I had fun with lace edgings with Clair Crowston, did some knitweave with Elaine Cater, had a workshop with Iris Bishop, and saw some lovely double bed samples by John Blakeman. I also got to play with a Passap E6000 for an afternoon. I really do need to play more with that machine, it is such a nice machine! The week started with a talk on flower pounding, rust printing and cyanotypes (look it up, it's fascinating!) and ended with a talk by Carol about wearable art and then ideas for Christmas (see below).
My sleep was poor as usual (waking too early) but at least I got a bit of early morning exercise and saw an amazing sunset over the hotel, Hunters Lodge, who were all lovely. I've written up a fuller report for the Guild magazine; when it's been published (or should they choose not to publish it) then I will post a more detailed report here. It was very warm all week so although I did have a quick go in the gym, it meant having to wash my hair which is a 25 minute investment I didn't really have time for! I'd rather have a leisurely breakfast (to chat with the others, of course!) and a quick bit of internet catch up in the morning.
I won £60 in vouchers which was immediately spent on my new favourite yarn, Yeoman Grigna, four cones - two plain colours and two mixes with white. Pretty sure I've a Clair Crowston pattern from a few years back that will work with the pink mix to knit a smart top.
After a terrible night in a boarding house in Liverpool - alas, there was a bunch of lads staying there who confused the place with student digs and treated it as such, leaving water everywhere and generally acting like 15 years olds let loose with drink for the first time. They delighted in waking the whole house at midnight, 4am and 6am, and daring each other to parade past me in very little (with a stolen bra from one of the girls they brought back). I was polite, whilst inwardly fuming. Typical Englishwoman! So I gave up on sleep and toddled off to Abakhan for a day's shirt making technique course. The tutor Celia was excellent and the shop, of which I again failed to get pictures, is two big floors of fabric, offcuts by the kilo, haberdashery and yarn. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven! Alas my nearest branch is Stoke I think, a good hour's drive away. A day trip may be in order if I can just find a spare Saturday.
We did collars, button bands, and two kinds of cuffs:
That last one was a masterpiece of fabric origami. If I've any complaints, it's that I'd've done better doing the complicated one first because I was running out of brain power at this point. The pink thread is deliberately so I can see what I've done. It was a very tiring drive home, I desperately needed sleep and/or coffee.
Alas, this is half of the contents of my knitting room:
And this is the room itself:
If you look closely at the second photo, my Passap is surrounded by stuff. The only thing that's currently accessible (out of necessity) is the tumble dryer. The painting is going slowly as it takes hours to cut in (lots of corners in this room) and G has run out of paint for the second coat.
We were both shattered yesterday as G is still working on doing up his flat, so I suggested we had a day off and visited some local heritage sites. Once the weekly food shop was done, we visited Chesterton windmill:
Turns out it's a folly, built by some rich landowner and on the cross roads of various routes - he had to pay a miller to actually use it. We then popped to see the tiny church in Hunningham (so tiny we drove past it the first time, as it's hidden on a bend behind the old bakehouse) and had a quick drink in the Red Lion pub.
Current mood:
tired but happy
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