BlackCountry Wench
Monday, 31 March 2025
Another month gone already
Monday, 24 March 2025
Weekend stitching retreat
I've had the most wonderful weekend away, it was just what I needed, stitching with friends, chatting and laughing and eating tasty food. I mentioned before that since Christmas I haven't been stitching but I enjoyed sorting out and kitting up a new start to take with me and certainly made up for my few months stitching drought while I was away.
I decided to start my weekend on the Thursday, I spent the day in Wells and had booked a Premier Inn for the night so that on the Friday morning it was just a short drive to our hotel for the retreat.
I've visited Wells a few times, It's not a big place but has City status because of it's Cathedral, not many shops but It's nice for a wander round. I had thought of looking around the Cathedral this time but I felt the £14 entrance fee was a little expensive plus I'd only got an hour left on my parking ticket so It wasn't really worth it, but an excuse for a visit another time.
Such an impressive building, and as you can see it was blue sky all the way on Thursday.
I'd kitted up Hoot in a Boot to take with me and thoroughly enjoyed stitching again. I had taken my Mary Margaret stitching along in case I wanted a change but I was enjoying my new start so much that she never saw the light of day.
Monday, 10 March 2025
Just another manic Monday
Not manic at all really, It's been a rather a nice day, I just couldn't come up with another title 😁
I'm still knitting away on my whitmore sweater, another couple nights and I should be done with the body. I might order another small circular needle so that I can knit the sleeves at the same time, that way I can make the decreases at the same time. The sleeves on the last one I made are just a little tighter than I would like, so I'm going to keep trying it on this time and make them where I think they need to be.
Thursday, 6 March 2025
Knitting and sowing
I started a new project at the end of February, It's one I've knitted before, the Whitmore sweater by Ami Louden. I'm using yarn that's been in my stash for a few years, Hayfield Sundance DK which I bought at one of the NEC shows with this project in mind. It's a 50% acrylic cotton mix so should be perfect for the Spring/Early Summer.
I got the ribbing done on the neck the first night.
Monday, 3 March 2025
Making hay while the sun shines
Friday, 28 February 2025
February Makes and other goings on
Another month gone by so quickly! It's been a month of appointments for both Mark and me, but more about that later. I still haven't picked up any stitching but I have been knitting. Another pair of socks have been finished and also a cowl.`
These were knit using Rico sock yarn I bought when we visited Shrewsbury just before Christmas. I'd definitely use it again, i'ts a nice plump yarn, and soft too. I always take the time to make matching socks if I can, I did what I usually do to make them match and It worked on the leg, then the colour sequence changed. No matter, I still like them.
Friday, 21 February 2025
This week
Last Saturday myself and my middle daughter, Joanne, headed off to Manchester to see James Blunt. It's the second time Joanne has see him live, both Joanne and Stevie came with me last year to see him in Birmingham, It was the fifth time of seeing him for me. This was his Back To Bedlam tour, in celebration of the release of his first album of the same name. He preformed all the songs from that album, including the one that is equally loved and hated by many, Your'e Beautiful, along with more recent songs. He was absolutely brilliant, as he has been the previous times I've seen him. His unique voice is easily recognisable and his voice is partly why I like him, that and the fact that all of his songs, if you listen to the lyrics, are a story. We had a brilliant night.
We stayed in Manchester overnight, the hotel, The Maldron, was much nicer than I was expecting and only a few minutes walk from the AO Arena and the center of town. We spent some time on the Sunday looking around the town and the Cathedral. The town has a great variety of shops, all the big name stores and quite a lot of designer shops, It was nice to look around somewhere different, although the inside of the Cathedral was a little disappointing I thought. We stopped off on the way home to have a late Sunday lunch to round off the weekend.
This week has been half term and I had all four of the children on Tuesday, I needed to go to Ikea to pick some shelving up, not the best idea I've had, four children at half term in Ikea was a recipe for disaster, lol. I wasn't going to stop there for lunch but they wanted Ikea meatballs and it kept them quiet and all in one place for a while at least.
Joanne had booked Bonnie and Jacob on a sow and grow activity at a garden centre at 3pm, luckily they let me add Arty and Oliver when I got there, they all decorated a terracotta pot and two of them sowed poached egg seeds and two tomato seeds.