Thank God it’s Friday (Saturday, Sunday)

September 27, 2010 stitchesoftime4 Comments

Yes I know it isn’t today – it’s Monday but I have been thinking all weekend how wonderful it is to have a weekend. There’s nothing like the start of term to make you really appreciate Friday night!

I was going to post last night but was finishing off what I wanted to show you quite late last night and it got too dark to take good pics so left it till today. Was working from home today so managed to get decent some pics during what was a fairly gloomy and wet day.

I have had a lovely weekend. Friday night was very mellow sitting on the sofa with my Autumn stitching exchange (which is now finished – the first one anyway – just got to make it up). Saturday I went to Marsden again as part of my Marsden Jazz Festival duties as I was helping out in the shop.We met up to fold all the festival t-shirts on Thurs (and drink a little wine!) so we were selling them at the shop on Sat. I had a lovely time – it wasn’t very busy but had a nice chat with a few people and took my knitting which is very appropriate crafting to do there. Marsden is full of sheep and they feature prominently on the Jazz Festival publicity so I felt very in keeping knitting with wool!

At this point we all have to wave and say a big hello to Barney (the Marsden Jazz Festival Committee chair – who is a lovely man known to have worn a sheep hat in public on probably more than one occasion) and Taru (the Marsden Jazz Festival Administrator, one of my oldest and dearest friends who is also fun, gorgeous and a very talented actor) as they have alerts that flag up any post that mention the festival. So hi there and thanks very much for letting me join you – I am having a great time!

After my stint at the shop I had a wander round looking at the hills and a lovely lunch in one of the cafes there. Also bought some really nice things at one of the gifts shops in the village but I’m afraid I can’t show you as they are Xmas pressies.

Sunday I finally got chance to play with my new best friend – look at this shiny new sewing machine!

New machine — My Janome 3822 - 24 different stitches!

I have really never got into machine sewing which is a pity as I want to do more machine embroidery and quilting as well as the hand stitched stuff but my old machine just jammed constantly so thanks to birthday money from my lovely Mum and lovely kids I have bought this. And it came with lots of free thread and a big pack of scissors!

New machine 2 — Look at all that pretty stuff

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago I am going to hopefully do an Xmas Craft Fair at Oakwell Hall so have been making some stock for that. Last year I developed my own design for some little Xmas tree ornies so have decided to do more of those – both as finished objects and as kits. The new machine did very well on the lovely zigzag stitch. The first one I did was finishing off the other patchwork tree from last year.

Ornie in progress — My crazy patchwork tree

ornie in progress 2 — Look at that beautiful zig zag stitch

I have decided to do some more regular patchwork designs to start off with – this will of course give me lots of scraps for the crazy patchwork ones that I can do at the end with all the little bits. So here I did some 7 panel patchwork ones.

ornie making — WIP - needs braid and the pot adding

The aim is for them all to end up looking like this –

Patchwork tree 2 — The finished tree in pot

I was on a roll (and the machine behaved beautifully) so I managed to get a little stack done – the top one is a four panel design.

Have also cut out lots of material for the kits and taken more pics for the instruction leaflets that will go with them. Isn’t it just soo lucky that I happen to have a little (ahem!) Xmas fabric in my stash!

Well have another busy week at work ahead – lovely daughter Ellie is home at the weekend and we are planning a cinema trip and a little retail therapy as I’m sure she could always do with new clothes. We are also hopefully going to York to the Quilt Museum to see the Wartime Quilts Exhibition. We did try and go last year but unfortunately chose a day that it was shut! However we did get to visit the Minster and the Cath Kidston shop so it wasn’t a wasted journey.

Thank you very much for visiting – hope that you all have a nice week.

Busy busy times!

September 19, 2010September 19, 2010 stitchesoftime4 Comments

I have had a very busy week at work and while I have been able to do some stitching I’m afraid I can’t reveal anything as the next two projects are for exchanges. I have joined another exchange group in addition to the All Seasons Ornament Exchange which is called the Seasonal Exchange so being the clever people that you are I bet you can guess that the theme of both pieces is Autumn! I am stitching on evenweave which I do find more challenging than Aida due to the smallness of the fabric gauge so I have resorted to both my glasses and my neck hung magnifier to see what I am doing! Have also recently completed another reindeer ornie – only 5 more to go!

In lieu of pretty pics of stitching then here are my completed wrist warmers – I had a lot of trouble with these as you may remember trying to match up the variegated wool but made it work on about the 3rd attempt! Please excuse slightly fuzzy pic as the light is not good – it has been raining hard all day and is a bit miserable – was tempted to keep the wristwarmers on as it is a bit cold in the conservatory! These are from a free pattern called Waffle Stitch Wristwarmers that I got from Ravelry.

Term has started so that is why I have been so busy – we have another lovely group of trainee teachers this year and I am really looking forward to working with them all. I am lucky to have a job that I really enjoy and look forward to going into work – though a large Lottery win that would enable me to retire and devote my life to stitching and knitting would be fine as well!

I am also going to be busy this week with helping organise the Marsden Jazz Festival – I recently joined the committee for this event which will be held in a village near me on the 2nd weekend of October. See this link for details if you are in the Yorkshire area. As the name suggests there are lots of live music events on in all of the pubs and clubs across the village as well as a parade on the Saturday. This week we have a meeting of all the volunteers who will be helping over the weekend, a t-shirt folding and packing evening and then I will be helping out in the festival shop selling said t-shirts next weekend.

Just thought I would leave you with another couple of pics from re-enactment events – courtesy of my friends on Facebook. The first pic was taken at our recent August Bank Holiday event at Bolsover Castle and shows Paul (in the helmet) and Luke – with the sword – demonstrating during the weapons’ talk.

The second one is a much older pic, probably taken about 6 years ago and shows my lovely friends Kat and Richard all dressed up in their costumes – doesn’t he look the epitome of chivalry!

If you want to see more of Kat’s wonderful headdresses and costume you can visit her Kats Hat website.

I hope that you are having a nice weekend – thanks very much for visiting.

Knitting at Oakwell Hall

September 11, 2010 stitchesoftime1 Comment

I have just come back from a lovely afternoon at Oakwell – my evening knitting group had been invited as part of a Heritage Weekend where lots of properties are open for free across the country. Our task was to sit in the amazing Painted Chamber and knit and talk to the public about knitting – how hard!

The pics below come from the Friends of Oakwell website –

Oakwell - paintedchamber1 — The painted chamber with spinning wheel

Oakwell - paintedchamberbed — The bed with its crewelwork bed hangings

The ‘painted’ title refers to the wood panelling – though the vertical and horizontals panels are real the rest of the 3D effects are painted on. The room reminded me very much of the bedrooms in Tatton Hall that we visit every June – with again beautiful bed hangings. It was such a privilege to be in that room – especially when we were told that was where the ladies of the house used to sit, embroider and gossip!

There were 5 of us there today – others will be there tomorrow – we had two tables with old patterns, examples of things that we had knitted and crocheted and modern examples of fun knitting patterns for the kids to look at. the really lovely thing was that so many people had owned and knitted the baby patterns we had on display, or talked about their Mums and Grannies knitting – there was a real wealth of social history that people wanted to share. We met a man who knew someone who had modelled for Patons knitting patterns in his youth, a women whose Mum was a test knitter for the same company, and someone whose Mum had knitted string vests for priests.

Apologies for the quality of these pics of our display – the light was not good!

Oakwell - knitting group — Kath, Pauline, Pamela and Debbie demonstrating

Oakwell - patterns — Debbie's collection of vintage patterns - there were some lovely garments for men!

Oakwell - shawl — Pamela's beautiful baby shawl from an original 1930s pattern

Oakwell - socks — Kath's detailed lace and ribbed socks - you can also see some of the crewel work embroidery that was displayed on the table in the chamber

These women are all very good knitters or crocheters – Kath’s speciality is socks, Pauline’s is crocheted jackets and scarves, Pamela’s is lace knitting and Debbie makes beautiful baby garments. I have learnt a lot from them in the year I have been going to the group. This year I have really improved on basic shaping and have learnt lace. Next year it is going to be double-pointed and circular needles so I can do my first pair of socks!

I did not get much chance to look round the rest of the Hall as we were so busy but did have a little peek in the room next door which had another wonderful set of bed hangings. These crewelwork reproductions were done by the Friends of Oakwell Broiderer’s group (another idea for if I ever have more time!). Pics again from the Friends of Oakwell website.

Oakwell - littleparlourchamber1 — The Little Parlour Chamber

Oakwell - littleparlourchamberbed — Detail of the bedcover

As well as all the crewelwork the Friends have also done lots of needlepoint cushions, chair seats etc so it is well worth a visit if you like textiles!

Hope that you are having a good weekend – thanks for visiting!

The first of many and the last of many

September 6, 2010September 6, 2010 stitchesoftime2 Comments

Well I have had a very lovely weekend – it has been very sunny all week which was great news as I was having a new roof put on the conservatory so I needed fine weather for that. So we started the weekend with me admiring the shiny clean roof that was not full of cracks and holes and green mould where the rain had got in! It is now raining quite hard which will be a good test of how waterproof the new roof is!

The first of many in the title of the post is the first of the reindeer ornies that I have chosen as my multi stitch ornie for this Xmas. I normally do about 10 for special friends and family – I have part completed another reindeer one but I love the JBW designs and they are so easy to do so have decided that this one I will do about 7 of with for a particular group of friends and some individual ones of different designs for other people. I will back this with one of my many pretty Xmas fabrics ( have got a few of those!) and a little sleigh charm.

The last of many is possibly the last BBQ of the season on Saturday with my brother Ben and his partner and Amanda and definitely the last little fire of the year as I have now used up all my wood – though Ben said he can get me more if needed. I so love sitting round the fire – it is one of the best things about re-enactment and this was us enjoying the warmth.

Campfire — Jake, Ben and Amanda round the fire

I do also need a new fire pit before next year – this one is a couple of years old but unfortunately has suffered from all the frost we have had and the surround is slowly disintegrating. I shall treat myself as a welcoming Spring present next year.

Amanda and Ben are off to Spain tomorrow (lucky things!) to stay in our house for a few days and then go off camping so I hope they have a fab time. Amanda works at Oakwell Hall a 16th century house near here where my knitting group are off to next weekend. From the look of the lovely pics on the web there should be plenty of textiles there so I will take my camera!

Oakwell Hall — The Hall hosts many Civil War re-enactments and events

Oakwell Hall 2 — The Grand Parlour of the Hall

We have been invited to take part in their Heritage Weekend as part of a display of crafts so we shall be knitting and teaching people how to knit. I am really looking forward to that as have never been to the Hall. Amanda has also mentioned that they have an Xmas Craft Fair there in December so I may be able to go and show some more of my baubles and pine cones and raise some more funds for the school in Nepal which again would be lovely.

I do love Xmas and all the decorations – and I am planning to make some more this year – inspired by my reading of the Elm Quilt book series I want to do some more patchwork trees as in the pic below and maybe even a wall hanging for the hall. Things should be made a lot easier by the fact that my new sewing machine arrived on Friday! Complete with loads of free reels of thread. Have not had chance to play with it yet but am hoping to get some time to do that later this week or at the weekend. Things are hotting up though as term starts a week on Monday for me so back to the grindstone!

xmas-tree — Crazy patchwork tree table decoration from last year

I do hope that you had a good weekend – thanks for visiting.

A sunny weekend at Bolsover

September 2, 2010 stitchesoftime2 Comments

Well we have just finished the season with a fantastic event at Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire. Not only did we have good weather, being mainly sunny, we also had a wonderful crowd – 800 on Sunday and 1700 on Monday . Monday’s crowd were also the most enthusiastic we have had all year and had a great time during the tournament! Thanks to everyone who came to see us and thanks for all the great comments , we really enjoy what we do and it is nice to know that you do too!

I have some pics to share with you of the event – the first is lovely daughter Ellie in the apron she has made herself for her role as the kitchen maid. She has been assisting Jane the cook this season and has really enjoyed herself cooking over an open fire. An interesting and very useful role as we all really look forward to our banquet at lunch!

Bolsover - Ellie apron — See how lovely and sunny it was on Sunday!

The apron is completely hand stitched and made of linen and Ellie has even done some very neat stitching at the corners to give it a bit of decoration. She plans to add some embroidery to the hem for next season.

The next pic is of the boys on Sunday morning showing a variety of styles of medieval dress.

Bolsover - boys 2 — What a handsome bunch!

From left to right they are –

John Neville (Mark) wearing a black felt bicocket hat and a black linen tunic with layered sleeves.

Sir Hugh Despencer (Dave) wearing a green wool full length tunic with dagged chaperon (hood) and a white line coif on his head.

Sir Henry Percy (Pete) in a blue wool tunic, very fetching red wool hose and a linen coif.

Sir Hugh Bardolph (Paul) in a blue linen tunic with layered sleeves and matching chaperon, white linen coif and blue felt bicocket.

In the mornings of our shows we do various displays and activities so the boys are dressed ready for those. They run the joust and knight’s training for the children, the stocks, the weapons and armour talk and the children’s quiz. The women in the group do talks on headdresses and embroidery, cooking (live action here as they prepare lunch!) and calligraphy where the children can get their certificates signed after they have been knighted and practise calligraphy by making a bookmark. This show we also had a new talk which was done by Lady Bardolph on the use of herbs – here is the lovely display she had outside her tent.

Bolsover - herbs — The table with a tray of lavender

Bolsover - herbs 2 — Showing how herbs were used in cooking and medicine

Bolsover - Bardolph's tent — A sneak peek inside their beautiful tent

Lady Bardolph is an excellent embroiderer and had brought the finished goldwork and beadwork piece she started at our needlework day earlier in the year – unfortunately I did not have chance to take a picture of it!

After the banquet lunch we have the manorial court where medieval justice is dispensed, then the archery display and talk, the children’s re-enactment (strictly non – contact, just a chance for them to shout and throw pretend spears!) At the end we have the best bit which is the tournament. The children like this as it is a chance to see the knights hit each other round the head but I like it as everyone looks so wonderful in their costumes!

I mentioned in an earlier post that the knights have all made themselves mantles to decorate the top of their helmets which look very impressive when they come out of the tent into the tournament arena. Most of the knights wear great helms which have a flat top to them – ideal for displaying your heraldry! I have not been able to take close up pics but thanks to my friend Jan here are the boys at the start of Monday’s tournament looking splendid.

Bolsover - mantles — Hugh Despencer on the left in red and white, William de la Zouche in the centre in red and William de Bohun in the front in blue

Bolsover -de Bohun — Despencer and de Bohun fighting - Despencer won as usual but William did very well

Bolsover-mantles 2 — A closer pic of de Bohun's mantle with Percy in yellow on the right

I think de Bohun’s (another Paul) outfit is definitely my favourite one – he made it all himself – the surcoat is painted and the little crown of stars on the helm is made of wood. Paul is an incredibly talented graphic artist and he has been working on some images of all of the knights that we can use as publicity for the group. You can go and see his work at his web site and admire all our heraldry.

Well apart from tidying away kit (and making a mental list of all the things I need to make for next season!) I have been starting on my Xmas ornies for this year. Have finished stitching on the first JBW reindeer so will post a pic of that soon. Also have two Autumn exchanges to make as I have now signed up to another exchanging blog as well as the All Seasons one. I will be starting one of those tonight.

Am a bit sad that the season is over but am looking forward to all the nice winter evenings sitting in stitching with my candles lit. I am buying myself a new sewing machine as well – with some birthday money from my Mum and lovely kids – which is good as the old one has now packed up. I have also signed up for a Stitched and Painted Textiles Day School in November at my local Adult Education centre and have booked my ticket for the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show as well – lots of stitchy loveliness to look forward to!

We also have the start of term to look forward to and this one is particularly exciting one as Jake is going to sixth form! He did really well in his GCSEs (only didn’t pass French) and has enrolled onto a Diploma in Art, Media and Games Design which I am sure he will love. He starts college tomorrow and all my new teacher trainee students will be with me the week after next.

Thank you very much again for visiting and I hope that you have a good weekend ahead.

Glamping Part 2 – The Festival Edition!

August 23, 2010August 23, 2010 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

Well we have just got back from a very fab and very hot weekend at Tribfest – well hot until the middle of last night when it decided to pour down so we had a wet pack up to acclimatise ourselves for the return home, where it is also wet so the tent is in hanging up to dry in the garage! It was a great event where we saw tributes to lots of bands including Madness, Bon Jovi, Green Day and Lady Ga Ga. We really enjoyed it and are buying tickets for next year asap.

We bought VIP tickets on the advice of my sister who went last year as you get lots of extras for not much more money such as camping near the arena – so you can mellow out back at the tent (or knit in my case!) and still listen to the bands, a VIP tent with bar, indoor and outdoor seating and extra bands and best of all jacuzzis!

This is us on Friday afternoon –

Glamping - jacuzzi — Sadly they only sold champagne by the bottle or I would have been sipping some as well

The kids had a great time – my niece Sarah and my sister Jacky dressed up for the occasion – this is Sarah on Friday night.

Tribfest - Sarah — There were lots of people in fancy dress - tutus were very in this year!

Ellie had her festival wellies on (as did most of the girls – I must get some pretty ones for next year -mine are a boring blue).

Tribfest - kids — Ellie, Jake, Sam and Sarah

Some people were even more dressed up – this is the festival mascot –

We had a very nice VIP beer tent to sit in –

Glamping - Tribfest tent — Look flowers on the tables!

And a great view of the stage from the outside seating area –

Tribfest - stage — A little bit of summer festival sun

Jacky’s friend Chris was also with us – another glamping camper with a selection of mini wines –

Glamping - Chris's glass — This is one Chris bought at a previous festival - it came full with a peel off lid - how convenient!

My finger is mending well – thanks for the good wishes – and I was able to finish off knitting the wristwarmers, finally made a second matching one that I happy with – here they are in the field outside the tent where I finished them yesterday – while having a little mellow and a glass of red!

Wristwarmers 2 — Waffle Stitch Wristwarmers - a freebie from Ravelry

I have just got to stitch them up the side now – I knitted these at Xmas for Jake and they are a very quick knit and look very effective. The waffle stitch pattern is a simple four row repeat which uses knit two, purl two for two rows and then two rows of plain knit.

Talking of wristwarmers (or fingerless gloves) my friend Barbara from knitting group has just finished the most gorgeous pair for her daughter. I hope that she won’t mind me sharing this pic from her blog with you –

Barbara's mitts — They look even more gorgeous in real life - knitted in a silky sublime 4 ply

I would love to have a go at these – pattern details are on Barbara’s blog – it is from Ravelry but uses double-pointed needles which I have not tried yet. Barbara is a much cleverer knitter than me and does all sorts of gorgeous patterns using fine needles.

My new Xmas cross -stitch patterns from JBW have arrived today so I have got lots to amuse myself with – next weekend is the last camping of the season where we shall be back at Bolsover for our final show of the year, then it will be candles lit and on the sofa for another winter season!

Thanks for visiting.

Preparation is the key!

August 19, 2010 stitchesoftime4 Comments

Thankfully I finished my friend’s present a couple of days ago as yesterday I managed to trap my little finger on my left hand in a car door and it still very painful so I am a bit one-handed now! It is not broken but I think I may lose the fingernail, it is wrapped up at the mo but will have a look again later (yuk!). So no sewing for me for a couple of days!

I decided in the end to do a pincushion finish rather than a pinkeep as the finished design is quite big but I did still do the little scissor pocket at the back. The fabric is a piece I got from a fabric sale locally when a company called Doughty’s who come to my town every year. They also have an online store at that link.

Pincushion front — JBW Designs 'Rooster'

Pincushion back — Charms on back from Stitch Direct as before

Stitch Direct are a wonderful online retailer of all manner of stitchy goodness – beware this site can cost you money (but they do send you very nice things in return!)

Speaking of stitchy goodness I am just off to Sew and Sew now to order my Xmas JBW Designs. I have decided on the reindeer, the Xmas Pud and one of the tree sets – see previous post for pics of these. Also need to visit Amazon again for more Elm Creek Novels – they arrived on Friday and I have already read the first four!

Thanks for visiting.

A very productive weekend

August 15, 2010 stitchesoftime6 Comments

Well despite a not so brilliant start yesterday with the technology thingies I have had a lovely weekend. I abandoned the computer yesterday afternoon and went out to do some shopping – calling in on the way for a bit of Knit and Natter at my local yarn store, Woolly Minded and Beady Eyed. I am glad to say I seem to have cracked the problem with the variegated wool and the wristwarmers so the second of the pair should be finished soon.

I finished the stitching on the pressie for my friend late last night – just got the border to finish tonight and am planning to make it up tomorrow. She keeps chickens so I thought it would be an appropriate present and I have some fab chicken fabric to back it with.

JBW Rooster — A little rooster sunning himself in the garden!

The design is called Rooster (surprise that!) and is from the wonderful JBW Designs – I am going to treat myself to some of their Xmas ones this year – might even find time to stitch one for my tree as well as all of the gifts. Sew and Sew web site do the largest range of designs I have found for the UK. I am very tempted by so many of their designs but particularly this one as I am stitching another reindeer design as my gift ornie for this year so it would maybe be nice to vary it.

Or maybe the Xmas pud just for me …

But the stocking is also very cute …

And then there is the Snow Globe …

And two lovely tree motif samplers (but I have done a lot of trees over the years!)

If you have a preference let me know in a comment as I am going to have a hard time deciding!

We have also been busy in the garden – ably assisted by Jake I have been trimming laurel hedges, cutting grass and generally tidying up and it looks very lovely – all that rain has done it good! Have also been baking and have made my first ever Lemon Drizzle Cake (a request from Jake) from the recipe on Nigella’s website.

Garden Aug 10 — The fruits of my weekend labour - tidy garden, stitching and cake!

Have also been doing lots of lovely reading, being holiday season I had bought lots of books and then went to the local library with Jake – I don’t normally visit the library as I have lots of books already in hand and really love buying them (and so quick and so cheap and so easy – thanks to Amazon!) but was browsing and came across a couple of books about quilting – novels with a quilt theme. I have heard of these from knitting and stitching friends so borrowed the two they had and finished the first one in a day. So I went and found a load more on the lovely Amazon.

They are called the Elm Creek Novels by Jennifer Chiaverini and you can see them here at the Amazon listing. I really like the way that they are historically based novels as well as about quilting and about the women that quilt. Though I have not really done much quilting myself I love looking at quilts and finding out about the history of quilts and quilting so this is literary heaven – with very good storylines too!

I had just finished reading the Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill

which was excellent and the first Elm Creek Book I read was The Sugar Camp Quilt which is set in the North USA during the time of the fight against slavery. An excellent book and a very interesting read after the Hill book.

I treated myself to two anthologies of the first Elm Creek 6 books and another 2 based around Xmas and New Year themes as they were all very cheap in a bundled new book deal.

Elm Creek Qults — Elm Creek Sampler - the first three

Elm Creek Quilts 2 — Elm Creek Album - the second three novels

That should keep me going for a while – all the rest in the series are very cheap second hand on Amazon as well.

Don’t know if I will be able to post again this week and we are away next weekend – we are going to Tribfest in Beverley – a music festival composed entirely of tribute bands! My sister went last year and said it was great so we are meeting up with her and the kids and her friend for a weekend of boogieing! I have not been to a festival since about 1988 (though have been to lots of live music during the last few years which I really love) so am really looking forward to this!

Thanks for visiting.

The problem with technology ……….

August 14, 2010August 14, 2010 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

Is that we have come to rely on it so much. I have just acquired a new (to me) laptop courtesy of Ellie who has got a new one so donated poor old Mum her old one. Fantastic thought I , as I have been making do with a very, very old and slow cast off from work since my last PC failure a few months ago. Finally I can type and the letters will appear on the screen as I am doing it (rather than 5 seconds later) which will make blog posts so much quicker. Also I can install my fave game The Sims and build and furnish lots of nice houses which will make light relief of all the marking I still have to.

So it has been great ever since last Tuesday and I have been playing and surfing and doing all manner of things technical …. until yesterday. Jake and I did notice a certain flakiness about the wireless connection but just unplugged the modem a couple of times and all was well. Today all is getting a little less well as it keeps disconnecting randomly – rang IT help and all is fine with hardware – he suggests that we are getting interference from a neighbour’s connection which makes sense as another network shows up on my list – think it belongs to next door. He advised trying to change channel to avoid them which I have done 3 times so far – fingers crossed for this one. Trouble is you can only change by going to a website so you have to be connected to do it! Ho hum.

However what I was going to share with you this post was something completely different which is actually quite appropriate for the topic of technology and other little things life throws at us. I was looking at the lovely Mary Kathryn’s website the other day and she had a link to a site which lets you make your own version of the Keep Calm and Carry On posters from World War 2. I love these – we have them up at work as it is a very appropriate sentiment for anyone involved in education and I use the logo with my students.

This site allows you to make your own so here are a couple of mine – the first one is so appropriate for my internet woes – though is a little early in the day for imbibing.

Keep calm - redwine — I think I might get a t-shirt printed with this on!

Have also been having a few problems with my latest knitting WIP due to vagaries of variegated yarn on a short repeat – have done one wristwarmer and have tried to make a second matching one, so far am on third attempt with different parts of different balls. So this is a good poster for the knitting at the moment.

A very worthy sentiment - I'm sure you will agree!

Here is Mary Kathryn’s which I love –

or 'take-away' for our UK readers

If you want to make your own version the web site is called Keep Calm O Matic.

I am currently just at the end of my latest stitching WIP – which was started ages ago but needs to be finished asap as it is a birthday gift for a stitching friend and I only just realised that it is her birthday next week! Hopefully it will be finished tonight as I have a lovely evening in front of the TV planned (Syfy channel has been showing lots of disaster movies and remakes recently which has been good for stitching as you don’t have to concentrate!) I am planning a different finish inspired by something I saw on a stitching website – a pin keep with a scissor pocket on the back so will post pics of that later in the week – assuming the internet is still ok! Keeping fingers crossed.

Thanks for visiting.

Berkeley Castle event

August 10, 2010 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

Just thought I would share some pics with you of the last re-enactment event we did at the gorgeous Berkeley Castle in South Glos. The weather was brilliant and we had a fab weekend as always – thanks to Plantagenet Events and all the people who made it possible.

The boys all enjoyed themselves as usual – here they are marching on to the field –

Berk 2 - muster — They sound very clanky - pity we don't have surround sound on this blog!

The battle had a new script with some pyrotechnics to start with where a load of carts in the middle of the battlefield were set on fire by burning arrows which gave a lovely (if smoky) start to the battle.

Berk 3 - battle — With that, the cannons and the hand gunners there was lots to go boom!

None of the fighters from our group could make the event this time so Ellie and I were looking after our friend Andy from the Knights and Freemen group and any other thirsty boys we could see.

Berkeley - Andy fighting - — Andy having a good fight - pic by Clive Emerson

On Sunday morning I had a little wander round to take pics – I love looking at tents of any kind, modern or medieval but the ones at the big events are just so lovely – the amount of time and effort people put into their kit and equipment is amazing.

Berk 8 - tents — The medieval encampment below the castle

Below is a pic of one of my faves from the event – I don’t know the owner’s name to give him credit but what a wonderful tent – you can just see his armour on a stand inside the tent.

Berk 5 - tent — Glamping 15th century style

Here is my friend Jamie’s tent – it takes about 3 hours to set this all up – no quick pitch festival tents here!

Berk 7 - Jamie's tent — More glamping - complete with double bed and hangings

Here is Jamie in the tent and outside with friends Kat and Richard. Kat is the amazing costume maker who makes fantastic Medieval and Tudor clothes and headdresses – please visit her website Kats Hats.

Berk 6 - Jamie — Jamie with his heraldry - handpainted by another talented friend

Berkeley pic - Kat et al — Jamie, his wife Andrea, Kat, Richard and their adorable daughter Izzy - pic by Allen Williams

Also had a quick look around the market – one of my favourite stalls was there belonging to Excalibur Artifacts – they sell all types of hand weaving equipment and had the most amazing selection of hand-woven braids. I bought a loom a couple of years ago – just need to find more time in my life so that I can practise!

Berk 1 - Excalibur — The braids on display outside the tent

I had a lovely chat with Mike the owner – they do not have a web site but can be contacted on 01252 661533 and by e-mail at excaliburartifacts@ntlworld.com

Hope you have enjoyed the little tour round the event – thanks for visiting and see you soon.

Stitches of Time

I have created this blog to share my interest in all forms of stitching, quilting, sewing, knitting, medieval re-enactment and costume making – particularly my love of historical embroidery. I also love travelling,especially when it also involves any of my other interests.

Author: stitchesoftime

Thank God it’s Friday (Saturday, Sunday)

Busy busy times!

Knitting at Oakwell Hall

The first of many and the last of many

A sunny weekend at Bolsover

Glamping Part 2 – The Festival Edition!

Preparation is the key!

A very productive weekend

The problem with technology ……….

Berkeley Castle event