Wensley Yarn Workers Challenge

On the first Sunday of every month I go up to Derbyshire to stay with my sister and together we go for a creative day with the Wensley Yarn Workers. We meet in the Wensley Reading Room which is a delightful little village hall, often with a log fire blazing. We spend the morning learning something new and the afternoon knitting, spinning, weaving or just creating. It's a really lovely day. Lunch is made by Kate and her husband and consists of home made soup and bread or jacket potatoes and there are always home made cakes or biscuits. It really is one of the best ways I know to spend a Sunday. Each month Kate posts a photo on the forum on Ravelry as inspiration for the next meet. We can interpret it in any way we choose or not. This is mine for this month. This month's photo is of a lake (I think its in Scotland so it's a Loch) I used a number of fabrics I had in my stash and made this string block cushion. 

For those of you who requested a photo of me in the dress I made the other week, here it is. I was going to save it for the summer which meant no tights, but I found these teal ones in my drawer and thought they would go really well with the dress and this cardi I made a while ago. I'm chuffed to bits with the dress and can see I'll be making more. The pattern would be great shortened as a top to wear with jeans or made to bum length to wear with leggings. I need to go back up to Skipton to buy more pieces of cotton lawn. Damn!

Little Summer Dress

I picked up this fabric in Skipton at the Fent Shop She had a rail of pieces of cotton lawn for £8.00 per metre, so I bought two and made this. It was the simplest pattern ever, rolled edges, no zip, just the addition of elastic in a casing to give it shape. 

The only mods I made to the pattern was to move the placing of the casing of elastic as on the pattern it would have been across the middle of my boobs, not a good look. I also added a couple of patch pockets to add a bit more interest.

Now all I need is a summer to wear it. It looks much better on than on the hanger but I wasn't going to model it, it's too cold. 

I suppose all it needs now is a little knitted cardigan to go over it, oh go on then!

Skipton Beer Fest

Just got back from a lovely few days in Skipton. It was the traindrivers birthday so we went to the Beer Festival, my first and I really enjoyed it, I tried  Mary Jane, Golden Pippin, Wild Swan and Manifesto Stout, all good except the stout which wasn't like Guiness at all. I also tried a Perry called Two Trees which I didn't like.  I kept the glass, its a rite of passage or something.

Skipton is a pretty, busy town with lots of nice shops and eateries. We stayed at the Woolly Sheep, well we had to didn't we and it was comfortable and central. This was important as we went by train so needed to be in walking distance of everything. I was able to visit Purl and Jane while he was in the pub and bought some BFL 4 ply for dyeing.

We didn't spend the whole time in the pubs of Skipton, we visited Ilkley and had tea and cake in Betty's, it was so quaint with the waitresses wearing broderie anglais blouses and black aprons. The cake was delicious. We needed a walk afterwards and found ourselves down by the River Wharfe where the crocus' and daffs were struggling to make an appearance.

We also went to Settle, this place has to have my all time favourite station, it's quirky, olde worldy and pretty with lots of tubs of daffs, pansies and violas. It has amazing views across the moors from the platform. Had we stayed on the train and not got off in Settle we would have gone over the Ribblesdale Viaduct.

I was able to get a bit of my Folded jumper knitted on the train, this is my attempt at stash busting. I proudly told my sister who keeps on about the size of my stash that I was using some of it, only to be reminded that I bought yarn in Yorkshire, not only the BFL but also this:

How could I resist? It's just crying out to be socks, I couldn't leave it on the shelf in the shop. 

We had a really lovely few days away, can't believe it's back to school tomorrow, heads down for the long stretch to the summer holidays.

Grace is Finished

I've really enjoyed this knit-a-long. I'm pleased with the results although the cardi is a little snug. My tension was correct but the fronts could be a little wider, I've looked at other finished ones on Ravelry and it seems mine is not the only one that seems a little small at the front. I doubt I'll be doing it up much so it's wearable.

I love the Liberty print buttons, they give a real pop of colour. I also finally go around to making the skirt to go with it. For the first time I used a dress form, now fondly known as Judi2, to help with the making. What a difference it makes being able to pin the pieces onto me but not onto me if you get my drift. The outfit works really well and I 'm happy with the results.

I need to make a necklace to go with it, I can now, check out my previous post.

Paper Beads

Necklace made with paper, so simple and so effective. I've just used a simple triangle shape for my beads but there are many more as I found out on Sunday up in Wensley. See my previous post.

It's That Time Again

The first Sunday of the month means Wensley Yarn Workers creative day. Last month we made Brassington buttons. This month we made paper beads. You can see all the beads we made drying on toothpicks. The photo isn't too clear. I'll take more when I've made a necklace. So a lovely morning spent making beads. A lovely homemade lunch and then an afternoon spent spinning, knitting or whatever. I did more spinning.



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Adventures in Spinning

                                      

Remember this from my last blog post? My first attempt at spindle spinning? like I need another crafty hobby? Anyway it turned into this!

 Two hanks of spun wool. Hurray!

And then this, plied together to make a marl effect yarn and now being knitted into a cowl or a mat or whatever I can get out of it. I've really enjoyed the process even though it was a trial to see whether it would be feasable to spin my own yarn to cut down on costs for my knitting. It might be, if I can get a more even spin, maybe I need to play with a proper wheel to see if I can achieve it.

So let's see what I can do with this, I'm wondering if I can mix the fluff to make a variagated yarn or whether I spin each colour and then ply them together. We shall see. I need to so something with it by Saturday as I'm going up to Derbyshire to the monthly 'Wensley Yarn Workers' meeting on Sunday. The colours of the fluff I have chosen are to go with the April Challenge a photograph of some clematis.