Tuscany Part 1 - Arrival and Siena

 We flew to London on Easter Sunday so we could catch our mid-morning flight to Rome on Monday. The hotel at terminal 5 obviously still had notes about our unfortunate previous  experience there and had upgraded us to a suite as a result, which was nice, but you know, for one night ....still it was a gesture. We had a room service meal and all I'm going to say about that is that I wouldn't do it again. 

There were a few hiccups at Heathrow, the procedure for checking in when you're on a group ticket is different to normal and no-one could be bothered to explain what was happening but you know; water, bridge. We arrived safely, our little group was gathered up, the person in charge of our coach transfer to Arezzo where we were staying for four nights admired my pink hair, so that was all good. 

The hotel in Arezzo was very nice and the staff were lovely. The restaurant, where we ate the first night was over priced and overhyped although my dessert was nice

Day 2 (since arrival day is Day 1 ) we had a trip to Siena. I have wanted to go to Siena for many years and I have to say that of all the places in Italy I have longed to visit and finally arrived at, Siena was the only one (so far) to disappoint. There's  nothing wrong with it, it's a small Tuscan city with a huge shell shaped square in the middle where they run the famous Palio, but it just didn't live up to my expectation. Possibly the main problem was that the free time we had there was ill judged, It gave us too long to see the Cathedral and have something to eat but not long enough to do anything else. Still that's not Siena's fault. It was rammed with people, but that was a recurring theme all holiday really.

Our guided walking tour took us first to the basilica of  to San Bernadino. Since this holds the mummified head and an equally desiccated thumb reputed to belong to St Catherine  it was perhaps a shame that photography is forbidden. Whi doesn't want to come back from holiday with a picture of a saint's mummified  thumb?

Our guide told us a a lot about the contrada, the city factions whihc run  The Palio and also, as far as we could tell, the lives of the people who belong to them also. I expect they do a lot of good although her description made them sound like a cross between the mafia and the masons. It's obviously something everyone takes very seriously; you can even have a civil 'baprism' into a contrada if you're not a member by birth ( struct controls apply). 

The areas of the city controlled by each contrada are marked by small plaques like this on building walls, especially prevalent near borders between one contradas territory and the next.

Next up was the square where the Palio is run -

difficult to take a good photograph - and the we went on to the site of the Duomo where our tour ended. We chose to go into it. I think overwhelming is the word

Once we came out we searched out some ice cream which did instead of lunch and wandered round some of the places our tour hadn't taken us to. 

So that was Siena; glad I've been, wouldn't rush back. 

I Went to a Wool Show

 and yes, I know I went to Tuscany as well, and reports on that will be forthcoming just as soon as my phone and laptop decide to talk to one another properly so that I can upload my photos all in one go. Meanwhile - the wool show

It was Woolly Good in Edinburgh. This is only the second year (I think) that it has been held and I didn't go last year, probably because we were  in the throes of moving and things like yarn shows just weren't on the radar. I probably wouldn't have gone this year either if a friend hadn't suggested we go together, but she did and I agreed. 

(I still can't  get over the fact that I can get to Edinburgh and back on the train for a fraction over £8. It's surreal) 

So first of all let me show you what I bought. 

A sock project bag from Wildwood Stitches Readers may remember I bought one of her sweater size project bags back at the East Neuk Show last November. The only problem I have with these is choosing as they are all lovely.  I'm very pleased with this bag and I was also impressed that the vendor remembered me from East Neuk; I'd like to think it wasn't only because I had decided against a puffin themed bag on the grounds that it reminded me of Orkney, although she certainly did remember that! 

This notions pouch is a Christmas present for a friend who loves African waxed fabric. The business that makes them is called Soft Accents  and they are all beautiful bags and the vendors are really nice too. The website is definitely worth a look and if you aren't into knitting or crochet and therefore don't need project bags they do packs of fabric scraps for patchwork too and they come with a pattern if you want one. The pin and stitch markers at the front came from Marna at An Caitin Beag - the go-to place for all cat themed knitting related things. 

Obviously I can't go to a wool show without buying sock yarn for the OH; at East Neuk he picked his own skein from this vendor - The Woolchemist. Of these two that I bought from her yesterday the one on the right was for the OH. The other one is for me; it's not as pink as it looks in the photograph and I'm a sucker for dark reds, grey and black in combination. Not sure if I'll make socks with it, we'll see. 

And finally, this is what I mainly went for. It's some DK to knit myself a cardigan from one of my Knitted Kalevala books. Do not hold your collective breaths; it's knitted in the round and then the front is steeked! Eek! and the wool was expensive so I need to take it very slowly and ensure it's a good fit. 

Obviously the stash stats for April are going to look a bit sad ... but as long as I'm  kitting up or otherwise disposing of yarn faster than I'm acquiring it overall then that's  progress. 

As for the show overall it was very much a case of the Curate's Egg. Upside, lots of vendors, some of whom were new to me, or that I only know from on-line/You Tube. I was delighted to have a brief chat with the very talented Tara from Irish Artisan Yarn and to see Skein and the Stitch who , as far as I know, haven't ever come north of the border before. Equally some of my favourite dyers weren't there, which was a shame. The catering, as I seem to be forever saying with regard to yarn shows, was lacking. The main hall, where you could buy light snacks,  didn't have hot drinks, only cold ones,  which seemed ridiculous. It also had live music which I could have done without.. Why on earth would anyone think that was a good idea, when it's somewhere ( in fact the only place) where people could  sit and chat, and make plans about who to see next or display their purchases? Other than that as far as I could see there was a van outside selling bao buns and that was that. The venue was a school and many of the vendors were in classrooms; sometimes four to a room, which wasn't fair either to them or the customers. We deliberately chose to go on Friday because we thought it would be less busy than Saturday, and I'm sure we were right about that,  and we arrived about 30 minutes after the show opened and the place was already rammed. There were many stands where I just couldn't get close enough to the  merchandise to see if I wanted to buy anything. I appreciate it can be a risky thing committing to a larger, and more expensive, venue, but really, if it went well enough last year for a repeat performance  then the organisers must have known there would be more people attending when they did it again and could have planned accordingly. 

Would I go again? If they change the venue, probably yes, but not otherwise. But it was an enjoyable day. 

Not a WiP, but a finished object nonetheless

 

Most of my wips seem to be things that take some concentration - more than I can spare when I'm at Knit Group or tired in the evenings anyway, so inevitably there are going to be a few things made this year that can be done on autopilot. The sweater for The Irresistible Bear was the first of them and here's the second; a pair of socks for the OH. West Yorkshire Spinners Seascape is the yarn and they took about a week. 

While I had hoped to do the reading round up for March before I went away, on the grounds that there will be more exciting things to write about when we get back, that's not happening. I am suffering from my usual pre-holiday mega stress, which should miraculously disappear once we're underway to the airport in about 45 minutes, but I don't need to add to it wondering if I have time to finish a blog post about books that I can just as easily do once we're home. 

Back in about ten days with, I hope, some amazing photos and interesting tales to tell. 

Happy Mail and Wool Stats for March

 So the happy mail came yesterday and here it is

In a way I wish it hadn't arrived until today because then I wouldn't have bought any wool in March which would have looked good. But equally I was very pleased to get it. 

A while back I decided that I would like to make a sweater with my 2025 weekly yarn advent from Beehive Yarns. I chose the pattern I wanted to make but  because I have - ahem! curves - up top ,and also because I wanted to make it full length rather than cropped I needed 5 skeins of yarn and the advent naturally had only 4. 

I approached Beth at Beehive to see if she had anything that would work with the advent colours that I could buy and she had a think and then got back to me and said she had a colour in mind but she would need to dye it especially to match the base my advent yarns were on which she was happy to do if I  was prepared to wait a little while. Well obviously I was prepared to wait because as we all now I have plenty of projects and wool on hand  to keep me busy so I waited and now this beautiful skein has arrived. Once we are back from our upcoming holiday I must make a start on the jumper. I'm a bit nervous as I will have to adapt the pattern to fit and also I've never done a fade garment before, but if I don;t try I'll never know if I can do it. Plus I have several jumpers waiting to be finished, or started and I need to buckle down and get then all done. Especially as I have in mind to do a  root and branch clear out of my wardrobe before too long. 

Anyway, despite the arrival of this new skein  the March stats look good. Wool in 100g, wool out 602 g, net decrease for the year to date is 2915. Which makes me a fairly happy bunny. 

Two Busy Days

 

If I said that was an elderflower presse (which it is) then several readers might well say 'oh you've been to that antiques place again', and if they said that they would be right. I went to see a podiatrist last week and her clinic is in Doune. I daresay there are more local ones but I had seen this one advertise itself on Facebook and there were good reviews so I decided to go there. The appointment was at 11.30 which meant it finished in nice time for us to go and have lunch at the restaurant attached to the Antiques Centre in Doune and after lunch we had a pootle about in the centre  as well. We didn't buy anything although I picked up contact details for someone who I hope will upcycle a bookcase for me. There were some very nice things in there, also some of the other kind, but nothing that leaped off the shelves shouting 'Buy Me, Buy Me' so we didn't get anything. I did look in the modern bit of the shop for wax melts but they didn't even have any of those. So a nice day ( I even enjoyed having my feet looked at and pampered a bit)  without spending a fortune. 

On Friday we went to the SEC in Glasgow for Model Railway Scotland. I felt that we might well spend a fortune here but in the event the OH was very restrained and contented himself with buying some bits of bendable track to add to his 00-9 layout. That's  going to have to come off the coffee table in the living room shortly but we're not quite ready for that step yet. 

I have to say we were both overwhelmed by the show. It was huge, it was full of people, it was very noisy and there were a lot of model railway layouts which, to the untutored eye, like mine, all looked the same. Here's my big takeaway from this; at the end of the day model train layouts are basically model trains going round and round in a circle. Or an oval, at a push.  You can put in backgrounds, of distilleries, or paper mills, or small gauge railways in the Yorkshire Dales or the Welsh Valleys but at the end of the day it's a train on a track and most of them have scenery that's basically hills with grass and sheep. 

Some of them stood out a bit from the rest; this was my favourite 

although why the neighbourhood giants are cultivating equally giant primulas I don't know. I was of course well outnumbered on the gender front;

there were a few women there but they were mainly staffing the stalls. 

I did however make one amazing, and delicious, discovery 

And I say it's delicious even though I'm not the world's greatest fan of marshmallow. There were lots of other flavours too, we got some raspberry and some orange ones too. 

Three posts in one day! But I wanted to get caught up because life is picking up pace and we're off on holiday in less than a week, after which there will be lots to blog about,  without needing to catch up on the knitting, the jigsaws and What We Did Before We Went Away as well! Or at least I hope so. 

Stashdown - The Jigsaw Edition

I have lots of lots of different things; books, CDs, DVDs, wool and jigsaw puzzles. The books, cds and dvds all got thinned out before we moved, which is not to say they couldn't do with a bit more thinning out but you know ... I also donated lots of jigsaw puzzles to the library in Orkney but I still brought 65 puzzles to Alloa with me. 

My goal is to reduce this to 50 by the end of the year. I was told, when taking a couple to the charity shop for the cat shelter we got Cosimo from, that they have someone who likes 500 piece puzzles so I did all my puzzles of  500 pieces and under over the winter, reprieved one  and took seven to the shop a couple of weeks ago. This should have  meant I was down to 58, but I bought one while I was in there which brought me back to 59. That's not a problem as I have now finished it  and will be taking it back to the shop shortly. 

Here it is

The World of Frankenstein. I have several of these 'World of  ' puzzles. Originally three were only a few but the range has expanded over the past few years. I'm not a completist so there are a lot I don't have simply because I'm not particularly interested in the subject matter and Frankenstein was one of those. I wouldn't ever have bought it  full price and I don;t see it as being something I'd want to do over and over. But it was only £2 in the charity shop and I enjoyed the challenge of doing it and now it can go back and they can sell it all over again. 

I did get a rather lovely late Christmas present of another jigsaw which I dd before the Frankenstein one but ti will be a long time before that one goes to the charity shop. 

So 58 down from 65 whic means another 8 to go before the end of the year. Can I do it? watch this space!

WiP progress and a finished project.

So I've dealt with two more things from the Wip list recently. 

One got frogged; it was a DK  cowl that I was never going to finish as I only had two colours for it and you really needed three, or even better, four. Obviously for some reason I didn't realise that before I cast on. I've been out this morning helping someone from knit group teach knitting at a local school, and we all took along some DK leftovers for the children to practice on/take home and the wool from the cowl went to that. So a project off the list and wool destashed - definitely a win. 

The finished project was a hat. I bought the kit for this at the Glasgow School of Yarn in 2024. I'm a huge fan of the skyline kits from Wee County Yarns, which is now very local to me! - I've done   their  Glasgow Skyline and the Firth of Forth Bridges ( I think I have recorded here recently the sad news that the bridges one is lost which is upsetting.) Anyway back in Nov 24 we knew we'd be looking to relocate to the Stirling area so it was a no brainer to buy the Stirling Skyline pattern and some wool to knit it in. Sadly between then and now my desire for a pink hat has definitely waned, and although the two colours I chose were a good contrast in the ball they could have been a better contrast in the knitting. Too late now. 

It's not my bets knitting ever and I'm not 100% happy with it, ( my knitting not the pattern!) but I am pleased enough to  wear it. And some time I must reknit the Forth Bridges one.