I went to a yarn show

 We were up early on Saturday to pack up the caravan, It had rained quite heavily on Friday afternoon and Mark wasn't looking forward to taking a wet awning down the next day, but luckily It was bright and sunny with a breeze, so by the time we had packed up our stuff the awning had dried out.

I left him to it at that point as I had decided to go to this years Sodbury Yarn Over in.  I haven't been to a yarn festival for a few years and this one is held in various buildings along the high street in a beautiful picturesque market town with the wonderful name of Chipping Sodbury.  

The event is quite small in comparison to some and as it was spread over different buildings it never felt too crowded.  I arrived just around lunchtime which was perfect in hindsight as a lot of people had either been and gone or had stopped for lunch.  In the Town Hall there were places you could have a sit down and somewhere to buy tea/coffee but all along the high street are various coffee shops, pubs and places to grab something to eat, so fighting to get a seat wasn't a problem, and of course It also meant that the towns shops and eateries benefitted from the extra visitors too.

I made a list and I think I did ok.

The shawl set was from Under the Olive Tree and wasn't on my list but when I saw the sample knitted up I fell in love with texture pattern and how the colours worked together.  I won't start it straight away, I think perhaps over the Summer as it's not a big project.  There is a yarn shop in the town, The Wool Cellar, which is owned by one of the organisers of the festival, and It's where I purchased the Stylecraft Re-create yarn.  I've been wanting to make another Salty Air Tee, I love the one I made last year and I've worn It lot.  I would have preferred cotton yarn but couldn't find anything I liked, the Re-create yarn isn't too woolly but I've gone out of my comfort zone with the green, it's not a colour I wear a lot, but I do like it ,so we'll see.

  I can recommend the festival If you don't have to travel too far.  It took me an hour to drive there and an hour and a half to get home).  If I had travelled more than that I don't really think It would have been worth it for the number of vendors that were there, but that's just my opinion, having said that, I really enjoyed my day, the town Is lovely, everything was within easy walking distance and there were some nice shops to mooch round too.

When I got home Mark had unpacked all our things and put everything away and had made a start on some of the washing, (see there was a method to my madness, as my mum used to say. ha ha)

Yesterday was spent getting up to date with the rest of the washing and getting the garden tidied and the grass cut, the weather was good again so we were able to get everything done.

-X-

Last stitching meet-up of 2024

 Saturday was our last Birmingham Stitchers meet up of the year, the cafe had honored the booking that Hilary and Sue made a while ago and reserved a table for us, so we were all able to sit together this last time.  We stayed longer than usual, 10 -4pm rather than our usual 12 - 3pm.  I took Mary Margaret along again and managed to get her skirt finished and her legs stitched.  You would have thought in that time I would have got more stitching done, what can I say, I'm a slow stitcher.

No photos because I've shared photos of the inside of the cafe we meet up in recently, (I will say though that on Saturday it was bloomin freezing in there!)  Here how Mary Margaret Is looking now.

I'm not enjoying this on the scroll frame, next time I pick her up I might take it off and use a nurge frame.

This weekend there was a Christmas Wool Show held at the International Conference Centre in Birmingham, I didn't buy an advance ticket as I was undecided until this morning.  So glad I made the effort, it was a lovely show, not too busy and lots of people that I hadn't heard of before.  This is the first time this year at a wool show and of course I didn't really need anything but you never come away empty handed from these events do you?

I don't think I went overboard.  The Moonlight Fibre Christmas yarn and the WYS Christmas yarn will be wrapped up and put away to open when I start knitting Christmas socks in 2025.  The same with the snowman project bag, isn't he cute?  I don't usually buy project bags, some of them can be quite expensive but this one from Jibbyroosews was a good buy at £9.50, and It's a decent size.  I've been thinking of keeping a record of my knitting for future reference so picked up a Knitters Journal from Under The Olive Tree, again a good price.  The Christmas cracker is from Pickle-Lily, I believe there is a mini skein inside, plus It can be re-used another year.  All in all a good day out, I will definitely go to this one again next year If they do it.

So a busy but lovely weekend, and I needed it, I didn't go out of the house for four days last week after last Saturday's outing, my hip and butt cheek was painful and I just felt meh, but then by Thursday I forced myself to go to the shopping centre as there were some things I needed to get, thankfully it was much quieter and I managed to get everything I needed to.  While I was there I called into the pharmacist to ask if there was anything else I could throw at this pain, I'm just sick of taking co-codamol, and surely long term that's not good anyway.  She recommended a diclofenac gel and touch wood, (tapping my head here), that, along with some lavender essential oil in the bath water, the purchase of a knee pillow, for spine support and some exercises I found online, I am finally in less pain, yayyyy.  I might even be able to go for a decent walk this week.

I've got a couple of things to get done this week and then I'll be all sorted for Christmas except for the wrapping.

Hope your Christmas preparations are going well, are you all organised or do you still have things to do?

-X-