A day out to New Lanark

Today I've spent the day out and about. My aunt is visiting from Canada and my uncle and aunt are visiting from England so I joined them and my parents on a day out to New Lanark. Its a World heritage site village which had working cotton mills and was run by a social reformer called Robert Owen, who believed in better working and living conditions for his workers. The mill buildings now house visitor centres plus they also spin and dye yarn for sale.

I took a ton of pictures whilst I was there. New Lanark is in the Clyde valley and the falls of Clyde are nearby, making the surrounding area really pretty.

The view towards the mill.



Across the River Clyde.



Wool bobbins being wound



A huge carder for cotton fibres.



I bought some yarn whilst I was there - some DK weight wool. There's only one ball here but I did buy more than one - enough to knit a cardigan in fact.



Here's a slide show of all pictures, including some pictures of my various relatives acting a little silly.



All in all it was a great day and really interesting to hear about this side of Scottish history. It was also good to have a relaxing day as so far this week has been pretty busy. I was working nights at the weekend then I'm back on night shift again Thursday/Friday. Then its a couple of hours sleep and off to a cousin's wedding on Saturday afternoon so its going to be a little hectic for the rest of the week too.
Oh and back on to nights on Monday night. I think I might be a little worn out next week.

Knit in Public day 2009 Glasgow style

Yesterday was World wide knit in public day. In previous years, various things have prevented me from taking part but this year, various Glasgow based knitters joined together to have a knitters' picnic in Kelvingrove park in Glasgow. Prior to the event, the weather reports were unpromising and rain was suggested. However, the weathermen and women got it wrong yet again and it was a sunny and warm day.

Umbrellas were surprisingly used as parasols and cupcakes were eaten.



There was knitting in the sun.




There was even Knitters pass the parcel with prizes from Purplejen



And a thrown yarn prize from Karie after the planned yarn and spoon race was cancelled due to no one being able to move after all the cupcakes and other food.




Karie has a group shot on her blog Glasgow knitting picnic

All in all, a great day and it looks likely to happen again, hopefully some time later in the summer.

Post weekend update

I'm back after a fun weekend of stitching, knitting and relaxing with friends. The weather was pretty awful whilst we were away but we all had fun anyway.

The place that we stay at is a working farm with Alpacas and all sorts of other animals. The alpacas have just recently been sheared so they look a little bald.





For some reason this duck was trying to swim across a really shallow puddle on its own.



Prior to the weekend, myself and the other people at the GTG had been commissioned to make a wall hanging by the owner of the farm that we stayed on. The floral stitching that I shared recently was what I stitched for it.





The wall hanging seemed to go down pretty well. Whilst I was away, I managed a couple of stitching finishes.

Tending the blooms by Shepherd's bush



Santa's coming by Shepherd's bush



I'm hoping to get a lot more stitching, knitting and even some sewing done during the remainder of this week. I don't go back to work until Monday night so that leaves me with a decent amount of spare time.