Seems like Monthly then...

Yeah, I know, no updates for a while. I've been busy!

Anyway, here I am.

So, what's been going on? Well, I went to Woolfest. Around this I wrapped a week away in the lake district. Beautiful part of the country by the way.
We started off going to Cambridgeshire, to visit Boyf's folks and friends. It was Livestock again (I'm sure I've mentioned it before) I thought it was better this year, though that could be down to the cherry beer I was drinking rather than pints o' wine. Anyway...
After that we headed off up the M6. Like, literally the whole way up the M6. We stopped off at Stafford Castle, which is approximately half way. We spent three nights in Bowness on Windermere, which is a lovely little town on the side of the lake. We spent a day in Kendal. I have a couple of points to make about Kendal:

1. The one way system is horrible if you're not big on driving. Take a bus.
2. The Chocolate shop is amazing, go there and have chocolate instead of lunch.
3. The Quaker Tapestry is beautiful. They also have an amazing quilt there, and the garden is lovely and peaceful. You can't take pictures inside so you'll have to take my word for it. Go there. (They do have a cafe which is meant to be good too, but we didn't try it after all the chocolate!)

I'm sure there's loads more to do, but that's my impression of Kendal.

We also spent a day on the lake, on a big tour boat and got sunburned. (No pictures of that I'm afraid)

When we set off for our next destination, we went via Coniston to see the Bluebird exhibition in the Ruskin Museum. That was really interesting. They also had some local lace samples and local wool products available there. (Herdy too, which is a new initiative using Herdwick wool, that's the breed of sheep Beatrix Potter was interested in) and then on to the Bond Museum in Keswick. We also went to the Cars of the Stars exhibition. If you only have time to do one of those, go to the Bond museum. Neither takes more than an hour or so, but the Bond museum is much more interesting, and the staff were nicer.

We then spent three nights in Cockermouth, which is where Woolfest happens. More on that soon.
We arrived in Cockermouth on the Thursday night and had plenty of time to check out local eateries. We found a great little Mediterranean cafe for lunch (we had lunch there twice!) and the restaurants were all lovely too! There's a real-ale microbrewery pub called the Bitter End. It's a lovely town, and is central for walking and cycling too. (We didn't do much walking due to it being so hot, and no cycling.)
So, Friday?
Friday was Woolfest
Woolfest is organised by a cooperative in Cumbria called the Wool Clip. It's a place where all things fibery come together under one roof. There were sheep, alpaca, angora goats, angora rabbits, more sheep, spinning wheels and supplies, so much yarn in so many beautiful colours, both dyed and undyed. I had a blast.
I met some other knitters who like Howies clothing.
And I bought a haul! Much fun!

On the Saturday we went for a bit of a walk, and then on to the Jennings brewery for a tour. It was an interesting tour, I'd recommend it. You also get beer, so Boyf would recommend it too.

-o0o-

So, moving on, what's going on now?
Well, I have 10 projects on the needles, officially. I'm only working on a couple though. The one I want to mention is inspired by my haul at woolfest, and also by the Log Cabin blanket that Yarn Harlot is making. I'm using one of each rare breed yarn to make a square-pattern cushion. (a throw is beyond my patience and budget for this yarn!) The lightest one is Wensleydale, the darkest is Jacob, The dark grey is Herdwick and the light grey that's in progress is Swaledale. Cool huh?
I'm finding YH's explanation about the difference between "pick up" and "pick up and knit" to be invaluable, so it's here, if you're doing anything where you need to pick up stitches you should check it out (unless you already know the difference!)

Well, that's all folks.