Trip to Yorkshire - Yarndale.

 During our time away in Yorkshire, I went to Yarndale, a wool festival in Skipton.  An amazing display of  hand dyed yarns from different dyers, local community projects, some sheep and alpacas in pens all held in the livestock auction in the town.  I had a timed ticket for the late Sunday morning.

It was the 10th anniversary of the exhibition, which has a different sheep for peach year and here are the sheeps lined up in the second photo below on the far left is Tristen, the sheep (see he has a rosette with 10 on it).

Walking along the first aisle I came across this amazing display of Shrek, Fiona and co, which was in a display outdoors in Hawes during the summer. I thought these looked amazing considering they’d been exposed to the elements. This was a community project by Hawes Yarnbombers to raise money for Yorkshire Air Ambulance. 

This year’s project was to make paper chains in yarn, either by knitting or crochet.  I came across this area with the chains and I had no idea where the chain I made would be but it made a colourful sight.

This was mine, made back in June

During the afternoon some sheep appeared

Followed by a sheep dog (of course!)

I loved the bunting on one of the stalls, this was The Threshing Barn, who sold a lot of different fibres, weaving and spinning accessories.

So I did make some purchases as it would be rude not to.  This photo was taken when I returned home.

Some mini skeins and 100g skeins, some sari and wool fibre and a fair isle hat kit (in the net bag).

Stitch holders and markers, crochet hook, a couple of Christmas themed books and an embroidery kit.

And a really enjoyable day out. I can’t go every year and have found that there are yarn shows a little  closer to home now, but it has a lovely atmosphere.

A Yorkshire Break - Out and About

For the second time I've managed to make Yarndale, a yarn festival that was held in Skipton Yorkshire a couple of weeks ago.  I enjoyed this the first time around (back in 2019), which you can read here .  We enjoy visiting Yorkshire and took the opportunity to stay in a B&B in Knaresborough, not too far away from Skipton and visited with my brother-in-law and his wife.  I will do a separate post about Yarndale.

We visited Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal which was a lovely walk and had nice sunny weather to go with it on the Friday.  The Abbey is a ruin and I took a few photos

Studley Royal estate on the site has lakes fed by the nearby River Skel and looked impressive in spite of the dry summer, though the photo I took wasn't brilliant, David looks like a silhouette.  We headed up to the church, from where we could see deer in a nearby field. 

I liked the figures above the church door

On Saturday we visited Eden Camp near Malton.  This was a former Prisoner of War camp, which and an interesting visit as exhibits are in the former huts.  I only took the one photo as I David and his brother were taking lots of photos.  

Sunday saw me at Yarndale in Skipton and there’ll be more of that in the next post.  Back to Skipton on the Monday to visit Skipton Castle then on to Bolton Abbey and Embsay Steam Railway a short distance away. 

There was a self guided tour around the castle so I did take a few pics 

At the railway we had a return trip on an electric auto car from 1901 which almost looks like an old tram. Electricity is generated by a Diesel engine inside the train.  I could not resist the weather report on Bolton Abbey station.

The photos are in the wrong order (grrr) shows the back of the carriage the windows looked like eyes.

The front.  The controls in the cab even looked similar to an old tram.

A restored cab man’s hut on the platform of Embsay station.

Tuesday was our last day and we visited Ripon. David and I last went there over 11 years ago before we returned to Poole after briefly living in Yorkshire. This is small city, not as big and crowded as York, but it has a lovely cathedral and some interesting museums, The Workhouse, the Prison and Police Museum and the Courthouse, so that all took the day. 

Rules of the Workhouse.  There were 2 types of paupers, residents and vagrants.

The monument in the Market Square

Ripon Cathedral

The former town hall

The Courthouse.

It was a beautiful day to be tourists.  The day and holiday was finished off with a fish and chip dinner at Wetherby Whaler in Guiseley (which was once the original Harry Ramsden’s ) in lovely surroundings.

On our way back to Poole, one place we find convenient for lunchtime stop was at Fosse Park shopping centre in Leicester.  We found an art trail of foxes called Fosse Foxes  so we took a few pics and here’s a selection below.

We’re planning our next break in November (birthday month).

Furtling in September

 It’s now October. This year is whizzing by and September just went!  We’ve been away again this time to North Yorkshire and I will write a post about that next.

I have a crochet finish as I completed my Flora’s Fauna blanket which is now on the back of one of the settees. 

This was a crochet a long which started in July and designed by Rosina Crochet and kit from Wool Warehouse .  I really enjoyed the mosaic crochet method (which Rosina demonstrates on her You Tube channel).  There are two sizes of blanket, for which the pattern bands are duplicated in the large size.  

This was a technique called mosaic crochet and it is worked but alternating the rows of colour. It was a very clever design and explained in her You Tube videos.

There are lots of things in progress as time rattles along towards C*******s.  At present I'm working on this, another clown. I made 2 a few years ago and a small person has taken a shine to the clown my Mum knitted years ago which is residing in the spare room.  I hoped to be finished by the end of September, but am confident will be finished by this weekend.  There may be another one to do, but I've managed to raid the wool stash so far, so I've not had to go out and buy yarn to make.

But I have completed another project, crochet this time and here is a snippet of what I've made. This is another finish, which I really pleased with.

I used a 150g yarn cake and that little orange piece is all I have left.

Its good to get ahead of the game and I kept a list of needs for the season and have found we have enough wrapping paper and tags, but need to get cards and I'm pleased I've kept that from last C*******s, so thats a win.

As for sewing I've not done much at all.  I went to West Country Embroiderers and took a workshop free machining flowers, mostly using variegated thread.  Still a work in progress but doesn't look too bad.

And I've also made an ATC this month, on the theme of all the fun of the fair and made this card

A Distress Ink background I stitched the circle and spokes in metallic thread and used crystal sticky gems.

So 'thats all folks' for September, but not bad considering I had a week away in Yorkshire.  More of that in the next post.  But for now I'm linking with Mini Archie's September Furtle Around the Blogosphere (very late, mind, I seem to be playing catch up since I got back!)

September Happenings

 Last week was an eventful one for the country as we said goodbye to The Queen and hello (in the unfortunate circumstances) to a new King.  May she rest in peace.

The picture above is of a pendant that I had to celebrate the Silver Jubilee in 1977 (I was 22 years old then).  Who knew then there would be further jubilee celebrations for the 50th, 60th and 70th years of her reign. 

It was also my sister’s 60th birthday on the 8th September too and we enjoyed an afternoon tea to celebrate, little knowing the sad news we were to hear later.  By coincidence, her husband was born on Coronation Day in 1953. 

I have started working on a Christmas project, it doesn’t look much at the moment. After some years since making a clown I found myself making another. The main body bit is done, but there are lots of bits yet to make.  I’ve given myself a deadline for the end of September. The clown pattern is from a leaflet designed by Jean Greenhowe.

I’ve gone back to making ATC’s and the theme for September is All the Fun of the Fair, and I made a Ferris Wheel one. Usually I make two at a time, one to keep and one to swap, but this time made just the one and I did remember to take a photo. I tried the sign writing, not sure if that worked or not.

So still keeping busy.

Other Explorations in the West Midlands

We stayed in Bromsgrove - to the south west of Birmingham, which gave us easy access to the M42 motorway and other attractions around the area.  On our way to Bromsgrove we visited the Forge Needle Museum in nearby Redditch.  The area was once important for making needles and  there were a lot of companies based in the area.  The museum is on the site of the last mill and is based in what is now a country park.

There are two buildings next to each other - this main one is now used for the displays of needles, pins and fishing flies (because of the same processes as needle production). There were elaborate displays of needles of various sizes and uses, from really tiny ones for cornea grafts to the largest one used for sewing mattresses.  A lot were is display frames like the ones below (and there were a lot of these) which company representatives would use to show to customers

And I really liked the displays of knitting and crochet needle gauges.  Although I didn't take any photos of them, there was a temporary display of Royal Enfield motorbikes, which were made in the Enfield area of the town.  The motorbikes are now made in India.

The next day we visited Gayden, home of Jaguar cars, Land Rovers and the British Motor Museum. so here are a few photos from there.  As we get older there are a lot of cars that we remember from childhood. Others are before then and there was even a life sized Lego Mini!

While I was at the Festival of Quilts David explored another couple of places.  A motor museum in Coventry city centre and also the Birmingham Bus Museum.

Before we left Bromsgrove and moved onto our next destination, Dudley, we visited the Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings.  This is a volunteer run museum open at weekends and is outdoors and they house local buildings that would have disappeared due to development.  Its also home to the national collection of telephone boxes, who knew there was such a thing.  They also had a small old telephone exchange, which a volunteer was explaining how that worked.  So a quirky but interesting place to visit.

Old Tudor chimney pots

A post mill 

There was knitting and crochet interest in the toll house.

The old tin hut chapel

Public phone signs
 

And a Police Phone Box and no, its not like the Tardis inside!

We moved onto a National Trust property, Hanbury Hall, house and walled garden and despite the cloudy weather it didn't rain! 

These small buildings at each corner of the wall had these lovely glass panels in (below)

The gardens were a bit sparse, due to the recent very hot, dry weather.

 

When in Dudley we stayed at a business park, which had nearby restaurants and cinema and came across this sculpture dedicated to James Whale, a film director from the area, who produced Frankenstein and The Invisible Man, amongst other films.

Our last stop before heading home was to visit another NT site, Wightwick (pronounced Wittick) Manor near Wolverhampton, which was the home Sir Geoffrey Mander (of Manders Brothers Paints) an industrialist, MP and art collector.  There is a collection of pre-Raphaelite art and the design of the house itself is very eclectic. A volunteer conducted an architectural tour around the outside of the house which was interesting.  I only took one photo (I think David kept taking pics!) of the outside 

And I took some of the collection in another building.  But it is worth a visit if you are in the area.

So that was our trip to the Midlands.  At the end of this month we are visiting North Yorkshire and will be staying in Knaresborough.  I'm looking forward to visit Skipton and Yarndale wool festival but will be seeing other places that we haven't yet explored.