess who's got another obsession :0) It's pod casts, they are great. So far I have listened to Aplayfulday
Yarns from the Plain  Miss Elle Knits and Ba Ba Black Sheep
I do have a favourite but it wouldn't be polite to say which it is but they are all great . If you are knitting /spinning/crocheting minded give them a whirl they are all on ITunes .
Well that's it for today It's taken me ages to do this blog as my stupid computer was on a mega go slow so I had to trasfer to the netbook.Anyway it's done now so enjoy :0)