Where has time gone?

Hello, I can't believe it's mid November already.  I’ve been so busy recently that I haven’t even looked at my photos on my camera. I sat down and sorted through my photos the other day and there were so many lovely memories, of the summer, of our holiday to Italy, and of Yarndale.

We went on holiday to Italy and visited Venice and Verona as well as Monza to watch the Formula One race.

 

Mum and I went to Yarndale and bought a mountain of yarn each.

We also met the people I met up with last year for another Yarndale picnic.

Rob managed to run his first half marathon – the Oxford Half Marathon and I was there to cheer him on.

Also, I got some hamsters. Two adorable girl hamsters called Juno and Hera.

Hooky Holiday

When I went to Yarndale last September I met up with some of my Instagram friends for a picnic (I blogged about it in this post). 

Because the picnic had been such a success and we'd all got on so well, we had mentioned about a weekend away together.  We'd talked about it for so long and were all very excited about it.

So, last weekend, 18 of us went to Knockerdown Cottages near Ashbourne, in Derbyshire for a crafty long weekend together. 

On the Saturday, we had a visit to Griffiths Mill where they talked to us about how their business had started and showed us all of the wool processing machinery.

They had a small shop where I bought 2 skeins of Blue Texel wool.

Then they let us cuddle some lambs which was lovely.

We also got a lovely group photo - with the lambs of course!

After that we went to Ashbourne and browsed the vintage craft fair at the town hall and went to lots of charity shops and antique shops - and looked lovingly at all of the beautiful antique wooden furniture.  We visited the Sticky Fingers shop which is full of pretty gifty things.

Apart from that one busy day, the weekend was mostly spent crocheting, knitting, chatting, and drinking gin and tonics (and making jewellery by melting cheap plastic knitting needles).

Because this much wool is perfectly acceptable for 4 days away... (more about the crate soon)

I'm making blanket squares using Grandma's Knickknacks pattern available for free here

But this was the biggest shopping haul of the weekend - including 4 dresses from charity shops which I then was forced to show to the others as a fashion show.

I can't wait to meet up with everyone again at Yarndale this year but until then we've got a bit of a group project - one of the ladies left a bag of crocheted hexagons and 7 of us were crazy enough to volunteer to join them into a blanket to give back to her.

Summer Holidays

A couple of weeks ago I went on holiday with Rob and his family to Italy.

We were based in the town of Todi, in Umbria (Wiki page here) which was very beautiful and surrounded my stunning views.

While we were there we got a chance to go wine tasting at the Cantina Roccafiore and tried some of their delicious wines.  

It was the first time I had tried dessert wine and I quite liked it.  The scenery around the vineyard was too good to miss.

We were staying in a villa not far from there and most of our time was spent in/ around the pool with the odd trip into Todi.  

This is the website of the villa.

It was my birthday while we were away.  In the morning we went for a coffee in Todi.

Afterwards we went for a meal and everyone made me feel special.

A group of us had decided in advance that we wanted to visit Rome for a couple of days at the start of the second week of the holiday to break the trip up a bit.  Rob and I stayed in a little guest house called 'I Tre Moschettieri' or 'The Three Musketeers'.  I chose it partially based on the name - I thought Rob would like it but it was also in a great location - very close to the Trevi fountain.  The room was lovely and it was called 'la Principessa' which I liked.

The first day was spent wandering around the city.  Unfortunately the Trevi fountain was closed but we still saw a lot in our short time in Rome.  

We saw the Pantheon

The Colosseum

The Victor Emmanuel Monument

And of course - Roman ruins.

In the evening we went out for a drink in an ice bar - the first time I've been to an ice bar.

On our second day in Rome, we went to the Vatican...

Before we left Italy we had to have day in Todi and just explore the town.  The town is on a hill so you get great views.

We visited the Roman cisterns under the town

We even found some yarn bombing and a yarn shop

The snake was very impressive - we also saw crocheted owls, a bike, and toadstools attached to the trees.

We had a great holiday and really loved a chance to relax and enjoy the hot weather.  Back to sunny Sheffield for me now but it's nice to be back and see everyone again.