Say hello to Henry!

A very good day dear ladies! The sun is shining on my patch of Yorkshire and it feels like spring is finally here!

It has been a while since I posted but I'm here today to share with you a fantastic visit I made to Yorkshire Sculpture Park a couple of weeks ago.

Although it is always a great place to visit I wanted to go for a very specific reason - to see an exhibition of Donna Wilson's woolly creatures! And I wasn't disappointed! Donna makes the most incredibly off beat knitted creatures, but also a wonderful range of Nordic inspired blankets and cushions.

I really love her work and especially as she uses British yarns and recruits the awesome talents of knitters from the Scottish Islands and Highlands - traditional craft areas that struggle with unemployment.

I fell in love with a little chap named Henry. He has been hand knitted in pure wool in the Shetlands and takes his character from traditional Icelandic patterns. And now he is mine!!!

Say hello to Henry!

It is rare for me to splash out like this but Henry is useful, hand crafted using pure wool, has provided employment for traditional craftspeople and is beautiful!!!!!

I was inspired to make a complimentary cushion using Fair Isle patterns and have done about half so far. ...

I'm really enjoying this 'free form' style of knitting. I am not following one pattern....I am following a variety of patterns and mixing and matching as I go along. There is no planning so I hope it all comes together ok! I will let you know. The yarn I am using is a favourite of mine from an historic mill in Lanarkshire, Southern Scotland. It is beautifully rustic, pure new wool with a great range of natural looking colours. Perfect for this sort of project.

For those who haven't been to http://www.ysp.co.uk/, do try to visit if you can. It really is a marvellous day out - lots to see, child friendly, great for picnics and beautiful strolls. You may also meet some interesting characters!

Enjoy your weekend! xxxxxx

Castle and Cathedral

Hello dear ladies!

Thank you for the wonderful response to my last post - recipes to follow in a couple of days! I now have 200 followers!!! Thank you so much to my followers...I really do appreciate having you here.

We had a fabulous day out today in Lincoln. En route to a visit to the in-laws we stopped at Lincoln Castle. I had never been there before and was looking forward to seeing some history. I was amazed at how in tact this castle is.

We walked along the castle wall and then down into the grounds. There are even dungeons! Very nasty and dark down there. I was thinking about all those poor souls chained to the walls over the years, in the dark and with rats scuttling about (for a dungeon isn't complete without rats). And there was the inevitable graffiti from a thousand school trips carved into the stone.

This is what happens to naughty boys!

A game that the Mr and I used to play before Little S joined us was to see who could find the most mason marks - those intriguing little signatures of the mason who worked on the building. The boy is old enough to join in now and we had fun trying to find the marks.

He looks familiar!

The very steep climb up one of the towers

The view from the top

A very corpulant George III

One of the very grand entrances

In a building in the castle grounds we saw one of only four remaining Magna Carta documents written in the most beautiful Latin script on vellum. Incredible that any of them survived at all! Even though I come from a part of the country that is full of ancient buildings and actually live in a very old village (and house), I am still awed by the age of such documents (800 years) and always try to imagine the hand that wrote them.

After tea and plum loaf with cheese (MUST find a recipe for plum loaf!) we wandered out into the old town to the cathedral directly opposite.

 

We couldn't go in because the Bishop was there so we walked around it. It is a huge place, high Gothic and very grand. There seemed to be gratuitous use of buttresses but I don't mind that - I'm quite partial to them. I also love gargoyles and there were plenty to see here.

All in all it was a marvellous trip back in time, to an age of cruelty and brutality but also of great beauty as witness by these amazing pillar carvings.

Have a great Sunday! xxx

 

Sticks and stones

Hello! Back from the coast where the weather was horrid but the company was great. In fact I didn't take out my camera once!!! However, the Mr, the boy and I went to the East Yorkshire coast a couple of days ago and it was glorious - a hot sun finally dispelling the morning mist.

We went to a place called Spurn Point, which is an historic site because of its role during both world wars as a defence point for the river Humber. It is a strange place; not beautiful but very stark and interesting...

The beach was covered in the detritus of war...these huge concrete blocks were anti-tank defences...

Then we came upon the remains of jetties, the wooden posts still standing in line but with nothing to support...

I found them very sculptural and beautiful in an odd kind of way...

Then the sun came out and Little S and I stopped to strip off some layers as we walked to Spurn Point lighthouse...

And here it is!

I have a soft spot for lighthouses and when I was a child I used to fantasise about living in one!!! Sadly, this one is out of action and is boarded up so we couldn't go inside and have a look around. I'm pleased it hasn't been demolished though as it looks superb on the beach...

Then the boy and I indulged my passion for fossiling. I seem to have an uncanny knack to spot a fossil immediately I step onto a beach! Little S found some interesting stones too and he set them all out this morning...

I found this rather splendid bit of amonite about a minute after I started looking - much to the Mr's chagrin...he ever finds anything!

I plan to use these flat, smooth stones to have a go at Margaret Oomen's fabulous crochet stones pattern...

They are stunning, aren't they.

Ah, that brings me to a bit of my own crochet.....

A dear friend has had her first baby and I whipped up this blanket in a couple of days...

It is made from Debbie Bliss Cashmerino 4 ply and it flew off the hook. I love the muted, vintage colours - a change from the brights I usually use. It isn't huge but is perfect for a car blanket.

Well that's all for now, dear ladies. I'm off to catch up with your blogs and see what you have all been up to! xxx