Chart buying and visiting a castle

Saturday was our April meet-up at the Nimble Thimble, there were fifteen of us this time, It was a lovely day of stitching, chatting, shopping and of course eating, Chris and her husband always put on a lovely buffet lunch and afternoon cake for us to enjoy too.

These are my purchases, didn't go overboard but I'm happy with what I got.

A few of the ladies bought Hoot in A Boot last time and once I'd gone home I kept wishing I'd bought it too.  Luckily Chris still had a few in stock.  Halloween stitching is not my thing but with the pumpkins I think this can be more of an Autumn piece.  I might try and get this one and the Autumn Cottage stitched this year, the others will be project for next year. 

The weather has been kind so far this week, yesterday was really lovely, a perfect day for a visit to Conwy Castle.   The castle was built between 1283 and 1287 by Edward I during his conquest of Wales.  You can read more about the history here, if you are interested.

  What a great place!  Navigating all those narrow steps to climb to the top of the turrets, (I think I climbed all of them), is well worth it, the views are just amazing, It's extremely high, as I think you can see from the photos.

Great views of the LLandudno Flyover, on the left, in the middle is Thomas Telford's suspension bridge. The bridge was one of the first suspension bridges in the world and is a grade I listed structure, now taken care of by The National Trust and is passable by foot.  

On the right is the tubular railway bridge, it was built between 1846 and 1848 one of the first examples built of this type of bridge, and the only one left, it too is now grade I listed.

I'll share my walk along Conwy town walls another time.

Enjoy the rest of your week

-X-

Still not 100% but slowly getting there

 I'm still struggling with the remains of this cold virus thing, whatever it was.  The majority of the last ten days or so have been spent either in bed or lying on the sofa.  Luckily Mark was working close to home so was here in the mornings and the evenings, there wasn't a lot of work on so they told him to take a  few days off because I wasn't well, which was nice of them.   I was prescribed antibiotics and a nasal spray on Friday so hopefully they will be doing their job and I will start to feel something like soon.  My head still feels really stuffy and I haven't been able to go to my aqua fit class or had the energy to do any walking or exercise, I was just getting into a nice routine too, I'll have to make the effort to get going again when I come back from my break away.

This Saturday It's our annual April meet-up at the Nimble Thimble and then I am away for the rest of that week.  I thought I'd share what projects I've been getting together to take with me.

I'm behind on my ornament stitching and this small Prairie Schooler will be a perfect quick stitch.

Pumpkin Spice Everything - The Scarlet House

This one has been waiting for me to stitch it for a couple of years

Welcome Autumn - Primrose Cottage Stitches

I won this chart from Martina in a giveaway on her blog last year, once I've stitched it I'll keep the kindness going and offer it as a giveaway on my blog

And I'll keep the Autumn stitching theme going with this one, if I have time.

Welcome October- With Thy Needle And Thread

(A free chart which you can find here)

For all of these projects I had all but a couple of the threads and I'm using some scraps of fabric left over from recent projects.

And should I get bored with all of the above, and I have the time, I'll cast on a new sock.

This was one of my purchases from Wool@J13 last year and when I came across it while sorting my stitching projects I changed my mind about taking the West Green Loft Yarn skein I shared last time.

Plus, it's almost time for this years Wool@J13 show so I have to use it really, ha ha.

This is just so bright and funky, I can't wait to see how it knits up :-)

I finished the stitching on my stick6in2023 project, I should be able to fully finish it before I go away ready to share at the end of the month when either Martina or Manuela will let us know what the next number drawn is.  

I'll probably drop by again while I'm away and share what I'm up to, fingers crossed some walks and the sea air will finally clear my stuffy head.

Take care

-X-

Happy Easter

I finished the socks I cast on in March.  These are knit using yarn that Jo gifted to me at Christmas, (or it might have been for my birthday in December, I forget which now).  The colourway is Peony by Wool Is The Answer and the pattern is Library Socks by The Kitchen Sink Shop, a free pattern on Ravelry.

I love how they came out.  The pattern is a simple four row repeat and easy to memorise.  I used a mini from my stash for the contrast heels and toes which turned out to be a great match for the beautiful main colourway.

A while ago I treated myself to one of the Spring Gift Boxes from West Green Loft Yarns, It arrived a couple of weeks ago and I saved it to open as my Easter Treat.  Here's what was in the box.

I'm away for a week soon so going to save this to cast on then.

The kids came round yesterday to hunt for eggs and stayed a couple of hours but we hadn't planned any family get together, which turned out to be a blessing because I'm not feeling too good.  

Last Wednesday I had a vertigo attack, not severe, but enough to keep me in bed until late afternoon.  It had passed the next day but on Thursday night my throat started to hurt and on Friday morning my body felt like it had been run over by a truck!  I gradually felt worse over Saturday and developed a dry cough, my voice was no more than a squeak on Sunday and I feel no better this morning, although thankfully I'm not coughing as much.  I haven't felt this bad in years, even when I had Covid eighteen months ago I didn't feel this bad.  I know symptoms of Covid have changed so I have done tests everyday and they are all negative.  If I feel no better tomorrow I'll call the docs but for now I'm drinking copious amounts hot water with honey, lemon and ginger and taking paracetamol for the throat pain.  

I'll sign off with some photos from the garden, the weather was really quite lovely a few days last week and everything looks very Spring-like and lush.

I hope you all had a lovely Easter and have enjoyed this Bank Holiday weekend.

Take care

-X-

Going into April

I have a few projects that are almost finished, a baby cardigan that needs buttons, a cardigan for Bonnie that needs the button bands picking up and knitting and a pair of socks that are at the point of doing the toe decreases.  All so close yet not fully finished.   Is it just me, or does anyone else get something almost done and then sort of looses momentum?  

Last week was a busy one, I was on nanny duty for four days and two visits to the vets with Millie and Molly, they were due jabs and a check-up, all ok with Molly, Millie, not so good, we are waiting for thyroid blood test results, hopefully they will be back sometime this week and I will give you an update next time.  So, not much time for stitching or knitting this past week, just the odd hour here and there.  I'm still working on my stick6in23 piece and loving it, I'm on track to get this one finished perhaps this coming weekend.  

And, talking of Stick6in23, I collected my first finish for this SAL from the framers on Saturday.

Finished as another box frame. I love how it came out.  I used my local needlework shop again, Betty Stitch Kit in Quarry Bank. 

**********************

The weather was mostly wet all last week so I didn't manage to get out for a decent walk, other than when I was collecting the kids, but I managed to persuade Mark to come walking along another section of the Stourbridge canal with me last Saturday.  Our starting point was a ten minute drive away at Stourton, walking back towards where I'd started out from on my last walk.

The weather was quite nice we did have a little bit of rain along the way, but it lasted a few minutes, not enough to put us off

If anyone is up for a challenge this wreck is up for sale, £250, serious offers only, so the notice said

🤣🤣

Loved these houses backing onto the canal, I would love to sit out there in the Summer

After an hour we were back at the bridge where the canal splits again, ahead to Amblecote, and to the right Stourbridge and the Bonded Warehouse, (where I started last time).  We had been walking for about an hour to this point so decided to turn and walk back to where we had left the car.  I'm really enjoying discovering these local canal walks, I find it strange that you can't really work out where you are, it feels like you are in the middle of the countryside, yet you know that a town or a main road it not very far away.  As we drove home we tried to work out where we had walked in relation to the road and even though at one point you could see across the fields you would never have known there was such a lovely peaceful walk to be had.

Mark doesn't really see the point in walking for the sake of it but he must have enjoyed it because he suggested taking the other route towards Wolverhampton this Saturday, we weren't able to do it though because I had plans to take these two rascals on an easter trail with Joanne

We did find the Easter Bunny at the end, but Jacob refused to have his photo taken with him, lol

I've not long got home from my aqua class, I'm really enjoying these classes, at first I wasn't sure I would but they have now become something that I do twice a week, and I feel better for getting out of the house, having some routine and of course the exercise.  As it's another beautiful day today my afternoon job is to clean out the summer house and perhaps even sit in there for a while later.  It gets really warm in there late afternoon so I may take my stitching and have an hour later.

If I don't pop back before next weekend I hope you have a lovely Easter!

-X-