A certain **th birthday

Some very kind friends took me out for a birthday treat, it was my 50th, which is far too awful to think about, but we went to Askham Hall for lunch & fell in love with this little piggies, 7 in all, they were so adorable.

 Anyway, after tearing ourselves away from the piglets we had a lovely drive through Lowther Castle grounds, we decided not to stop as they were emptying the portaloos from the weekends show, so was a bit smelly to say the least, so we carried on to Larch Cottge Nursery at Melkinthorpe, which is always a delight.

 Oh how I wish my borders looked like this.....

 The owner of Larch Cottage Nursery has built this all over the last few years, previously it was a scrap metal yard, he's even building a chapel, which you can see in the distance, so that he can marry his partner, now that really is true love!

Easy Peasy Lace Shawl

I knitted my Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy Lace Shawl in 2 ply lilac lambswool, with 2 beads on the picot edging, I was really pleased how this turned out, it's so lovely & soft & drapes wonderfully.

Woolfest 2012

My part of The Wool Clip stand at Woolfest.  That's my Field of Flowers Shawl on the mannequin, I sold out of kits on Friday & had to furiously make up more on Friday night.  Also nearly sold a cream beaded version of the shawl, but unfortunately because of the truly dreadful weather the card machine wasn't working well & didn't like Barclays cards & Barclaycards, so I missed out on a sale there :(

 Rest of my stand, difficult to see very well

 The Materialistics Exhibits, knitted/crocheted masterpieces

 "The Wave" was absolutely stunning

Dublin June 2012

Coming into Dublin Port, with Sandymount Towers in the background & Poolbeg lighthouse in the foreground.  Used to walk the dogs on the beach to the left for 10 years!

The new theatre at Grand Canal Quay, very impressive, the area is like something out of London.

The new Lansdowne Road rugby stadium

Trinity College

Statue of Molly Malone

Grafton Street

50th book club meeting

Inside Borris Castle, we got thrown out!  Didn't realise it wasn't open to the public & we happily wandered in & into their kitchen looking for a coffee, only to be told it was for writers only!

Borris Castle, where Hay on Wye Literary Festival was being held in Ireland for the 1st time ever.  We saw 1 brilliant talk by Ann Enwright & 1 not so good one.

Me, Olga & Sheila beside the Borris

View from the house we were staying at

Nicholas Mosse 2nd's shop in Bennettsbridge, oh I wish I'd bought something, was too mean, thinking it wasn't cheap enough, but am regretting it now!

On the way home, towers & ferry!

Cumbria Tourist Awards

Well haven't been blogging for a while as have so busy with The Wool Clip & Woolfest & a trip to Dublin!

 It was held at Rheged at Penrith, tables were beautifully set out

 Sally, our PR guru, Pam our Treasurer & Marion

 Alan Deadleycoat, "The Voice of the Balls" was the host for the evening, he was very good & gave tips on how to win the lottery, I'm guessing not very effective ones as hasn't won!

 Our category, Tourism Event of the Year

 Me, holding up bunting!

Us with the award!! The bird in the white dress on the end was from Taste & she was reading out the nominees, think she was a "little" worse for wear!!

Bluebells at Rannerdale

This years' bluebells at Rannerdale we were about a week late, but they were still stunning & the scent was wonderful.

 Crummock Water in the background

 Herdwick mum & lamb amongst the bluebells

 This little lamb was so newly born, must have just been minutes

 Surprise View at Derwentwater, with Bassenthwaite in the background

Baby Shawls & Snow

Finally finished my 2 baby shawls for the new baby section at The Wool Clip. 

I could have had a baby it's taken me that long to get the patterns right, especially the circular one, which I undid that many times, I almost threw it away!  But glad I perservered.  Was difficult to photograph the 2 together & in this one the square looks a lot whiter, but they're both the same yarn, 2ply wool.

The square shawl

And the circular, was difficult to get it into a perfect circle, not helped by the dog walking across just as I was about to take the photo!

 Snow on the hills, yesterday, May 15th, was gone as quickly as it came! Thankfully.

Having a go at dying

I bought this lambswool about a year ago & it hasn't sold at all well, so decided to have a go at overdying it rather than buying more yarn. 

It's funny because I deliberately bought some colours that I don't like; I naturally go for bright pinks, blues, purples, but thought I should get some different colours as not everyone likes what I like & it's strange as the ones I bought outside my comfort zone, haven't sold!  Should just stick to what I like.

So this is how it started out, it's greener in real life than in the photo.

The dye ready to go!

 Being brave & putting the yarn in....

Hanging up, drying, quite pleased with the colour. It's meant to be intense violet, not quite strong enough, next time will experiment with not diluting as much, but it might be because I was overdying.

 Re-skeined as it was a bit tangled.

Ta-Dah! Finished, am quite pleased with that, better than that funny green colour.

Have now got the dying bug, have got a blue on the go at the moment......