Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Pictures and places from October 2012

I prepared and spun up some Alpaca that Alex McCleod sent me. I thonk the Alpaca lives in Waterford while he lives in Wexford. It's a nice strong but soft yarn. The pattern is an adaptation of "Feather Duster" shawl pattern.
The grey is some wool from my little flock.

The autumn came to the trees this October, on the way to Loch Ennell




Portlick lough below was beautiful this October


Little wrist warmer form handdyed hand spun


Quercis Alba (White Oak) pattern using hand spun Merino (70%)- Silk (30%) from Winghan Woolworks



Tuesday, October 9, 2012

A visit to Devon and Cornwall

Went to Devon and Cornwall via ferry at the end of September/beginning of October.
Nice to be able to load all you want into a car and head off without worrying about bag weights etc. However, we took the faster ferry from Dublin to Holyhead. It had not run for the two previous days due to rough seas - the seas were calm enough for our trip but also rough enough to churn the stomach quite effectively (I wasn't the only ashen-faced passenger that day). However it got there in 2 hours which is fast enough.
We spent the first night in Sough Wales - Aberystwyth - in a small  sea-front hotel. Nice to see the sea right across the road from the bedroom. That's one thing I miss while living in the midlands of Ireland.
The photo on this web page shows the place we stayed or very close anyway:
http://www.aberystwyth.org.uk/more/
The we headed to Devon - lovely countryside - not surprising it makes good cream.
Stayed there too then on to Cornwall and took in some of the usual sites - Lands End,  Stonehenge, The  Eden Project. These are all good to visit but I (and I think "we" ) loved driving through the windy roads and passing through the small attractive villages and towns all through Devon and Cornwall. The face that it was late tourist season meant we saw daily activities such as children being picked up from school and people generally going about their business 'though there was still a good many visitors too.
We were very very lucky with the weather - it was dry but for occasional slight showers here and there and the sun was out a lot of the time.
I've added some photos - higgled-piggeldy:
Tintern Abbey



Stonehenge


Lands End



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