Hats for babies in Africa

DH and I were watching The Paul O'Grady Show the other night , as is our wont, and he showed some film of him in Africa with the Save the Children Fund . After the film he made an appeal for knitted hats for New Borns in Africa . So on Saturday afternoon with the weather so cold and wet we settled down with wool and needles to watch The African Queen , great film they don't make them like that anymore, and knitted .We carried on knitting till bedtime and produced these . We did stop for tea etc and as bedtime was nine o'clock , on account of the hour we were going to lose , I don't think we did to bad.

If you want to know all about hats for New Borns go to Paul's website here
and click on the Save the Childen picture.
Every little helps.

Socks , Blockers and Real Fair Isle

Lots of pretty socks. I had a mad knit just before I went to Silloth. I had decided that customers needed to see just what my yarns looked like knit up into socks.L to R Blue Faced Leicester in pepper colours . Sock Wool in shades of blues and slate . BFL in red cream and blue . I like the contrast toes and heels and have found out you can knit two pairs of socks using 50grms plain and two 50grms of different contrast.
L to R Sock wool in purples and pinks . Sock wool in slate blues, golds and burgundy. The heels and toes are done with the same plain as the blues in the pic above. Last one is Sock wool ,red white and blue.
All are displayed on sock blockers made by my DH. These are just for display purposes but he is going to make some usable ones this week . They will be decorated with hand painted flowers and such . Watch this space as they say.

I am very proud of this . It is my first attempt at " proper " Fair Isle and I designed it myself.

I have just been doing the chart for it on an old cross stitch program I had on the PC . I'm really getting in to this designing malarkey , what with this and the mittens . I enjoy the challenge and it's something different to do . I just wish there were more hours in a day . Still the clocks go forward this weekend and that gives me more daylight hours and gets me out of hibernation mode. I'm concidering getting a light box for next Winter

I'm Back.

I'm back from the Wild, Wild ,West of Cumbria .Anyone who does a Craft Fair in March ,in a Marquee , by the sea , in sub zero temperatures with winds gusting up to 60 miles an hour has either got to be dedicated to her Craft or just plain MAD.

Guilty as charged . I must have been temporarily insane when I booked this Fair . Though I must plead at the time I didn't realise how early Easter was.

On Good Friday the Marquee was nearly blown down and during that night two sides where ripped off . But Trevor , the organiser , stoically pegged it all back together again in the early hours of Saturday in time to open at ten.This is what i looked like . I had about six layers on from the skin out and I was still cold . To say it was freezing is an understatement. Even so I did manage to design a new sock pattern ( pics tomorrow)

I had a visit from fellow Raveller , Pennie , she bought some Blue Faced Leicester from me to make socks . It was nice to put a face to an Avatar.This looking across the Solway on Good Friday . That's Scotland in the background.

Even with all the cold it WAS worth the journey just to see this .The Mountains of Cumbria in their Winter coat . So magnificent.

This is Heather Bank , Blitterlees . Anyone who is a Caravan Club member it is a CL and I can highly recommend it . Lovely place, lovely people .

That is my little Mole End on the far left.

This was Sunrise at 6 o'clock this morning just as we where getting ready to come home . With all these gorgeous pictures to look at the wind and cold are soon forgotten . It was worth the trip up . We didn't take a vast amount of money but it got us out amongst nice people and the beautiful Cumbrian Countryside.
I have now got three weeks to dye about thirty kilos of wool in time for Woderwool Wales.

I'll start that tomorrow . I've a bit of sleep that needs catching up on.

Way Out West

There'll be no Blogging till next week as we are heading way out North West Cumbria to Silloth.

This is our first venture out this year. If you're in the area over Easter you will find us in the Marquee on The Green in the centre of Silloth.

I'm taking all my new wools and bags to try them out . Not quite as much as I will have at Wonderwool or Woolfest ,as we have all the other Craft stuff as well, but there will be a good selection on offer. If you come mention the Blog or Ravelry and you'll get a bit of discount..

I've spent all day loading the caravan hoping against hope i've not forgotten anything , which I usually do . My little legs are fer worn out , backward and forward with all the gear.

I've not been to sure what to pack clothes wise , so I'ved erred on the cautious side and packed loads of layers . The weather forcast is wind with a bit of rain and snow for luck. I think I did see a drop of sunshine in there as well . I hope so.This sunset over The Solway taken a couple of years ago .

Little Bit Poorly

I've been feeling a bit poorly. Got a really funny headache Tuesday , even took to my bed for an hour to see if it would help. That is so not like me ,I don't do poorly. Anyway even though I'm still a bit behind yesterday I took the day off . There was a time I would have carried on and ended up worse but I'm getting sensible in my old age . He ! he! After I'd done my chores I settled down to a day of knitting on the sofa , nice and relaxed . Felt much recharged this morning . New pic of the Bobbie Mitts worked in my Merino . You can see all the cables now.
As promised here is Phyll worked in my Pure Wool . This is what I was doing yesterday

On Tuesday before the headache kicked in I sent off all the forms for the Summer Shows . I think there's only a couple to come now and that will be all July, August and part of September booked up . Cumbria here we come .
Well it's more like Cumbria here we come again as we are going up To Silloth next week for an Easter Craft fair. I hope the weather is better than it has been . We are going to have to go by a different route as the road we usually travel on has had part of it washed away.
I think prayers to the weather Gods are called for .
All shows will be listed in the sidebar by the weekend. That's if you're interested of course.

Milestone Birthday

Yesterday was my 60th birthday but I was to tired too post my Blog last night.

I had a lovely day , the house was like Piccadilly station in the morning with visitors.

The first to arrive was my lifelong friend Elaine , who I have known since we met on our first day at school 56 years ago .

Then my two big brothers arrived , Michael and Bobby . They are 73 and 71 respectivly but act like and are as active as 25 year olds . I love them very dearly and because they are quite a lot older than me I have always felt protected. Though when I was in my teens I felt I had three Dads when it came to having boyfriends vetted but I suppose they only wanted the best for me.

I got phone calls from all the children. No 2 son came on Sunday with three of the Grandchildren.

DD coming today . No 3 son coming Thursday. No1 son is to far away but we had a lovely chat on Sunday. My sister called Sunday as well with a gorgeous plant for the new front room .These are some of the pressies. DH bought me the Stitchionary ,which is going to be useful for designing socks and mitts.

He took me out for a lovely meal last night hence the too tired to Blog.

Perfect end to a perfect day.

P.S. Took my car down to my cousin The Mechanic and he put my broken mirrors back together again . I've only got to get one new mirror glass so it wasn't as bad as first thought.

Vandalism and knitting

A strange Blog title you may think . Allow me to elucidate . This morning I got up feeling extremely upbeat as I had achieved a lot of progress this week with my sewing. I've caught up really well after the weeks of decorating. But I should have known better . Every time things are going well for me somebody up there decides I need a slap in the face , I can guarentee it.

Today my slap in the face came in the shape of some TOERAG !!!!!! kicking the wing mirrors off my car. Said car is a Galaxy so whoever did it was big as the mirrors are large and need a hell of a lot of force to get them off. What is the mentality of these people that they get there kicks out of destroying other peoples property.??????? God knows how much it will cost to put right but it's money I can ill afford and as I have quite a high excess on my insurance it probably won't be worth claiming. Thank God I have my cousin The Mechanic he won't need paying straight away.

Anyway this is some of what I've been doing. These are the Sock Knitters Companions . Useful holders for your DPN's and other bits and pieces . Aren't the colours gorgeous.
These are my Railway knitting. Most of it was done on our Grand Day Out to York last week . As a tribute to one of my Favourite films The Railway Children I have called them Bobbie after one of the children . Keep a look out for Phyll and Peter. It's not such a good pic . You can't see the cables on the mitts very well . I have used some of my Hand Dyed Merino and they are very soft and warm. I'm hoping to get the pattern written up in time for Wonderwool Wales to sell with the wool.

Goings on in the garden

There's been big goings on in the garden this week . Much pursuing of females by rampant males . Much fighting amongst rival males . Much writhing of bodies and deep throaty noises . Even a few threesomes here and there with the end result pictured below .The frogs are back !!!!!! Only a few yet but this is the first batch of spawn to be laid . We've had frogs coming to the pond for the last 38 years . They've began arriving last week and if last yaer is anything to go by we ain't seen nothing yet . At one stage there was seventy odd frogs in one day you should have heard them . You could even hear them when the door was shut . Especially in the evening. I did have a picture of the threesome but it looked a bit to gruesome so I didn't put it on the blog . Didn't want to put you off your breakfast/ dinner/ tea.
Look what the overnight frost did to my poor little daffodils last night.
Look what the sun did to them later on in the morning. It never ceases to amaze me . You come down and the daffies and helebores all look limp and lollopy with the frost , like there dead . Then out comes old Solly to warm them and up they pop again. Ain't Mother Nature wonderful.
Here endeth today's nature lesson.

A Grand Day Out .

Our Grand Day out to York on a steam train started at 7-15am on our local station . We had to go to Preston to pick up the main train. It was supposed to leave Preston at 8-00 a m but there where several unknown delays . It didn't turn up till 8-35 a m.Papa Bear on the Station.
We found our seats and settled down ( please note DH is smiling )and waited for the train to pull out . It didn't leave till 9-05 am . The time when it should have been leaving Carnforth. We finally got to Carnforth at 9-30 am where the diesel engine was replaced by the steam locomotive. We finally got on our way at 10-20am . Rather late .

1960's carriage
The journey was great . The smells and sounds brought loads of memories back of train journeys when I was a child . We used to listen to the sounds of the wheels going "Eyenimanoosh" as we rolled along .

On the way up to Hellifield to pick up water.

Which took longer than expected so bit more delay. It was a good job I took my knitting. We were enjoying it though. The weather was fine and the fields where full of sheep with their new lambs . We followed the Leeds Liverpool Canal for quite a way and there were a few narrow boats out.

This is the engine that got us to York . We ended up arriving 2 hours late so our planned four hour look round York was condensed to just over an hour. So we had a quick look round and got some bits and something for tea and went back to the station. It was no good bothering and after all we had mainly gone for the train journey.

York Minster

Street Musician In Petergate

The Shambles

Carnforth Station By night. Scene of my favourite film Brief Encounter.

We were supposed to set off back at 4-15pm but it was 4-45 pm

but it was 4-45 pm. Don't know why. made quite good time to Hellifield to pick up water but again a delay . Some of the carriages were having trouble with the lights keep going out so they fixed that.

We finally got back to Preston at 9-45 pm and as you can see Papa Bear was knackered . Our connection to home had gone so we had to get a taxi. Luckily a guy I knew was on the same trip and we shared the taxi home to cut expences.

It was a very tiring day and not being able to spend much time in York was a dissapointment and took the edge off our birthday trip but the journey on the old train was great .

So it was more of a Grandish Day Out.

Today is Mothers Day and three of my four have been to see me with cards and gifts . The fourth rang me up to say flowers were on the way. He's the one in Somerset and i saw him last week when he came up for the birthday meal .