Previous to October

And just like that, we are in October, I have no idea what happened to September, It seemed to be here and gone in the blink of an eye.  There has been so much going on that I have not blogged about and to catch up in one post would be too much, I'll have to try and catch up over a few posts.

I did eventually finish my Whitmore sweater.  You may remember me saying at the beginning of July that I only had the sleeves to knit, well they were done during July and it was washed and blocked while we had all that lovely warm weather.

The light was fading when I took these photos so the colour looks a little washed out, it's a much nicer colour in real life.

I'm really happy with it and would love to knit another one sometime.  We're not quite into jumper wearing weather at the moment, but I'm sure I'll get the wear it pretty soon.

I also finished two more pairs of socks.

These are knit in West Yorkshire Spinners, the colourway is Goldfinch with a contrast heels, toes and cuffs (also WYS).  I didn't bother trying to match the pair, I think the saying for this among seasoned sock knitters is that they are sisters, not twins 😉

Incidentally, this was the first commercial sock yarn I ever purchased, quite a few years ago now, I saw Julie, (from Julie's stitchyknitter journal) knitting it at a meet up we both attended.  I loved the colourway and bought it soon afterwards, even though I had no idea then how to knit socks!

The next pair were for my daughter, Stevie.  She chose this Regia yarn when we went shopping one Saturday, it's the colourway Strawberry from their Tutti Frutti range.  I didn't realise when we bought it but the yarn is 72% cotton, 18% polyamide and 10% polyester.  It was beautiful to knit with, although when I washed them the colour did run a little in the water.

I knit one sock then there was a period of time before I started the second one, the eagle eyed among you will notice my mistake right away.

I knit 2 x 2 rib on the first sock and 1 x1 on the second one!  I didn't even notice until I had washed them.  I pointed it out to Stevie when I gave them to her and she said, mum, I wouldn't have even noticed if you hadn't told me!

Following on from my last post saying that I feel like a recluse, I've been making an effort to get out more.  Weather wise, the last three weekends have been lovely and so on one of the Saturdays when Mark was at work I decided, rather than have a whole weekend rattling around the house by myself I would to take myself off for the day.  I'd been looking at places online and decided on Frome.  It meant a journey of just over 2 hours, but the weather was nice, the roads weren't too busy and It was quite a pleasant and straight forward drive.

Frome town itself is not that big, It's described as a bustling, creative market town, but even though there was a small market on the day I went, It wasn't really bustling.  Apparently there is a larger independant market which happens on the first Sunday in the month, perhaps the atmosphere is different then.  

It does have a couple of quirky streets, namely, St Catherine's Hill and Cheep Street.  Both of these have various independent shops selling a variety of things and are quite picturesque to walk through, you have to mind your step in Cheep Street to avoid stepping into the little waterway that runs down the middle.

Millie Moon is on Catherine Hill and I spent some time in there looking at the lovely fabric, patterns and notions.  I made a small purchase whilst there, which I will tell you the reason for in future blog post.

The lady serving in the shop that day was so lovely and helpful, I'd highly recommend a visit if you're in the area.

After a couple of hours looking round I'd seen all I wanted to so headed back to my car.  I'd passed through Bradford-on-Avon on the way, about six or seven miles from Frome so thought I'd stop off there on the way home.

Not somewhere to go if you want to shop but a really lovely place to take in the scenery.  I walked up to the canal where there is a coffee shop, you can sit outside and watch all the coming and goings of the boats, there were lots of people making the most of the beautiful weather, and I suspect there is also a very pleasant canal walk, although I didn't venture on that as I was alone.

There is also a lovely walk along the River Avon, again I didn't venture too far along, but there were at least a couple of pubs with views of the river.

As I said the town it'self was not somewhere you would head to if you wanted to shop but there were a couple of nice vintage shops I had a browse round and there were a few coffee shops to choose from.  I'd been fancying a jacket potato so I stopped at one around lunch time.  Amongst other things their menu had jacket potato with two fillings, great.  Until I saw the price.  £11. 

Now I know prices have gone up, but £11 for a jacket potato! No way.  I got up and walked out.  Admittedly I waited until the waitress had gone in the back before I made my hasty exit, thereby saving us both the embarrassment of  me being honest and saying it was over-priced.

You will be happy to know though that I didn't go hungry that day, I found another, more reasonably priced coffee shop around the next corner and enjoyed a lovely goats cheese and caramelized onion quiche and salad :-)

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