Yesterday a group of us (Impressionist , Glenda, Emily, Pinkphish) drove down to Harrogate and paid £12 to get into the Knitting and Stitching Show. Most of us had been last year and though it wasn't our favourite show ever it yielded some interesting purchases and we had a fun day out. I'm afraid to say that this year we were less than impressed with what was on offer. There was no big Rowan stall with bargin books, no House of Hemp and just a lot less knitting stuff generally.
I did manage to purchase some pom pom makers, which I've been wanting for a while, some lovely lace weight alpaca and some possum yarn, which I would otherwise not have got. However, considering the number of people there, which caused a massive crush and the quality of the stalls overall, I don't think we'll be making this trip again.
It wasn't all bad. We had fun on the journey, during lunch and afterward in Costa Coffee. It was lovely to see Dawn who met up with us and came away with one fabulously large button. I think we're pretty much in aggreement that we won't be coming along to this show next year. We also agreed that we quite enjoyed going somewhere together and that maybe we should find a better destination for it.
Once more I am behind with writing my blog posts. I haven't written anything about the felting workshop I went to last weekend. I really enjoyed it. Tomorrow I'll take some photos of what I made in the daylight (if there is any).
The weather is quite cold at the moment. We had some snow yesterday morning. Even my cynical GCSE group of 15 year olds stopped being teenagers for a moment to get excited about seeing the snow fall. Being at the coast it didn't last long.
I finally managed to deliver my friend Helen's birthday present. Only about 3 weeks late. Over the 20 years we've known each other we've developed a long tradition of being late with presents. It never really seems to matter. Part of the present was these cable wrist warmers and scarf I made on a whim a few weekends ago.
Now the weather has turned cables suddenly seem much more attractive than lace. I even managed to overcome my inate feelings of cheesiness and use one of the labels I had made last year.
Now I must go as we're off to the Knitting and Stitching Show today. I can hear the yarn calling to me.
Last night was the now annual Maths Department Guy Fawkes fireworks on Druridge Bay beach (Northumberland). We arrived just before sunset to help with carrying wood, fireworks and barbecues and to help set things up in the light. After the frightneningly strong winds we've had this week the weather was relatively mild and the tide low. When it started to get dark we were treated to a fabulous sunset. Here is one of several photos I took from the sanddunes
Sam put on a fabulous display as usual, despite being hampered by the winds. For the past couple of years people have regularly been attending the pub quiz at the Lonsdale Pub in Jesmond. Every time the group has won the winnings have been put into a pot and that was used to buy fireworks and food for the evening. Here's a short movie of Sam's first explosions of the evening.
My camera keeps putting lines into shots when the light is low. Anyone any idea why? Is there something wrong with it. It sometimes puts darker lines in too.
We left the fireworks early to go and see Bill Bailey's Tinselworm show at the Newcastle Arena. It was a good performance. As you might imagine it wasn't a very intimate gig. Apparently it was the largest audience he's ever played to. Not entirely convinced that that was good for us. He is also playing Manchester and Sheffield to sold out arenas. Both those venues are much larger so we won't be staying the largest croud for long. Anyway, at least we got to see him.
The sad thing today is that my very good friend Cat's father passed away during the night. It wasn't unexpected but it's a sad end to what has been a very difficult and upsetting few months, if not years for the whole family. My thoughts and prayers are with them.
Things like that really make me appreciate having both our sets of parents around and in good health. Long may it last.
It's taken me nearly a whole week to get round to writing something about my birthday. While I didn't particularly enjoy having to go to work on my birthday it wasn't a terrible day. A lot of the kids remembered it was my birthday and one even gave me a card. Graeme got me a curry dinner and we had some nice fizzy wine.
I got some fab gifts from family and friends. Thank you everyone. My parents got me a wool winder and swift for which I am very greatful. I love the simplicity of wool winders. I've wanted one for ages. I have to stop myself from winding all my skeins into balls.
At the weekend I had a small party with some good friends. It was lovely to spend time with people. I feel like work is sucking up so much of my time at the moment that I don't get time to enjoy my friends. Before people arrived I had a go at carving three rather large pumpkins. I decided to shun the traditional triangular eyes and pointy teeth and go for some more interesting designs. The results were mixed. The bat ended up with a hole much too large.
But the spider and the cat turned out very well I thought (if slightly wonky).
And Graeme decided to carve a turnip, for the sake of tradition (up until a few years ago we never had pumpkins available for Halloween in the UK). It certainly smelt the scariest out of the bunch.
Only 5 weeks and 3 school days till our school's Christmas holidays. Yey!
