Adventures in York

Since I've been in Sheffield I haven't really explored the surrounding areas so on Saturday I decided to take the train to York.  I haven't been to York for years so I thought it would be a nice day out.

As soon as I got to York I could see the Minster in the distance.  

The Minster is really stunning.  I didn't go inside but I walked around the outside and got lots of lovely photos.

After that, I went for a bit of a wander - I had a map from the tourist information so I knew roughly where I wanted to go.  I looked up tea shops to visit in York before I went so when it was time for a break I sought out Crumbs Cupcakery.  

Ok so I got 2 cupcakes during the day... But look at how cute everything is!

The city is surrounded by stone walls and one of my aims of the day was to walk around all of the walls.  

I managed to walk all the way around but my feet were so tired by the end of it.

York has a little old street called 'The Shambles.'

While I was wandering down there I managed to find a lovely little yarn shop called Ramshambles where I treated myself to some yarn made in Yorkshire.  This is West Yorkshire Spinners DK printed yarn and the colour is called 'Owl' - too perfect!

I couldn't resist starting knitting with it straight away so I'm making a shawl using the 'Age of Brass and Steam' pattern.

Looks like I've found my new handbag project already.  Besides, I was just getting into practice for buying wool at Yarndale next weekend.

FO Friday - Clearing some WIPs

I love the feeling of showing off my finished projects.  I managed to lose my crafting motivation over the last few months - I had so many big projects on that I felt overwhelmed and that I was getting nowhere so it's a thrill to be able to show off three projects I've completed recently.

Firstly, I finished the mittens I was working on last week.

They were super-quick to make and are nice and toasty to wear.  The pattern is: Super Chunky Mittens by Hannah Storms

I also managed to complete the granny square cushion I was making before I moved into my flat over a year ago (and I'm leaning on it as I write this post).  The cushion is made up of 50 granny squares and it joined together using the join-as-you-go method.

And finally, I finished my first shawl project, Trillian by Martina Behm - also the first thing I've made in 4ply yarn.

I actually miss working on this project - it was perfectly portable and lived in my handbag for any time I had a spare second to knit.  Now I need to find a new project I can carry around with me.

WIP Wednesday - Preparing for Winter

This year I've decided not to leave my winter crafting till it gets colder - last week I started making some mittens out of super-bulky yarn.

The pattern is 'Super Chunky Mittens' by Hannah Storms and the yarn is Patons Fab Big in wine.

Because it's such huge yarn, the mittens knit up so quickly - I'm halfway through the second mitten already.

They are so warm - makes me want to knit everything in super-bulky.

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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.

Easing back into it...

Recently it's been too hot to knit or crochet - it makes you want to just sit around and relax.

I made a mini collage of photos I've taken since my last blog post (far too long ago).  Most of them are from my holiday with Rob to Paris but I've also got photos from when we watched the Tour de France here in Sheffield, a teddy bears picnic, and when we went sightseeing in Oxford.

Awareness Blanket

The Ravelry swap group I'm part of has a sister group that is making awareness blankets for the various awareness months throughout the year (link to the group here).  Well, May is Stroke Awareness month and I've volunteered to be the host for this month.  The poster for the group is below.

As the host it's my job to collect the squares that people make, make them into a blanket, then donate them to raise awareness to a charity or ward.

So far I've got 13 squares - they are actually more red than this photo makes them look.

If you want to contribute to the stroke awareness blanket please email me for more information or visit the Ravelry group for details of the other awareness months

My Skiing Holiday

I've finally found a chance to sit down and blog about my holiday to Val d'Isere.  Last week at work I was so busy with training that it's been great to have a nice relaxing weekend.

The holiday was with some people from work.  Rob has been skiing since he was about 3 and I thought this would be my best chance to start learning to ski along with other beginners.

I was having beginner skiing lessons along with another of my friends so I spent most of my time on this slope:

As a beginner this slope is scary enough and I fell over a lot at first.  I did get to do some proper slopes during my week of lessons including the ones at the top of this mountain.  You can barely see me in this photo because of the contrast with the snow.

The views from here were amazing.  We got to see Mont Blanc on one of the days too but I was too busy zooming down a hill to take a photo of it.

We rode around a lot in ski lifts - here I am on the way from La Folie Douce.  Sunglasses were needed for most of the holiday because the snow was so bright.  It was also pretty warm for the whole week.

From the cable cars you could see a long way around the valley.

An apres-ski party at La Folie Douce.  It was crazy skiing towards the club with the music belting out.  But it did feel like a good reward to be there after skiing down the mountain to there.

On the last day we took the cable cars around the whole of Val d'Isere to all of the viewpoints to photograph the beautiful scenery.

Rob is hoping I'll want to go skiing again next year with him and I think I'd like to.  Although it was so tiring it was also good fun once I stopped worrying about falling over.

8-3-14 Catching Up

Last week I was away in London on a training course and had time to wander around Oxford Street and Soho with a few friends.  I had another chance to visit a cupcake shop  I went to last time I was there (The Hummingbird Bakery) and get more tasty cakes.

It wasn't as wild as when I was there last time with a friend and we went to King's Cross station and Platform 9 3/4.

With going away this week I didn't mention that I went to an indoor ski slope the week before and had my first beginner ski lesson to prepare for my ski holiday to Val d'Isere in a few weeks time.  I'm going with 2 of my closest work friends and luckily one of them is a beginner too.

The ski lesson was actually ok and helped me to relax a bit about the holiday.  

Prettifying my Desk

My desk at work was looking a bit boring - not at all pretty and colourful like my flat.  Admittedly it is mostly covered in paper when I'm working on drawings.

I decided that it needed some crochet treatment, namely a bunting because it is my favourite simple decoration and it brightens rooms up so much (I have 3 in my living room now).

After browsing Ravelry for a while I found this cute little pattern for a bunting which I modified a bit to make smaller flags.

Yesterday I attached the bunting to my computer screens (with some funny looks from my line manager) and I'm thrilled by how cute it looks.

It makes the desk feel like it's really mine now.