Our trip to bath

Today's post is going to be a little different and I am going to jump around a little bit so please bear with me. It has been an odd week with lots going on and I have so much stuff to share. I was thinking about breaking it up into different little posts but I think keeping it all in one for the whole week will be better.

So to begin...

Last week I was struck down with a horrible cold. When I say a horrible cold, it was awful!! I have suffered for years with sinus problems and when I get a cold it feels like my head is going to explode! This cold was no different and at the end of last week I spent my days off curled up on the sofa with lots of drink, (non alcoholic!) and attempted to get myself better before I had to go back to work. I couldn't even focus long enough to be able to do any knitting or crochet. (It must have been bad!)

Pete meanwhile sat on the sofa with me crocheting away and creating yet more wonderful creations which I am itching to share with you but I am on strict orders not to share anything just yet! (Trust me, it will be worth the wait!)

Pete and I are lucky enough to work for the same company, in the same building, doing the same job and working four on, four off. Some people think this is strange but you what, it works! We don't work the same four days but we do overlap by two shifts so we still get 2 days off together every week. For us, this is perfect!

So we both get four days off and two with each other. Sounds perfect to me. Well, it is! It has been a long time since we have been able to spend this sort of time together as both of our old jobs wouldn't allow us this time due to the constraints of our schedules. So now that we have this time every week, we are now able to plan in things to do. So this week we kicked off our new weekly outings with a trip down to Bath.

We set off just after 10am and started making our way down from the Midlands. It was a two and a half hour drive each way and we never stick to motorways because, lets face it, thats boring!! We have driven down to Bristol so many times now that we have made many stops along the way to different places and a lot of the stops bring back great memories for us. Just stupid things like the garden centre at Evesham, Westonbirt Arboretum, the little town of Stow on the Wold. We have spent time at each and it has been so long that it has brought back so many memories for us.

Now Bath did not disappoint, even thought we were only there for a little over an hour. We had gone down there for one reason and one reason only, but I'll get to that. On the drive into Bath it is just beautiful. Big town houses lining the streets give it such a sense of grandeur then as you approach the centre, it turns into these little back streets of the old town where little unique shops provide an unrivalled shopping experience.

This brings us on nicely to why we went to Bath in the first place. Now we have always struggled to find a good yarn shop where we live in the midlands as everyone seems to sell the same generic brands of yarn and not much else. What we like are the unique yarns, hand-dyed, skeins that you just can't get anywhere else. Well in the midlands these just don't exist. (please comment below if you know of any as I can't seem to find one)

I searched and searched on the internet and I came across 'A Yarn Story' I though this would be a blog or a little generic yarn shop but boy was I wrong! The store was easy to find and as we entered Carmen, the store owner, came up the stairs and greeted us.

The store is small but exactly what we had been looking for. It reminded me of the yarns shops that we had visited in New York last year with wall to wall yarn of different brands all in amazing colourways and not a single generic brand in sight. Carmen had just had a group of ladies in for a yarn tasting session so had loads of different yarns on the table with needles that you could try out. (This was a one off but was great to see the different yarns knitted up). After looking through all the different yarns on the walls and all the different colours, I finally settled on two skeins of La Bien Aimee sport weight yarn in Madeleine (a beautiful shade of purple) and of course a new enamel pin of their yarn brand, Walcot Yarns. I already have a project in mind for this and am looking forward to casting on and sharing my progress week on week. You can find more info on A Yarn Story at www.ayarnstory.co.uk

Works in progress

This week Pete has had a couple of commissions come through so has been working hard on completing those. Unfortunately, I am unable to share them until they have been received by their new owners. He is also currently working on crochet patterns in time for Easter and he will be uploading these on Ravelry as soon as they are complete and of course I will let you all know when this goes live.

Pete did complete a new blanket for himself which I started well over a year ago and it looks amazing! It was made using a pattern from TOFT and he made the same blanket twice and spliced them together to make an incredibly warm blanket for the sofa. I think it was called the boardwalk blanket and he used Drops Nepal yarn for a much thicker and warmer blanket. (It also weighs a ton so if you need a weighted blanket, fill your boots!)

I on the other hand have started making a doll for a friend at work who loves our crochet makes. I tend to stick to knitting but I just had to make this doll for her as I love the way the dolls come out and can't wait to finish it. It is based on the #edsdolls patterns from TOFT but i am having to adjust a few bits to make it work for the specificity of the doll that I have been asked to make. I am also having to create new clothes for it as none of the existing patterns work for it but I am sure that Pete will help me create what I need!

So all in all a good end to the week. Pete is already back at work and I am due back in on Monday so there is not going to be much crafting going on but I look forward to writing more next week.

Take Care

Seb x