Pembrokeshire

I had a lovely week, the wind blew a little too strongly, but apart from that we only had one day of rain.
Oh, it also rained as we took the tent down, it's now sat in the back of my car waiting for a dry day (possibly tomorrow) waiting for me to pull it out and dry it.
We didn't get any canoeing done, but did climb nearly every day. We also did a couple of morning's body boarding which caused great amusement trying to squeeze me in to the same wet suit I've had since I was 15, now while I haven't grown vertically since then, nor indeed much in any direction the wet suit is now snugger than it once was!
Now I have a week and a half until school starts, I'd better do some actual work! (oh and get knitting, I have 2 projects I need finished for a wedding the weekend before we go back!)

More tears

This has made me cry. If you're not a knitter it might not mean much to you, but just the act of investing all that time in something as a gift is enough to make anyone teary.
All those women by the way are the knitting equivalent of Premier League Footballers, they're best selling authors, and very clever women.

I'm off to Pembrokeshire for a week, I hope to return with recharged batteries, and a sense of peace from the place that truely is heaven on earth.

Grandad

My Grandad died on the 13th of July, he was 83. He'd been on holiday in Spain and fell and broke his hip. He never recovered. The memorial service was last week while I was in Switzerland. I was told he'd died while on the school Duke of Edinburgh trip while half way up a mountain. The whole thing seems completely surreal. I never imagined him dying yet, he'd been partially blind for 10 years, and had a brush with cancer of the oesophagus but was as healthy as you could hope for in someone who was 83. I never dreamed he's die yet, he was my last surviving grandparent and I can't believe he didn't get to see any of his grand children get married or to see the birth of any of his great grandchildren.

He was never an affectionate Grandad, and definitely not the sort to look after my brother and I while my parents went and did something. He mellowed in old age, and while he never said he loved me I know without doubt that he did. The reason I'm writing all this now is that today I went over to his house my family and met up with my Aunty who has come over from America. We went through the boxes in the loft, and it was so tragic how little there was. We saved a couple of things, but so much has gone to the charity shop. In a lifetime he collected very little in terms of value to leave behind for us to remember him by. However I have got my Grandma's wedding ring, she died when I was 2, aged just 60. It's not worth very much, it's only a couple of millimetres wide and 9 carrot gold, but has a simplicity that I love.

It's taken until today for me to realise that he was gone, that he wouldn't need another pair of hand knitted socks this Christmas, and that he wouldn't be able to tell us inappropriate dirty jokes while drinking a pint of his beloved beer. He used to let me and my brother have a drink from his pint if we were good, I always thought he'd be around to do the same to my children.
My Grandad's favourite tipple was whisky, which I can't stand, but I have got a glass of sloe gin to drink to him.
Rest in peace Grandad, I hope there's a good pub wherever you are.

Switzerland

A brief selection of my photos from Switzerland. We took 26 Guides and Young Leaders and 7 adults overall it was an amazing trip, the weather to start off with was a little damp, including hail storms and thunder and lightning. By the end of the week however it was warm and sunny, with amazing views from the tops of the mountains. We shall gloss over the 24 hour coach journeys, and being pulled off the coach to go through customs at 1.30am, apparently home office instructions are that all youth groups must go through customs in case they've been on terrorist training camps....

Hghlights have to be the views from the top of the Schilhorn and watching a group of teenage girls relax and not worry about what they looked like, and what others were thinking about them.











Oh and apparenly when we next go I might be organising it.... (PS. I also found a wool shop, and yes, I bought wool!)

I'm back

I've arrived back safely from Switzerland ahead of schedule. the RSS feed reader has been caught up with (111 blog posts), and 139 emails have been read or deleted!
I still haven't opened my bag, I still need to shower but I have had an all important cup of tea. Photos are going to be forthcoming.

On my travels

I leave tomorrow for a trip to Switzerland with Guiding, I am paying to spend money with 30 Guides on a coach for 24 hours, at times I think I need my head examining....
I think the packing is done, the important things like what knitting to take were picked out several days earlier less important things like "do I have enough clean knickers?" were only thought about last night. The answer by the way was no, I went to sleep to the sound of a washing machine attempting take off. It needed this much time because the weather to be quite honest has been dreadful, I've done a few climbing instruction sessions this summer and have worn water proofs for every single one. Most summers they might get put on once maybe twice if I'm unlucky. My legs haven't seen daylight for weeks, I am ready for Switzerland to be hot and sunny!

See you all in 10 days or so....

Until next year

The tour de france has just finished which means that it's time to look back on what I managed to knit and spin. This year got interupted by a trip to Scotland, and this time last year I hadn't learnt to spin yet so there was no repeat of last years mammoth effort!


I have however knitted a pair of socks from my own handspun, and a few squares for a p/hop afghan which is going to be auctioned in September.


On the spinning front I've managed 3 skeins in total.

98m of laceweight silk, just enough to work out I don't like spinning silk, and too little to actually be useful! It is pretty though.

Some sparkly fingering weight which is my first spindle spun yarn.

And some laceweight Teesdale wool.



Just so you don't start getting the wrong idea about me I also finished these over th last few days... the least said the better, they're going to the frog pond I've now knitted 5 individual legwarmers in an effort to make 2 complete pairs and suffered to get the sizing right on all of them. I declare defeat, the yarn is lovely soft alpaca, it can be something else!