Way back in October last year I posted in the Shed on ravelry "Maybe we could have a Shed meet up somewhere..." (post 11174, if you want to see it).
And somehow, that innocent one-liner grew and grew until it became "The Sheddite Gathering".
After much discussion and lots of local knowledge assistance we plumped for the last weekend in January (neatly forcing me not to leave my tax submission until the last possible minute) and we decided to go to York because it was easy to travel to, on a mainline rail station, and within reach of a good number of day-tripper Sheddites as well.
We decided to stay at the Bar Convent, which far from being oxymoronic was a truly fabulous place to stay. A simple, no fuss B&B which crucially had a recreation room and a kitchen available to guests.
This is the main entrance and coffee area. It might have been made for us.
Just look at those fabulous colours! And that floor...
There were no unnecessaries. No TV's in the bedrooms. No Full English Breakfast unless you wanted to pay extra for it (the continental alternative was just as good). No frilly flowery bedlinen. Single rooms (mostly). Shared bathrooms. I think only three rooms had en suite facilities.
Even the towels were appropriate.
We arrived in a very ad hoc manner, off various trains and from as far as Aberdeen, Bath and Brighton. In fact ad hoc describes the whole event rather well. No real plan other than to relax, knit, talk, spin, tatt, walk, eat, crochet, admire... and listen to the Archers (almost) en masse on Sunday morning!
Everyone had their own weekend, we formed into groups, meshed, separated, wandered off, bumped into other people, and then moved off to try something else. People Knitted in Public, tried on half finished socks in public (you know who you are), bought dinner at Sainsbury's, Marks and Spencer, the local Chinese takeaway, and the fish and chip shop. We drank tea in the Convent cafe, Costa, Browns, Betty's and Cafe Nero.
The only think we did together, really, was where to go to buy our buttons! (And we didn't even do that at the same time but in mini-groups so we didn't scare the staff. Well, there were (I think) 24 of us!
Duttons!
Not just buttons though...
It was like a little bit of heaven.
The ceiling was stunning.
The display cabinets were beribboned.
And the Fire Evacuation arrangements were...
... unusual.
More tomorrow.
n
Our street hasn't been gritted or cleared, and actually, although it's a bit of a pain, I completely agree with the council's decision to keep main roads clear and safe rather then spreading it thinly over all the roads in the county. This is exceptional weather and we just have to accept that normal rules don't apply.
I was thinking the other day about the books I have read which feature snowy weather.
Who wants to be a book detective?
n
"What I did on my holidays"
on the blackboard?
Well our activities have been very home-based because of this.
About a foot of snow.
It's showing no signs of thawing either, and more heavy snow is forecast for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
We have been out a couple of times, and on one occasion needed four men to push the car to get us over the snow-hump between our parking spot and the road. But mostly we have stayed at home.
Gavin has written today about the things he has learned while on holiday. So in the same vein, I think I'll join him.
1. I learned that pancakes are not just sweet.
1 egg (Thank you ladies for continuing to lay even though your bottoms are snowy.)
120g SR flour
milk - about 120ml but generally enough to make gloop rather than batter.
leftover spinach
leftover feta (a matchbox sized lump, grated)
mix gloopy ingredients, leave to get even more gloopy for an hour and for the gluten to come out to play, add more milk if necessary or a tad more flour if it's a bit runny.
add spinach and feta
put in dollops on baking sheet on aga simmering plate (or heavy non-stick frying pan)
eat
2. I learned that moving son's possessions onto landing, husband's office into son's room, Yarn Yard HQ into husband's office and then son into former YYHQ is possible in one day. It will probably take another week to make sense of new YYHQ and have it anything like ready for a photo-shoot. Maybe two weeks.
3. I learned several new garden bird species (as long as they stand still) but that when a large hawk flying a few inches past the windscreen - so close I think there were feather marks on the snow - and you are driving along a slippery road, all thoughts of trying to register what colour it's legs are and whether the greater coverts are black, brown or grey are secondary to trying not to hit it. I think it was a female Sparrowhawk, because they are twice as big as the males, but the main thing is that it didn't become road-kill.
4. I learned (or re-learned) to crochet.
More about this soon.
5. I (we) watched all the recorded episodes of Wallander on the digiboxthing, and I now have a yen to learn a bit of Swedish.
You've got to love a language where a snow flake is called a snöffinga, haven't you?
So, back to work tomorrow. What did you do on your holidays?
n
We were standing - well dancing about, actually - in the garden at one o'clock this morning and it was like daylight. Amazing.
The vegetable patch looks like an unmade bed (which I suppose it is), with a snowy duvet hurled on top in an attempt to tidy the place up a bit.
And that earthenware pot in the middle of the bed really does have about nine inches of snow on it, and the earth in the pot is another three inches below the rim so you can see how much snow we've had.
A simply breathtaking start to twenty-ten.
The only slight problem was that it was pretty chilly and I couldn't find my hat... so I grabbed the knitted tea-cosy which was lying on the aga, and it did the job magnificently!
Thank you for being with me through 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.
Happy New Year. I hope it brings you everything you wish for, and more.
n
Before Christmas my neighbour came to the door with a brown paper carrier bag and a hopeful expression. He had been to a show at Hopetoun House, and had seen a bargain, a completely gorgeous 100% alpaca piece of drapey cardigan-like wrappyness, yours for the normal price of £135 and his for £30 because of this.
A nine stitch wide hole.
Bearing in mind that this garment was knitted in fine yarn I was doubtful whether I could repair it, but I smiled confidently and offered to try and see if it could be done.
First I captured all the live stitches onto sewing thread and then repaired the laddered columns. You can see in the first photo that some went back four rows. Then I threaded sock yarn through the stitches to secure them. That's the sock yarn (toddy) in the photos above. As you can see the garment-yarn is considerably finer. The hole was not much more than an inch wide, so 9st/inch.
These are 2mm Kollage square dpns.
I chose a 1000m/100g British wool laceweight and dyed it the palest stone colour I could manage. The undyed is in the skein above and the dyed yarn is below.
And then I kitchenered.
It looks a bit of a dogs breakfast. The ends were woven in to secure them.
The colour match wasn't too bad from the reverse side.
But I was unhappy that it was (to my eyes) so glaringly different from the right side.
The other problem was that it looks rather uneven. I'm not sure I could have done any better though because there were no ends! What I mean is, when I examined it at the beginning there was no loose yarn. Scroll back up to the first two pictures and you'll see what I mean. The hole is there, but there is no clue as to WHY it's there, no loose threads or snipped ends or fraying, just a bit of puckering on one side. I didn't want to poke about too much for fear of making the damage worse, but there was nothing trailing from the gap... and that's why I had to dye fresh yarn for the repair.
So in order to make the repair secure I had to "catch" anything which might possibly, maybe, perhaps be the wisp of a loose yarn, and incorporate it into the darn.
Fortunately the hole was inside the beautifully draping collar and also near to the back. As David (neighbour) said, someone would have to be very, very, very close to the back of his wife's neck to see it!
n
The Shed.
It has snowed quite a lot more since this was taken.
Eglu. I hope the snow is acting as insulation because this looks more and more like an igloo, not an eglu as the days go past with frequent fresh snowfall.
Steps at the front of the house leading up to the road.
The rosemary bush in the front garden.
The path to the steps.
It looks alpine. Might need to break out the skis!
Hard to believe that this intrepid chicken (Faith) was cooped up in a battery house this time last year. She is positively gallus, which is appropriate since Gallus gallus is the latin name for a domesticated chicken, and "gallus" is also an Scots adjective which means daring, self confident, cheeky, stylish and impressive.
I think you'll agree that Faith is all of these things, despite the fact that the snow is giving her a rather wet bottom!
It's Christmas Eve and there are presents to wrap and a trifle to make, so I had better get a bend on.
Many, many thanks for all the Christmas wishes. We at Yarn Yard Base Camp hope that your Christmas is peaceful and that you are with those you love, and who love you.
Natalie, Gavin, Simon and Adam.
