A Bit of Time Away

With both birthdays in November and anniversary in December, David and I go away for a break.  It has been difficult to get away this year and not done as many trips as we'd like, but such are the times we are living in.  So out break this year was a few days earlier this week to Barnstaple in north Devon and stayed at the Imperial Hotel, which is a luxury hotel with dinner, and breakfast (no having to find places to eat!).

We were blessed with sunny, if cold, days and the first morning we walked along the River Taw along what was once a railway line, but is now used for walkers and cyclists.   A pleasant walk seeing and hearing coastal birds until a couple of miles along we found a garden centre with a cafe, just right for a coffee break before making a return back to the town.  The station is no more, though the sign still remains.  This line would have taken people along the north Devon coast and there was once a bridge (completely disappeared) that crossed the river.

Back in the town it was a mooch around the shops (found a birthday present for a December birthday) and seeing the Pannier Market, which didn't have any traders so completely empty, but there were some Christmas wreaths hanging from the ceiling.

Tuesday saw us at the local museum. It has a modern extension and the older part of the building is being renovated. We spent an hour or so exploring and it even had a model railway of one of the old lines that ran through the town. One of the former industries was a furniture maker, Shapland and Petter, which made a lot of Arts and Crafts style furniture.  This cabinet below had some beautiful carving and inlay work.

I liked this panel, below

And as a more modern addition, the museum used the designs to the brickwork of the building extension and a sample was shown below.

Outside we saw some old building too. The cafe in The Strand has a statue of Queen Anne

The carving looks resplendent against the blue sky.  Nearby was a square with a mosaic timeline of the town from ancient times to modern day, which was sadly not looking its best.  (Please excuse my foot!)

So we had two lovely days of exploring and it was time to go home on the Wednesday.  Lets hope that the next year will bring more places to go to.

Mid November

 I’ve been enjoying the autumn weather with the trees turning colour, which has been quite late this year.

These are all local to where I live. I’m lucky that there are paths that have a lot of trees, that have a calming effect of me when I’m out walking.  I try to get out each day at least for 20 minutes but more often it’s 30 - 40 minutes, which is important as the days are getting shorter. These pictures were taken last week and today the leaf cover is definitely much thinner.

Since I’ve finished Flo’s cardigan, here’s another one I’ve started for her.  She is at pre-school this year and is playing outside a lot, so layers of clothing are called for and at least cardigans are easy to put on and pull off.  This one is in Stylecraft Special DK in Cornish Blue (the colour of the bobbles in the green cardigan).  I found a stitch pattern which I’ve used on the bottom of the cardigan. Unlike to bobble cardigan, knitted all in one, this is knitted traditionally in pieces and joined.

I’ve not done much on the sewing front, in fact nothing at all, so it’s mainly been knitting (cardigan above) and crochet (the Yuletide blanket).

In this morning’s post I received a newsletter from West Country Embroiderers.  On the inside of the front cover was this photo.

There was a competition at the recent Spectrum of Stitch exhibition of 3D items and the second prize winner, Jenny Parrott, made the patchwork sewing machine.  My fabric ‘jug’ was right behind it and was in the picture! As you can see I’ve taken a photo with the jug next to the newsletter.

November

 

Speeding towards the end of the year November for us is birthday month.  My Mum, David and I all have birthdays in this month and for David and I we reach State Retirement Age, (wow, how did that happen). 

 My monthly marker above is the still-in-progress Yuletide Blanket,  but I am nearly at the point where the borders are added, so not long until it’s completed. The picture shows a couple of shafts of sunlight on he blanket as I took the picture.  It’s a cosy blanket which sits across my lap as it work on it.

This week I made 2 more hearts, which has added to the two I made last week and yesterday I took them to the Area Rep for the local region of the Quilters’ Guild.  She had a workshop last week that I couldn’t go to to make these so I made the hearts at home instead. These will be for breast cancer patients at Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester, but some may possibly go to Poole Hospital. 

This week I have gone down a virtual rabbit hole!  I was looking at Instagram when I came across this mystery Gnome KAL (knit a long) that will start in December and the designer had a discount on the pattern for a short time so I bought it. (Image below from Imagined Landscapes)

 No sooner than I purchased that I then went and looked for a mini skein set to make it.  Ordered it on Wednesday and it arrived yesterday. It’s from Lamington Lass on Etsy and I ordered these lovely autumnal colours, and it’s called ‘Gnutmeg and Egg Nog’.

Gnever Gnitted a Gnome before, so this will be exciting. I wondered what to do as an Advent project this year and as clues will be daily from 1 to 24 December this should fit the bill. It’s only the 5th today so I’ve got to wait for 25 days.

In the meantime I have some socks on the go, some Stylecraft Head Over Heels in the Red Pots Colourway and taking part of the Easy Lace socks pattern (by Winwick Mum) on the side of the leg. I’ve just finished the heel flap and will be picking up stitches.

So that’s how my November is looking so far.