1 Knit or 2 Knits.

Oh dear Tasha has joined a knitting club at school and when she has problems, like dropping a stitch or gaining stitches who does she ask????? Yep muggings here well that's OK I can knit to a point. So it is a bit of fun being able to help her sort any problems she encounters.
She is beginning to gather up a stash of wool.

She has inherited Little Grandma's spinning wheels and when the local art club sold Grandma's painting things they gave the money to Tasha. I managed to buy a Louet hat box spinning wheel for her. She took to that wheel like a duck to water. OK she has learnt to spin with my wheel ages ago. Mind you she does not spin enough at the moment. She inherited her Granddad's electric key board as she fancied to learn key boards at school.

2007 was not a good year for us

Last year was a bit bad both Little Grandma (my Mum) and Granddad (Jenny's Dad) died and then our dog died at Ravenscar when she ran off down the cliff path and disappeared.
Mum died in January 2007 sadly I could not visit her in hospital because of a nasty S & D bug so she died quietly on her own. She got the last laugh it was my brothers partners birthday ( Mum and her did not get on ). Jenny's dad died in the summer after succumbing to cancer.

Our First day out for years

Our dog Cadbury must have known something she was extra perky that day we went to Ravenscar she pulled all the way until I had to let her off the lead so I could help Tasha down a steep bit and Cads had gone.


Cads in her element at Harrold Park















I went down to the bottom to try find her and was given a message by someone coming down to go back up and I had only just got down there. So thinking Cads had turned up went up. Nope no dog Jen was just worried I was OK !!!!!!!!


Blummin knackered by then I was. So we went to the car to have some grub. Jen went knocking on doors for help etc. After some food I went down again looking for Cads.


On the way back up with out the dog I got a phone call from the Coast Guard "Stay where you are we will send a helicopter for you"

"Eh what for"

Some twit got the wrong idea just because I had had a heart transplant I was in need of help.

I ended up with 12 coastguards out looking for me and the dog and a helicopter coming out to get me !!!!!!!!

It started raining while I was waiting for the helicopter otherwise I would have got back to the car and been a bit dryer.

Well I am sorry to say I had to turn down the helicopter ride to a hospital. Why I had Jen and Tasha in the village in the car and Jen does no drive now. I was told not to go down looking for Cadbury tomorrow just in case I got in difficulty DUH!!

It was rather late when we got home and it chucking it down with rain.

A bout a week later we had a message from Boggle Hole that Cadbury had been found and looked like she had just curled up and died. When she died I do not know but could have been that day she ran off. She loved water so at least she was near water when she died.

Well that was last year. We lasted a few weeks with out a dog and decided we wanted one we were all getting rather grumpy. So we looked for another dog. Jen and Tasha wanted a medium sized dog and I just wanted another Dachshund. Well we went and visited a dog rescue place and saw more by chance than anything else a small Jack Russel not that we wanted one but He was a hit. I think it was just one of those thing that was meant to be. So we said we would think about him and this meant 3 more visits. We talked about the situation after all we did not want a male dog nor a Jack Russel but he was so good with Tasha and not snappy or too bouncy.

So Jenny and I went to see him during the week and paid a deposit for him not telling Tasha that he was going to be ours. We went to see him on the Friday and brought him home. He went straight to our back door when we got home without being shown. Later we went to pick up Tasha from school. Jenny hid round the corner with the dog ( Oh his name is Merrick) and I waited for her to come out. By the time she came out all her friends were round Jenny and Merrick so Tasha never saw them until one of her friend said I like you dog Tasha.

Come here I wanna cuddle

Tasha's face was a picture when she managed to get her jaw off the floor she went to fuss him. Anyway they are both suited she just comes in from school scoops him up for a cuddle. He is a right cuddle dog and a bed Buffalo.

How my star turned into a bag in two years.

Well it's some time since I got round to add some thing to this ramblings.Well some time ago I mentioned a star weaving I made for my Guilds exhibition a few years ago. Heck we have had another Exhibition since that one and I managed to make that star into a bag. Well the picture

opposite is the effect of the dyes as I applied them. I had a problem how to set the dye. I realised I could not lay it flat and set it in an oven as I had nothing to put it in! In the end I had to roll it up in cling film and microwave it.

However the dyes decided to merge more than I expected and when they were set they had merged into the finished colour range below. I was a bit disappointed to start with as it was not as bold as I had expected it to come out. Anyway it did grow on me so I put it in my Guilds exhibition as it was.

After a while I go the idea of making it into something but what and how?

I had seen some items of work others had made and I realised that as a star it was a suitable shape to make into a bag. How on earth was I going to make it into a bag. It was a year and a half before I had an idea in my mind what to do but how I was not at my best at that time but I finally bought some silk rather thick silk that was for curtain lining from The Range.

After marking out the star shape with plenty of overlap for any problems sewing it up . I also found the star it self was not even. Oh well I managed to sew up the lining so it could have a draw string and then I had to sew the star to the lining which I managed with a struggle so I ended up with a bag with four flaps.

As it was it looked rather boring what is more this years Guilds Exhibition was looming ominously. I managed to find some leftover dyed yarn which I used a cord twister to make it into the draw string. It still needed something. I remembered doing a workshop for my Guild making weavette flowers. So I made some from some tops I bought at my Guilds open day that worked nicely. The flowers were sew on the points of the flaps. I also put some buttons in the centre of the flowers which just set them off.

It still lacked something I found in my Mum's treasure trove some jingle bells which put on the bottom corners of the bag.

So here we are two pictures of my star bag.