york

Lots of photographs, so might put them over two posts, but both going out today, so a bit of a flood really.

It was a fantastic weekend, the hardest bit was getting off our estate due to the snow, but the roads were reasonably clear, and there was no problems on the train, and the snow over the Pennines was stunning.  This was the only photograph I got of the snow, Stalybridge railway station with the hills behind.

Day after, all the snow had gone, this is two days after once all the rain had finished.  Great view from Convent room on the third floor, lovely room, comfy and quiet even though I was on the road side.

This was Sunday night, and we had decided to sit in the Atrium which is part of the cafe down stairs, and a wonderful space, glass roof and fantastic Victorian floor tiles, a real gem of a space.

There were bottles of wine, and various home made sloe gins to sample, not to mention tea for us teetotallers, and chocolate and cakes.  Oh and knitting and spinning, and a Modulators line up from our forum on Ravelry.

A great time was had by all, and before we left we’d booked the Convent again for 2014.  It will be our 5th year next year.

I wonder by that time if I can remember more than about 3 peoples names?

Probably not

Not that it mattered, you just sat next to someone and chatted away, admired yarn, knitting, crochet, or spinning, and it all went from there.  Such a lovely bunch of ladies, and a pleasure to be with.

shawl from general blog

I’ve been knitting as well as potting.

And this is the shawl I finished a few weeks ago, and blocked last weekend, and I’ve been wearing it since.

I love it.

It is called Color Affection (American way of spelling Colour) by Veera Valimaki

It is made from two skeins of The Yarn Yards Bonny yarn in grey and soft mustard colours.

The third colour is called Golden Pear and it’s by Wollmeise that I got from a Ravelry-er who was selling it.

I think they all work really well.

And I’ve just realised that the colours are quite like Alex McErlain and Alice Kettles cup on the previous post.

swapping

We all had a swap partner, though we only knew who we were buying for, not who was buying for us.

And the time arrived and all the presents were handed out.

I had a huge bag with plenty of bright pink tissue paper wrapped presents.

The first I unwrapped was a shawlette with owls along it, all with little jewel beaded eyes.

It was wonderful, no one has knitted some thing for me since I was a little girl.  And there was more to come.

Next a whole packet of yarn for a jumper for my Grandson, and the pattern, and again it was owls and lovely beads for the owl eyes.

There were chocolate owls and owl chocolates – I ate those – an owl needle gauge and owl buttons.

As you can see wonderful things.

And then the P/hop was next.

Sock yarn, some yarn I may use in my ceramic jewellery, and I forgot to photograph a small skein of grey silk that will be used on my ceramic brooches.  The idea behind the P/hop is that we all take something that we don’t need any more, and put it on the table, be it patterns, needles, books, or mostly yarn and fleece.  We all take some thing new away and then donate via P/hop to MSF (Doctors with out Borders).

And I did come away with some skeins of yarn bought from Natalie, the small gold one is to make socks with, teamed up with a soft moss green.  The grey is to make a shawl with two shades of gold yarn, and the orange was because I love the colours and it will make really cheerful socks on a winters morning.

York 2012

I’m sure some of you will have realised that I knit as well as make things with the clay stuff, and this is about the weekend I’ve just had away in York.

Well the long weekend away at York was great, and I loved it so much that I’ve already booked again for next year!

There was much knitting, even more talking, and even more laughing.

It was good to meet up with friends, and to meet new ones.

I didn’t stay in the Convent with some of the  group but was a cross the road in a hotel.

It had a huge bed, I mean me, Andrew, and three cats could all have got lost in it.

The room was great and it was good to have some quiet me time after all the rush to get away.

The Saturday afternoon was when most of us got together in a large room at the Convent and had a great time.

There were spinning classes, crochet classes, making floof to spin with classes, and a tatting class, all sort of impromptu.

And regulars will know about P/hop, the knitting charity that raises money for MSF (Doctors without borders), well, this was this years grab some yarn and donate table.

And most of the yarn went, and what was left over we distributed to the local charity shops in York, so none was wasted.

And the last photograph of today is of Natalies bag.  Natalie runs The Yarn Yard and dyes the most beautiful yarn for us, as you can see.

We also had a present swap and I’ll post that tomorrow.  Plus some photographs of York, pity it was a dull day but York is so beautiful I’m sure it will look good.

 

Oh and I’ve done a huge update on the shop.  New buttons, brooches, and new hanging ceramics, and some hearts that could be used as gift tags.