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......

Georgian Fair, Cockermouth, May 2012

To be honest, haven't a clue what was going on, but was very atmospheric! 

 Was a gloriously sunny day but soooo cold, 4 degrees!!

 Various locals pretending to be Georgians!  Actually ended up buying 3 packs of sausages along Market Place.  I was waiting for the library to open at 10am to hand back this month's book club books & collect next month's but was a bit too early, so ended up having a wander & spending money hadn't intended to, but they did taste very nice; Cumberland, Sweet Chilli & Pork & Stilton.

The oldest house in Cockermouth, Percy House, & originally owned by the Percy Family, it was horribly flooded but is back better than ever. It has the most wonderful plaster ceiling upstairs



http://www.percyhouse.co.uk/newtaketour.html

These days it's a very exclusive arts & crafts gallery, which I'm lucky enough to be part of, if you look very carefully you can see some of my curly wurly scarves in the window!



 These are Morris Dancers dressed up ready to perform, but they reminded us so much of the mask festival that our son attended in Burkina Faso

 And the 1st stall we came upon was raising money for a Water Aid project in Burkina Faso.  Thought no-one other than ourselves had ever heard of it!  Small world....

Lanercost Priory & Hadrian's Wall

We had to drop the car into Carlisle yesterday as someone in Sainsbury's car park had opened their door & banged ours leaving a dent in the wheel arch, of course they didn't leave their details, so it's cost us £500 to get a small dent knocked out.  The upside was that we decided to go to Lanercost Priory which is only 15mins from Carlisle.  Quite beautiful & atmospheric. Had to believe when it was built in the 12th century it was on the main road from east to west, absolutely deserted now.

These were beautiful cravings above where the monks would have washed their hands.

The undercroft, where they would have stored food & drink, ceiling was a work of art.

 The ruins of the priory

 A beautiful William Morris window in the church

 A watch tower along Hadrian's Wall, there's 1 every mile.

 The wall at the Roman Fort at Birdoswald, there quite a sizeable chunk of it there, very impressive.  I can't tell you how cold it was, there was such an icy wind.  Then when we got back home it was a glorious sunny day!

We haven't had the bad weather that the rest of the country seems to have been having, in fact the becks are quite low on water & yesterday it was so lovely I sat outside for a bit knitting! Today it's back to normal grey & cold though.

Our poor dog, Hannah, is being driven demented by the lambs!  She sits watches them from the patio & sometimes the temptation gets too much for her & she rushes to the fence, luckily she's too old too jump the fences, we hope!!