Rome & bits & bobs

Had a wonderful weekend in Rome 2 weeks ago. I've never been anywhere quite like it, most cities have an old town but the whole of Rome is the old town, just every street you go down has something fantastic to see. Our hotel was in the most amazing location, only 10 minutes from the Trevi Fountain & right next door to the Parliament, so since we've been back & watching the news we keep seeing it, didn't see Belesconi thankfully!
Me in St Peters Square - 1/2 mile queue to get in the Basilica!

The Sistine Chapel
The Colisuem

The Pantheon

The Trevi Fountain

Definitely a place to go back to, as far too much to see in a weekend.

Didn't take my knitting with me, must the 1st time in ages I've not taken it away with me, but did take the book "One Day" by David Nicholls, which I was reading for book club, thoroughly enjoyed it, can't wait to see the film. I had to stop myself reading the last 100 pages or so as I wanted to finish it on the flight back, that was really hard as wanted to know how it ended!

Then the Christmas trees are up at The Wool Clip, 1 outside the shop & 1 inside

The outside one is now decorated so when I'm in the shop next I'll take some more photos, & need to make some more crocheted robins & christmas puddings as they're selling too well!

Christmas has come early!

I'd got an email from 1 of the knitting or crochet websites I sign up to about getting ready for Christmas & it got me thinking about some patterns I'd looked out last year but never got around to doing. I absolutely adore these crochet robins & christmas pudding. Think the robin works better in the lighter colour.

They've even got little tails!

Some snowflakes....

Thankfully no 2 snowflakes are the same in nature or my crocheting!

Must now concentrate on knitting something for Wool Week at the beginning of September, we're planning on decorating the car park outside The Woolclip shop in Caldbeck. So far some of the members have knitted sheep, balloons, covers for the tree trunks, a spiders web, I've got to come up with something too, had tried a spiders web but it came up too tight, someone said it looked like one of those webs the spiders on LSD or acid make!

Woolfest Tomorrow!

Still needs a bit of tweaking in the morning.
Nearly there.... This is our Woolclip aisle.....

We've been at Mitchells Agricultural Mart at Cockermouth setting up The Woolclip stall this afternoon, thankfully 1 of our members, Linda, had made the most wonderful cupcakes to keep us going, I don't know how she had time to do it, so hats off to Linda!

Advent Calendar, more snow, Christmas tree & knitting!

Got my trusted advent calendar out for another year, really must get a new one, but still like this.

And we had a virtual white-out yesterday afternoon....

But what a difference a day makes........

Put the Christmas tree up & did the wreath, so house is feeling very festive along with the weather

My i-pod/mobile phone covers feature in The Woolclip's newsletter this month, unfortunately though the shop's not been open for nearly 2 weeks now as none of us can get there! Ho hum, roll on summer....

My journey to work in the shop, The Woolclip

Thought you might like to see how awful my journey is to work in The Woolclip, in Caldbeck is.

This is the view from just outside my village on a bad day!

The view of Skiddaw from Embleton.

For the last 3 weeks I've been lucky enough to meet the Hunt, can you see the Master with Hounds? Fantastic.

Labour eat your words...........

New display in the Woolclip.

And on the way home, across Caldbeck Common, looking towards the Solway

That's Criffel in the distance.

Wool Week

It's been Wool Week this week, highlighting the wool industry, supported by Prince Charles & The Campaign for Wool. In The Woolclip we've been running demonstrations all week & I did knitting this Wednesday.

I'm teaching long-tail cast on - we got there in the end!

I use long-tail cast on all the time for lace knitting as it's elastic, so when you're blocking it's stretchy & is less likely to break. It's also really great for the tops of socks & any ribbing, try it & see!

I'm Back!!

Well, been a while since I blogged as we've been on holiday, in Spain. Best weather we've had in years, missed the Gotta Fria by days. This is a tremendous storm that they have in October every year in the Valencia region. The rain goes on solidly for about a week, rivers burst their banks, people are swept away & roads are washed out. Last year it came in September, when we were there & it washed away part of the mountain & motorway to Alicante. But, after the storm's passed, that's it for the year & normal service is resumed, warm, sunny weather. The Spanish don't know how lucky they are.

Typical view of what I've been looking at for a month! 30 degrees + each day too.

Spent the month eating either fish, shellfish or salads - so nice - so stodgy food, soon changes once you're back in the UK though - need the carbs to keep warm!

My favourite meal of the holiday was a skewer with monkfish & prawns, wonderful. It was in this restaurant above, Republic, which overlooks the marina. Husband, son & friends, Ocho Platos & Boozio are pictured!

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me!!

Well, I've had a lovely & unexpected day with lots of friends dropping by with pretty cards, pressies & flowers.


Ooh, what could it be....
from a favourite shop in Penrith...
a lovely bracelet.



It's so thoughtful, I was there on Monday with friends & rather coveted this & wished afterwards I'd bought it, so it was a really nice surprise to be given it by the friends I was with, so very lovely. You know you should have bought something when later you're thinking about going back to get it.


Then I got some flowers and tonight my husband's going to cook me 1 of my favorite meals, Scallops & Chorizo by Nigella,

The Wool Clip Newsletter & mention in The Guardian!

Greetings from The Wool Clip.It's all go for members of The Wool Clip
at the moment with only a weekto go until Woolfest 2010 at Cockermouth
- it's on Friday 25 and Saturday 26 June at Mitchell's Lakeland Livestock
Centre (for the uninitiated) and we're expecting over 120 stalls and 4000+ visitors.

However, we seem to have found time to demonstrate what we're about around
Cumbria this month. Some of us were at Spring Watch in
WhinlatterForest, Fell Gather at Cockermouth and also Orton
Farmers Market (12 June). It was really good to meet new
people and pass on our enthusiasm for wool, spinning
and all sorts of wool crafts, even if Marion and Rebecca
did get very wet at Whinlatter!

There are also rumours of a special visit to the shop on 20 June and associated
media coverage to mark the beginning of Co-operative Fortnight but we're not
absolutely sure what the organisers have planned so it is probably a case of wait
and see. We'll let you know if we find out more. For those of you planning a bit
further ahead, there are still places on our crochet and spinning workshops in
July and August - see the website for details. Sorry to be so short and sweet this
time but keep in touch and please come along and say Hello if you visit Woolfest
- and don't forget to bring along any bunting.

Best wishes, The Wool Clip

PS Woolfest made it into the UK Guardian's fashion and style e-news on Thursday
17 June - have a look for details.

Springwatch

Spent the day at The Whinlatter Visitor Centre near Keswick today, taking part in the BBC's Springwatch Weekend.

Myself and Marion from the Woolclip were there to help promote rural crafts.

We were a bit disappointed by the number of stands there, only 5, a willow weaver, cookery demonstration, a felter, an artist doing charcoal drawings & ourselves; but people were interested in what we were doing, Marion spinning & me knitting,
so hopefully people will have a look at the shop, The Woolclip & come along to Woolfest & see more of what we do.

The Woolclip

Well, I'm very excited;

I had my first proper day at The Woolclip yesterday. Spent the first part of the day sorting out my display, as I wasn't too happy about how I'd left it the other week, so I'd knitted a cream shawl so that I could put that on display with a black one. It's good that they're stretched out, as you can the patterns more clearly.

And then I finished off the display in the lovely glass cabinet that had been bought for me.

It's just as you walk in the door, so I wanted to make sure it was eye-catching & colourful!

It was a wonderfully sunny day yesterday in Cumbria & we were quite busy, lots of interesting people coming in. Caldbeck is such a lovely village & I just learnt that John Peel is buried in the churchyard next to the shop!