Gifts and adventures

I'm off for a week or so to this festival. I've got a seat on the bus and I'm intending to have a wonderful time.

I made some knitted gifts to say thank you to the organisers - with the weather forecast I've seen, we'll need all the warmth we can get!

The sky and the stars.

I've been knitting my first real lace project - Gossamer Stars, a scarf by Kat Coyle. It is a beautiful pattern, complicated but not too much for the average brain and with lots of little knit one row or purl one row rest stops along the way. You can tell that I haven't worked out how to follow the chart yet. Everywhere I look now I'm seeing stars like this little pile of home grown rasps, or the fallen yellow flowers that I saw on the pavement yesterday on the one day in history I was without my camera.

I've been impressed by the sky too this week. Blue, black, grey, with many different cloud combinations and the inevitable rain that follows. Yesterday Magnus and I sat on the top step watching the sky darken and waiting for the thunder to begin. There was one magical moment of silence when even the birds stopped singing and then the crashing and pouring began. Time to retreat inside and continue knitting the stars.

Gifts from the garden.

Flax flowers

Rhubarb

Sweetpea, pea and wild strawberries.

A small problem with rain.

Woolfest was not to be after all due to a pet emergency ( not Magnus, just in case you were wondering. ) Next year we'll be super organised and I'll have more time so save up.

This weekend saw me dressed oddly and spinning in public at the Letham Victorian Market. My chum from the Spinning Guild, Brad, had organised a spinning demo and roped in some volunteers. Volunteers who had to dress in a Victorian manner. I look more country bumpkin than dandy but it was great fun. We spun and people watched and all was going so well until the sky filled with clouds and a ton of rain fell in half an hour. Our little gazebo bravely withstood the deluge. The people watching were not so waterproof. So we consoled ourselves with some cupcakes and pondered on the rainproof properties of fleece.

Here we are then - me, Julie, Brad and some cakes.

Blimey!

I'm in a tizzy of excitement. I've just had a last minute invite to Woolfest. Must go and organise knitting to bring, fleece wishlist and try to remember some self control.

In the meantime here are some pictures of the wonderful things we found in the Cotswolds the week after Ravelry Day.

The wonder of UK Ravelry Day

The wonder of UK Rav Day started off rather damply and if you look at the group pool on Flickr there are many pictures of a pair of rather damp alpacas. They and the stallholders stoically withstood the driving rain for the delight of the Ravelry members and the city of Coventry.

The event was held in Coventry Central Hall which is in the care of the Methodists. They made us feel extremely welcome with a minister on hand in case we needed Divine Intervention and a fine line in cakes. On every table in the cafe there was a leaflet, specially written for the day with a welcome and an explanation of what the Methodist church was all about. I thought it was a nice touch and wished we'd had a Ravelry leaflet to leave in return.

I had decided to do a workshop that challenged me so I chose to learn about Kitchener Stitch with Woolly Wormhead. What a revelation, Wooly W. thinks about knitting in mathematical, technical terms and that shines through in the way her hats are designed. I came home with new skills and an ardent wish to go back to school and get my maths O Grade.

Next time? What we did the rest of the week!

It's in the blood.

I promise that I will tell you all about the wonders of the UK Ravelry day last week but in the meantime here is the proof that I come from a long line of fleece wranglers.

The shearer is my father's grandfather who was a shepherd for all of his life as were at least two of his sons. Dad sent me an email this evening bursting with family snaps. I love the way that technology can keep us in touch with our ancestors.