Scavenger Hunt

Monday 29 April 2019

Two Go To Wonderwool

Hello folks.

Yes, Wonderwool has come around again.  Me and Romain had a lovely time ~ as always.  It really is inspiring to go to a yarny or wooly festival even if you don't buy anything.  

I'm always a sucker for a rainbow of yarn, these were two of many.


There were some rather splendid seagulls that had popped up from Bristol.


 The stalls had all sorts of inspiration, these gorgeous blankets were by Jane Crowfoot

I loved this crochet dress on the Inside Crochet Magazine stand. 


There were many more sheep than just these two, and goats and kids as well.

We had a brilliant day despite the cold and the damp.  
Here's what I bought.  Two Jane Crowfoot patterns, a cute little tin with puffins in FairIsle jumpers on the lid, a poster which says it all and two skeins of Weavers Loft yarn.  Quite restrained I think.



That's me for now,  I am making use of the sunshine of this week and getting to grips with the garden.   Hope the sun shines were you are. 
Bye for now.............Clicky Needles.


Sunday 14 April 2019

Back Safe and Sound.

Hello All.

Well I arrived back in the UK safely, and this flight was only a little late.  I came back on an A380, the world's largest passenger plane, with roughly only a third of the passengers.  
We boarded and the cabin staff made an announcement telling us we could sit wherever we fancied as there was a lack of passengers.

 I didn't need to move because I already had a row to myself, the next seat proved to be useful as a drinks tray.  Can I point out here I only asked for a Gin and Tonic, but was given more. 
Sadly though, even with my seat fully reclined, sleep on this night flight, proved elusive.  It took a week to get back into the correct kilter, I was definitely off.

In my last post I promised some knitting news.  With all the airport waiting/flying/not sleeping I finished off my Pink Guacamole socks.  
I love that I have got two pairs of socks from 100g of yarn.  I also think I like these mash-ups more than the original.

That lovely stripy Drops cardigan took a turn for the worst.  
The sleeves were far too tight, I thought it might turn out ok when I joined them to body ~ bottom up pattern ~ but unfortunately it didn't.  The next size up was only two more stitches on the sleeve, not much in 4ply, so it has been frogged.  

Instead I have found a new pattern called Climb Every Mountain by Heidi Kirrmaler.  It's a kind of poncho/jumper thing.

Progress on that is a bit slow because I visited my lovely knitting pal Romain the other day.  We had tried to meet up before I went went away but she has had flu and is still feeling a bit rubbish.  She had, however, started a Diagonapples scarf, the pattern calls for Appletons Tapestry Wool.  It is a garter stitch scarf knit on the bias using lots of different colours.   When I saw her's I was hooked; we are both using 4ply mini skeins rather than tapestry wool.  

My mini skeins came from the Wrigglefingers stall at Wonderwool, last year,
and the year before.
It's going to be bright, that's for sure.
Romain gave me little present too, a key ring with a some mini crochet hooks on 'in case of emergency.'  How cute!  I'm putting my car keys on it.
I was looking randomly through Pinterest the other day and was led to some cord (I can't remember how I ended up there, but that's Pinterest for you.)  This came from Amazon, there are some lovely colours there, I was planning to use it to re-thread some old necklaces that had broken.
Whilst I was looking for said broken necklaces, I came across some little wooden beads that I had.
I spent the next twenty minutes or so making a new jolly necklace, which I'm wearing now.  The broken necklaces?  Not sure where they are.
The last thing to show you are these lovely wooden cotton reels I picked up the other day in Stroud.
They are sitting on my desk, I'm not sure I will use the cotton but for now I'm just enjoying them.
Well, that's me for now, I'm sure there's a whole lot of things that I should be doing...........

Bye for now...................Clicky Needles.

P.S.  As I was finishing this post I received this picture from Mr Clicky from our apartment just outside Chicago. 
A few weeks ago I was sitting on the balcony in the sunshine. It had been warming up nicely.  He's not happy.



Monday 1 April 2019

San Diego I Love You

Hello All

Mr Clicky and me had a wonderful weekend in San Diego.   This was my first time to the west coast of America and I loved it.   The streets had palm trees as I had imagined and the sun shone.
There were beds of Bird of Paradise plants which smelt divine, unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to snap the hummingbird drinking the nectar.
We loved the beautifully sculptured street lights.
The first morning we awoke we found a huge cruise ship at the bottom of the street.
As San Diego is a port there is a rich maritime history.  We spent several hours aboard the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier decommissioned in 1992 now a museum.
There were all sorts of planes on the deck, juxtaposition to the shiny tower blocks behind.

The ship was vast.  There were more planes stored in the hangar deck.


We took the guided tour of the bridge or The Island as it is known in Navy terms.  Looking out you can see two currently serving aircraft carriers across the bay.

Through this porthole you can see the bridge over to Coronado Island which was to be our next destination.
We took the ferry over to the island and walked to the beach.  It was stunning.
The sand sparkled; I dipped my toes in The Pacific but it was a bit chilly!
We sat on the beach for a while watching groups of friends playing football and Frisbee and caught an Uber back across the bridge to our hotel.

The following day we took a bus to the zoo.  I'm not too sure about zoos but the panda sitting in a tree consuming a huge amount of bamboo was worth seeing.
The red panta was kind of cute too.

Animals aside, the park had some interesting flowers



and a cable car, which was pretty high. 

It afforded some amazing views back to the city.
Of course, we didn't spend all our time sightseeing, there was lots of good food, and cocktails in the sun.
Back on the harbour side we watched some mariners working in the rigging of a tall ship.
They were all on safety harnesses but working about 30 feet up balancing on a rope over the sea is not my idea of fun!
At sea level two sea lions had chased shoal of fish into a dead end and were dipping and diving around them.  They didn't even seem to be catching the fish just chasing them.




All too soon our Sunday night flight came around and at the airport there were some art installations.  This one of course, caught my eye.  It was mostly knitted with some crochet as well, it reminded me of jelly fish but maybe it wasn't at all.  Unfortunately there wasn't any information about it.

That trip was last weekend and this Saturday night saw me back at O'Hare checking in to fly back to Heathrow.  Mr Clicky dropped me off, and I bought a few bits and pieces in the shops and waited for my flight.  The plane arrived, incoming passengers disembarked and our crew boarded ready for the journey.  I waited and waited and then a tannoy announcement let the passengers know that there was a technical fault on the plane that was being worked on.  This amazing sunset kept people occupied for a while, but things were starting to get restless.
 I sat and knitted from the toe of my sock to the heel and we were offered a food voucher because of the long wait.  I found myself in the bar enjoying a gin and tonic (food? no!) with two fellow passengers and eventually we were told that our flight was cancelled.  By now it was 11pm and we were offered hotels and food vouchers.  

I called Mr Clicky and caught a taxi back to our apartment.  The alternative flight offered was 9am Sunday morning which wasn't too attractive (I'm not not keen on 4am rising) so we phoned British Airways in London and I'm now booked on a  Tuesday evening flight.  The waiting around at the airport was a drag but chatting with strangers good fun, and I am having a few unexpected days more here, not so bad.

That's me for now.  Next post, knitting news, not all good. 

Bye for now......................Clicky Needles.