We were ok apart from a small leak in the new sun room, which dripped onto the window sill. I work in Cockermouth, which got badly hit in January 2005, but not too bad this time. Gote Road was closed again and the river was lapping at the edges of some houses. It had gone down a bit from its peek but I got this picture of a swan that was taking advantage of the calm flood water.

You can see the river derwent in the background, which doesn’t show the actual torrent that was flowing, and behind that is the Trout Hotel. [edit] I’m told that at its peak the grass area shown was all under water.

I don’t much enjoy the clocks going back – mostly because I get very hungry!  It suddenly seems such a long wait between rushing around doing the evening outdoor jobs and Graham getting home so we can have dinner.  However, I always enjoy the first Sunday.  Time flies so much usually, but never on this day.  Today I used the extra hour to finish my accounts & tax return.  Hurrah!  So, before the next big thing – the Woolfest stall applications – I shall take a couple of days away from bits of paper, get on with some woolly work & think up some posts for all the photos I’ve taken.  Meanwhile, here’s a taster:

The mohair I began spinning after we’d clipped little goat Katia (stats: 22wpi, 400m, 100g).  This wasn’t Katia’s fleece, but what happened to that was fantastic.  I gave it to Artis-Anne and she turned it into a thing of amazing beauty: from the most perfect rolag ever – like a cocoon for a fairy – a wonderful, silky, wispy yarn.

I’d love to say I’m such a Super-Knitter that I whisked this one up last night…

But that would be a fib!

I love my Work-in-Progress Box!!!  This is a large chest which lives in the sitting room and in it go unfinished projects, designs which don’t seem to be working, and so on.  But last night it turned into one of those Magic Boxes which provide exactly what’s needed.  I went into the box to see if there was something in it which could be frogged for its wool to make a blanket for Pakistan.  (I know, I know, how can someone with a wool business not have wool?  But I’m now completely out of our own wool until it’s been spun and this year I’ve been destashing like mad to charity projects, new knitters, etc. and have very little basic standard good blanket wool).  Anyway, in the Box I found this!  It was a blanket of exactly the right size which had somehow worked its way to the bottom.  When I pulled it out, I remembered that I’d been crocheting it up when my crappy plastic hook broke, so it went into the box until I got round to getting another hook.  Then I forgot it.   And it has a bit of a Story… Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been mustering my thoughts & photos for a nice, long What-I-Did-On-My-Holidays post, but events which have been so far running rather vaguely in parallel universes (accounts…tax return…Woolfest stall applications…forthcoming exhibition…commissions…) have converged.  I have realised with horror that it all has to happen in the same universe at the same time.   So that post will have to wait, but here is something which can’t and it would be wonderful if anyone woolly out there can help a little bit. Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve just got back from a short trip to wales to see my parents, sisters and their offspring. We managed to drive past Dolbadarn and Dolwyddelan, plus an aborted attempt to visit Tomen y Mur and finally managed to see Ewloe on the way home.

Our attempt to visit Tomen y Mur was aborted due to the terrible lack of signs, we found several saying that the fort wasn’t this way. We ran out of time because we were on our way to see Anne.

Ewloe was a lucky find, we hadn’t heard of it before and were looking for somewhere to have lunch. We’d driven past Flint because it didn’t look promising ( though the guide book disagrees so we will have to go back), and ended up in Connah’s Quay