Woolfest 2008

Well, it's been that time of the year again - Woolfest :-) and what a lovely day Saturday was. A true fest of sights and sounds and smells ;-) and a wonderful opportunity to meet friends old and new.

I'd like to introduce you to this wonderful fire elemental, made especially for me by Ambermoggie :-) she is now one of my most treasured possessions, thank you so very much and it was lovely to meet you.

I was very restrained. I went to Woolfest with £100 in cash and was determined not to use my credit card. I had around £4:00 left at the end of the day. I collected my Yarn Forward sub - a great issue this one, and treated myself to some Lantern Moon 2.5mm dpns, a lovely shawl pin from Twistfibre, and some Rosewood 4.5mm dpns from Scottish Fibres.

And my yarnly purchases, from left to right, some Opal Rendez-vous #6 from Twistfibre , superwash Merino/Bamboo from KraftyKoala, two skeins of Lochan Merino/Tencel from The Yarn Yard, Mirage Merino/Tencel from The Natural Dye Studio, Sock Yarn from Fyberspates, and finally a sock project bag in William Morris Honeysuckle print from Nics Knots.

Sorry this is picture heavy - I thought that those of you unable to go might appreciate a flavour of what Woolfest is all about.

It was lovely to be able to sit and listen to some wonderful folk music.

Sheepies ;-)

The Natural Dye Studio

A sock machine in action. There was a wonderful array of things here.

This lovely man and his basket weaving was fascinating.

Spinning in action.

Krafty Koala and Nic

Lou and Kerrie

Fundraising for Breakthrough Breast Cancer

The view from the bridge in Cockermouth

And finally, Tarantella, where we ate on Saturday evening. Wonderful Italian food.

It took forever to get home yesterday via Keswick, Grasmere and Windermere, through some dreadful weather conditions and via MIL in the Nursing Home in Chasetown. But it was a wonderful weekend, and well worth the effort and all the travelling.

And did I say how wonderful it was to meet so many lovely people?

SW19

FIL is no worse and no better. He has however finally been moved to the ward from CCU which is so encouraging.

Guess where I have been ;-) I have spent two nights in London with my eldest son, which sadly went all too quickly. The weather was kind, and we had a real treat on Centre Court.

Here is yesterday's order of play

But first of all we had a lovely picnic. It may be busy on Henman Hill.......

.......but we know a lovely secluded area in the shade.

One bottle of French Chenin Blanc and the best sandwiches money could buy in Sainsbury's :-) and it was time to head off to Centre Court for Djokovic and Safin.

Safin

and Djokovic

I love these new scoreboards!

Safin leaves victorious. Djokovic was never in the match. He looked lacklustre and out of sorts from the word go really, and half way through the third set I said to my son that I had switched allegiance and wanted Safin to win. He certainly deserved to.

Kuznetsova and Bondarenko

Federer and Soderling

I'm a Nadal girl and not a Federer fan, but he looked good yesterday I have to admit. He was clearly enjoying his tennis that's for sure.

And the great Fred Perry.

Since I came back this afternoon, it's been washing, ironing, shopping and packing. DS2 is leaving in two hours time for a trip to Disneyland Paris with school.

See you all at Woolfest, where I am quite sure I shall turn a corner and see myself coming towards me ;-)

Thank you

Thank you all very much for your good wishes. FIL remains in the Coronary Care Unit, and although he still has had some breathing difficulties is making progress.

We have sorted ourselves out a visiting plan, so that someone is able to pop in for half an hour ( more than enough time really, he needs his rest ) every day, so we are trying to carry on as normally as we can

This enabled Mr A and our to make our long-planned trip to London yesterday. I booked tickets for Never So Good back in March and we were so looking forward to it. We took the train, then the tube and got off at Embankment, which allowed us to walk along The Strand and then wonder around Covent Garden and the street stalls. A quartet was entertaining the crowds which we stopped to listen to for a while.

We then had lunch in little Italian restaurant that we know and love, walked along the Hungerford Bridge to the South Bank and browsed the street markets there before heading into the National Theatre to watch the play which was wonderful. We even had time for a walk through the Victoria Embankment Gardens in the early evening London sunshine before returning to Paddington.

It was a wonderful day, which has done us both the world of good, and hopefully more able to cope with whatever life throws at us this week!

I really do appreciate all your thoughts and good wishes, they really mean a lot. I still intend to go to Woolfest - Mr A is due to be coming with me, and I want him to have some time away. It will also mean we can call in and see MIL on the way back.

Kathryn - that is very kind of you. If you click on the Race for Life Widget it will take you to a page where you can make a donation. Thank you.

A Short Break

As some of you know, my father - in - law had a heart attack on Wednesday. He is recovering in the Coronary Care Unit in Shrewsbury at the moment and encouragingly has had no more chest pain.

Life has become a bit manic one way or another, so I probably won't be back to my blog until after my Race for Life on July 2nd.

Monkey Business

I am so pleased with these. I think they are my favourite pair of socks so far - maybe I have had more practice now, but I'm just thrilled with the fit and the finish. You can find the Monkey pattern here btw. And on Ravelry there are no purl versions too. I like the texture and stitch definition of this version, but can see how no-purls would be a quicker knit. I expect I'll try them shortly ;-)

It took me about three pattern repeats to "get" the pattern, once I could see what it was doing I was away. I think this pattern is going to become a firm favourite of mine, and I can see why so many people love it.

I really have been bitten by the sock bug!

Monkey Socks

Yarn: Sheldridge Farm #S

Needles: Clover Takumi 2.5mm dpns

A Posh Forest Canopy

This went off in the post yesterday. It's recipient doesn't know it's on it's way, and I don't think she reads my blog so I'm not spoiling any surprises. I wish I had though to take a photo of the yarn on the skein, it has knitted so very differently to how I imagined, and I do hope you can see from the photos how beautifully the colours work.

edited to add thanks to rooknits - she has pointed out that there is a photo of the yarn on Dee's Blog you just have to scroll down a little till you get to the Sojourn colour.

Sophia is beautiful to knit with. Remember the old question, "what's lighter, a ton of coal or a ton of feathers?" I'd swear 100g of Sophia is lighter than 100g of other sock yarns ;-). I used all but 1g of two skeins, there are three extra pattern repeats but only six border rows.

I'm not sure I can brave the 6:00 pm stampede very often - I've only done it twice - but I will have to knit with this yarn again at some stage. I do have some Sophia 2-ply laceweight stashed away that I bought at Wonderwool Wales, I'll have to try that soon.

Forest Canopy Shoulder shawl

Yarn: Posh Yarn Sophia 100% Cashmere

Colour: Sojourn

Needles: 5mm Aero straight needles

It's a lovely sunny day. I'm off in a tick to spend it with mum. She had a Garden Centre voucher for her birthday, so I think that's where we are headed if the rain holds off.