Saturday, April 26, 2008

Out of the labyrinth...

I had written a post all about my holiday but then there was a slight technical hitch. I arrived back from the Lake District and promptly came down with Labyrinthitis. Which is a totally crappy thing to have. Fortunately I was still at Mum's in Lincoln, rather than on my own down south. This meant that, not only did I have a week away on holiday, I then had 10 days off sick, which was a total pain. I went back to work on Thursday and have just about caught up with everything, and opened nearly three weeks worth of post (eeeeeek!), but I missed a meeting with my chartership mentor so that's delayed that for another couple of months.

I actually have several bits of posts written, as I got various podcasts listened to and books read


whilst I was away/being ill, so I will add those in over the next few weeks. I also haven't had a chance to reply to any comments from last time as I only had v. limited internet access whilst I was at Mum's, so apologies for that.

It seems strange now in the sunshine but we actually went on holiday in the snow! The mountains looked rather pretty...


Occasionally the sun came out and we went to Holehird Gardens:

and Wordsworth's Birthplace at Cockermouth

and attempted to go to Dove Cottage at Grasmere, only it was rather expensive to go in, so we didn't and went and had lunch in Grasmere instead.

I had a wonderful evening at the Keswick Stitch n Bitch, but forgot to take any pics. Anyway, it was fun and great to meet some more knitters and see what they were making.

We also had a day in Penrith (the church hall has a very reasonably priced cafe run by volunteers and serves supremely enormous jacket potatoes) and I spent rather a lot of time in the Bluebell Bookshop and then in Indigo Knits, where I bought a skein of yummy hand-dyed sock yarn.


and then perused the charity shops. Aren't charity shops in other places just fab?!

Monkey had a bit of an exhausting holiday, what with his family coming along (this is his cousin, MJ, who'd come along with my godmother)


and my nephews


And as for knitting... Well, I didn't get that much done due to small people being around. But I did learn entrelac from Yarn Forward magazine and started the Sarah bag pattern from there. This will be for a friend (whose birthday was actually at the beginning of April but I warned her it will be very late!). The yarn is James C Brett Marble Chunky on 5mm needles.

That's all for now! More updates soon...

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oooo, the entrelac is beautiful!

Anonymous said...

The entrelac is beautiful, but I was going to coo over the reading list - how did you get on with Karen Armstrong. I always get stuck partway through, although I think what she has to say is fascinating.

Have you read any of Jenny Uglow's other stuff - I think I read one she wrote about Mrs Gaskell, which was excellent (as in I think it was by Jenny Uglow, I'm pretty sure it was about Mrs Gaskell and it was definitely excellent!)

Labyrinthitis - definitely nasty - I hope you're properly over it now.

I'm going to stop now - my fingers (or finters as they prefer) seem to have some objectioin (see!) to conventional spellings at the mometn...

Mary Anne said...

oooh, I'm sorry you had that ear thingie, kiddo. It's horrible feeling dizzy and vertigoish. Glad you are feeling better now.

Monkey looks a little stressed with all the other family around him. I think he needs a holiday on his own ^.^

Your entrelac is gorgeous. Wonderful work you do.

Linda said...

I hope you feel better soon. The holiday sounded great and those mountains, lovely!

Cat Feathers said...

Oh you poor thing! My OH had Labyrinthitis a few years back and it really is horrible. Glad you're feeling better now, and I suppose at least you got to enjoy the Lakes before coming down with it rather than duing! Isn't it stunning round there?

Craftydramaqueen said...

Glad you are feeling better. I had no idea what labyrinthitus was until I clicked the link. Entrelac is lovely and u are very clever!

Rosie said...

Oh, no, have you completely got rid of all the symptoms now? M(I've a friend who has permanent hearing loss and balance problems).

I adored Uglow's book, really felt as if I was living then and there with Thomas and his family. Haven't read Armstrong's book on the Bible, but have read many other titles by her, and always been fascinated by them.

And the entrelac is beautiful!

dreamcatcher said...

Love your entrelac, the Marble is a great yarn.

Hope you are all better now!

The Frederic Wentworth, Captain book looks interesting, I'm off to look it up!

Silvia said...

Im glad to heare you recovered. Isn't the Lake district beautiful? I only been for the first time last year but want to go again to explore more.
The entrelact is lovely I need to have a go at that.
And thank you for visiting my blog. :)

acrylik said...

Glad to hear you're feeling much better now, sounds pretty awful.

Looks like you had a great time round the Lakes! Loved reading all about your trip. Stunning photos, thanks for posting them.

Your entrelac is lovely, I shall have to look out some of that yarn, it looks great in the entrelac.

Anonymous said...

Hi

You have my sympathy Labyrinthitis is nasty. My mom had it last year while we were in Cornwall on holiday and at first we didn't know what it was. Glad you are better.

Best wishes
Sarah