We got an early start for our first leg of our trip to England. Our first stop was at Chesters Fort at Hadrian's Wall.
I took a ton of photos so Skip could see it through my eyes. He taught British history for 30+ years and would have loved to have been with us that day.
Over on the east side, once can see the Wall on the other side of the River Tyne.
Only a small portion of the fort is excavated. Here one can see that only a couple of feet of the pillars are exposed.
The museum was amazing. All these antiquities were on display and not behind glass or out of reach.
Skip and I need to go there some day.Before leaving, we grabbed a quick snack and headed for Harrogate. We needed to get there in plenty of time for us to explore the last afternoon of the first annual British Wool Weekend.
Oh, what wonderful things we saw!This is Pat Osborne's whimsical "The Cat on Grandma's Patchwork".
I had seen bobbin lace at Louisbourg, NS a couple of years ago but that was with 36 bobbins. This woman was working with a mind-boggling 80 bobbins! The thread was like, well, thread!
This artist was demonstrating wet-felting
and was creating these beautiful flowers before our eyes.
I really like this 'sheepy' felted picture.
This yarnery, Blacker Designs, had a large display of their house brand yarn. These were the natural colours of their Corriedale/Alpaca blends.
and some dyed Herdwick, Manx, Ryeland and Jacob/Mohair yarn.
This company, Natural Legacy, makes felted wool caskets including ones for cats and dogs.
Ingrid Wagner does things on a large scale.
For a donation of £1 you can knit a couple of stitches using 70mm needles (I did the math - 220mm circumference divided by π) and giant yarn. Here, Linda is giving it a go.
At the end of the row, it took 6 people to turn the swatch.
I just had to have a copy of this limited edition print called 'Gypsy'.
A variety of rug-hooked items were for sale in this booth.
This was all the loot I acquired at the British Wool Weekend.
It was a small wool show but I think it will grow year by year.We were picked up at 4:30pm and taken to our new hotel - The Old Swan in beautiful Harrogate.
We knew it was swanky when we opened the wardrobe and there were robes and slippers for us.
The tastefully-tiled bathroom with the heated floor was a dead give-away, too.
Back in 1926, Agatha Christie (British crime writer) learned her husband was having an affair. She then disappeared after which a massive manhunt was launched - wooded areas were combed and bodies of water were dragged for her body. Finally after 11 days she was discovered at the Old Swan registered under the name of her husband's mistress. She didn't ever explain her mysterious actions.
Fantastic show Geri...I luv your picture of Gypsy :-)
ReplyDeleteI will have to try some of that British Breeds Yarn!