Crafty at last!!

With June such a busy month at Chester Farm, I have been glad of some time to just sit and finish off a few items and pick up a few UFOs and generally relax.

The first item that I was determined to complete and has been around for 18 months was my Attic24 Woodland blanket.  I was given the pack as a Christmas present in 2017 so my sons will be pleased to see it finished at last.

I have loved making it but I must admit that when I was down to my last few rows I found it was like reading a good book: I didn't want it to end but just go on and on......!  However what to do next?

Well this was a no-brainer because sometime ago I started a High Tea crocheted fusion quilt, using my Mini Mania squares.  

Three down and about 15 to go but as they are all different sizes I am going to have to think outside the box for joining them up so that will be a challenge.

My monthly smocking group still meet and I am currently working on a cover for the Lever Arch file that holds my patterns.  This is picture smocking and I have found it extremely difficult and has certainly stretched me.

These are going to be Bay Trees in blue pots so still some way to go - next will be the tree trunks before I have to do the background.  The pleats must be held together either with smocking on the wrong side (back smocking) or on the front and so that is what I have decided to do.  Something light, easy and quick before I have to complete some Christmas baubles.

Sock club has continued at Purlwise and our latest challenge is to make a pair using proper cables with a cable needle.  Isn't that lucky because I am completing this pair

which is from a Debbie Bliss pattern though the wool is the WI yarn from Hobbycraft.  These are going off to Yarndale for Winwick Mum's sock line for charity along with my Patchwork Socks that I wrote about here.  I have until September but am working on them everyday.

Once again Higham Piecemakers are going to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace in October but unfortunately I have a previous engagement.  However I did go last year and bought a couple of bag patterns as I thought Piecemakers might like to have a go at this one on an 'All day' session.  

I thought this was interesting because of the woven panel on the front.  I have made it in denim though any fabric heavier than a quilting fabric will do.  I am very pleased how it has worked out and providing the strips for the weaving are cut out beforehand it should be finished in a day.  Note: this is a copyright pattern and I will not be printing it off however if any group members who read my blog want to pay for it that is up to them.

Right that is all so I shall settle down to work on one of my WIPs as I channel hop between the Men's Tennis Final at Wimbledon and the World Cup Cricket Final.  Oh it's a hard life!!!!

Day dreaming on my bike

As my regular readers will know I have an e-bike (electric bike) that I try and ride at least once a week in the summer.  Now the weather is fine I cycle to Higham Piecemakers with my panniers on the side stuffed with what I shall need and think, virtuously, that I am taking up one less car parking space!  It has been helped by having my local 'Greenway' extended almost to the hall, so little cycling on a busy main road, but going home about 4.00pm there are always small groups of school children wandering home completely oblivious to what is going on around them, and when I ring my bell usually make some remark like 'Love the bike' in a sarcastic manner, to which I always reply 'So do I'.  I'll show 'em!!

Anyway after  a party yesterday I decided to get up early and go for a cycle ride this morning.  Well I didn't get up early as planned as my bed beckoned, but I did get out later in the morning and I pottered off.  The villages I passed through or by were having/or had had fêtes that are a very common thing at this time of the year.

Sign behind says 'Cluck Off'!!

Local people are trying to fight having a huge number of chicken sheds being built near their houses.  I don't blame them as the smell and flies + the lorries going in and out would be appalling.  The roads are narrow country lanes. quite suitable for biking but not lorries.

I thought how typical this is in the UK - every village trying to raise money for charity, their church, their church hall etc.  I passed the garden that was open and was quite tempted to stop because there were refreshments! 

Carrying on from my last post about Chester Farm and the awful weather we had, by the middle of week 2 things were improving and so they lifted all the pots from the ditch.

 These two photos show the very large pot, probably used for storage.  The pitting on the outside was deliberate as something (I can't remember what!) was laid on the outside before it was fired and the pitting was the result.  The egg tray is large about 12" square so gives some indication of the size and the pot was very heavy.

 Some very decorative pots above with an indication of size by my finger.  It is on occasions like this I wish I had more than one pair of hands!!

 The photo above is the rim of a vessel painted with this simple pattern and I was told it is 'Rushden ware' so locally made.

A collection of pottery pieces all washed and ready for bagging.  I get great pleasure handling these items that are about 2,000 years old and I am probably only the 2nd person to handle them since then - the 1st being the finder.

A Roman floor tile.

 A Roman coin ( one of many found on the site) though I cannot remember who this was.  Apologies for the blurring of the head.

And finally, a really rare find - Roman glass, from the neck of of a glass vessel.  Apparently, as now, broken glass was often re-cycled.

I decided to go on one of the tours that were arranged whilst the dig was going on and though I didn't learn anything new it was still interesting.

 Our archaeologist on the right with the newly renovated farmhouse in the background.

The dig going on in the Orchard, which as it was a Saturday were minus the students as it was the weekend.  The archaeologist's arm on the right pointing out burial sites and 20 more inhumations were found by the end of the third and final week.

Nothing to report on the craft side at the moment as I am trying to finish many different projects, whether crochet, sewing or knitting as I have so many different projects on the go and they MUST get finished.  However the sunny weather and the garden do beckon and I love being outside.