Friday, June 27, 2014

Bradford-on-Avon Holiday 2014: the crafty stuff

It's nearly a month since we went on holiday, but I'm just getting caught up now!

This is the crafty post, I'm planning to do other ones about other things we did on holiday too.

We visited the Kaffe Fassett exhibition at the American Museum in Britain. Although photography was allowed inside the exhibition, it wasn't entirely clear whether not publishing the photos includes blogging or not, so I'm playing safe and only putting up pics taken outside, where the site had been decorated with knitting too.


The exhibition itself was fun, and a great opportunity to get up close to many of Kaffe's works. In the same building there was an exhibition called "New world, old maps",  which featured a lot of historic maps, and was a good place to park the OH whilst I went round the Kaffe stuff.

We didn't have long after that, but did manage a very quick whizz round the permanent museum displays, which cover various aspects of US history. Could have done with longer there, but we'd arranged to meet up with a friend so had to move quickly!



There were some lovely shops in Wiltshire and Somerset, and this is what I bought. I'm on a yarn diet at the moment, but I had a couple of things that I was looking out for, and which I succeeded in finding! First up was six balls of Rowan Purelife British Sheep Breeds chunky wool, to make an Owls sweater with. I bought this at Great British Yarns in Bath, which is a lovely shop that I visited last year as well.

Also in Bath is a little patching and quilting shop, Country Threads, which I loved wandering around admiring the fabric.

I bought some tiny buttons here, for the Owls sweater, plus some sheep buttons because they're cool!

Just round the corner from Country Threads is Wool.

At this one I bought another ball of Rico baby classic DK, to help with using up the bits of balls of this I have left over. And a couple of things of sock reinforcing thread, also useful for sewing things together.

Meanwhile, where we were staying, in Bradford-on-Avon, there was a lovely yarn shop called Jumble Jelly.





At this one I bought some Eucalan wool wash, some stitch markers (which have no joins in the loop, as I have had trouble with some slipping stitches when knitting with 4ply) and some fun badges to decorate my knitting bag with.



Sunday, June 22, 2014

Garden at the beginning of the month June 2014

I'm really late doing Garden at the Beginning of the Month this time, as we actually went away on holiday on 31st May, and then I didn't get much time when we got back.

I took this photo immediately before we left on 31st May. The lawn's looking pretty lush and green, after I spent ages scarifying it and then brushed soil into it to feed it. That really did for my muscles!


When we got back everything had grown enormously. The salad tubs (sown at 2-3 week intervals) had all grown. The smallest one had only been sown just before we went away!

 The sweet peas were suddenly halfway up their supports, and the bay tree had sprouted lots of new leaves.

 The Sweet Williams were flowering


The raspberries have grown HUGE.


As has the rhubarb!


And the new blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes are covered in fruit.


The sempervivums will be flowering soon.


One of the hydrangeas is already covered in flowers.


The containers which I planted up with Fuchsia Sunray (grown from cuttings) and Nemisia are beginning to fill out.


I love the shape of the alliums!