WOYWW 443

WE GOTTA GET RIGHT BACK TO WHERE WE STARTED FROM...

Hello, lovely WOYWWers, hope you're all well! Life just overtook me last week, hence the lack of a post. I won't even begin to list what my life involved but suffice to say, it included paint, music, a surprise visit from Australians and band recordings. You can't say that my life isn't varied!!

BUT...the biggest thing I did was get the JanCave back together, hooray!
I realise it doesn't look much different but when I tell you that rough walls have been plastered and navy and black paint has been covered up, then you can see that quite a lot has been done. Do you like my funky new curtains? They were cheap as chips from Dunelm and I love them. I took the opportunity of moving back in to sort out all my baskets of bits and pieces on the shelves, so they're all lovely and tidy (for the moment, lol!)

And my stash of fabric and yarn has been considerably slimmed down. My crafting of choice is still knitting at the moment - the pile of beanies is growing ever higher :-D

We haven't seen our Aussie friends for quite some time and it was brilliant to catch up - it's one of those friendships where the conversation just starts again. Erna is an amazing quilt maker and very knowledgeable about machines - we were having a discussion about suitable stitches for applique and before I could change thread, she asked if I clean my machine regularly. *embarrassed cough* Well that'll be a big fat NO then. She set to like a woman possessed, ferreting out a disgusting amount of fluff!
This in depth archaeological investigation involved paint brushes, tweezers and quite a lot of tools that came with the machine that I'd never used. I will from now on, honest!

And she used screwdrivers too - impressive stuff! Seriously, she is right, doing this more often will help extend the life of my Janome. I'm too embarrassed to show you the amount of stuff that was extracted though!

I took them to Llandeilo (and yes, we did visit the Ginhaus!) - this is the little street where a lot of lovely little shops and galleries (and Ginhaus) are located.
It's like Diagon Alley! 

Do you remember the yarn shop I showed you last time? Well, the lovely owner Deb commented on how thrilled she was to get such wonderful remarks. We've struck up an email friendship and she was in the shop when I took Erna in. What with us hugging and the mad Australians enjoying themselves, there was a real party atmosphere in there. Stupidly, I didn't get a photo of us together but I did take these shots of the windows:
There are the fluffy Christmas trees/Cousin It as part of the display!

There are some very neat knitters and crocheters in this part of Wales!!

Hope you all have a wonderful week - I may try and make something with my Christmas fabric, if there's time :-D


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WOYWW 441

BAA BAA BLACK SHEEP, HAVE YOU ANY WOOL?

Well, the black sheep might not have much but there's lots of yarn on my blog this week! But first, the Jan Cave progress.....

It's still all piled up as we've been doing the gloss painting of the doors and skirting boards. But it's all finished now and we'll be putting everything back together this week - woohoo!! *Happy Dance*  I shall take this opportunity to have a bit of a sort out too, I'm sure the stash can be rationalised somehow!

So the only crafting I've done this week has been knitting:
I'm using up my chunky yarns matching the plain colours (in the bag) to the coloured yarns in the box - nothing special, just beanie hats for a charity thing.

I have bought some more bits and pieces:
Three more balls of chunky for hats or something and some buttons - well, you can never have too many huh?!

I went with my mate Helen to Llandeilo on Monday, primarily to have lunch at the Gin Haus, where I'm getting to be a bit of a regular!  But we found another wool shop in another part of the town:

Oooh, so much choice and so many colours....I didn't know where to start.

I was a happy bunny!

I loved the way the displays were laid out...

I may have bought some of these..... :-D

Helen succumbed too - well, it would have been rude not to! The place is called Deb's Wool Shop - I don't think they do online sales but if ever you come to stay with me, I'll take you there (and the GIn Haus...*grin*)

All the shops in Llandeilo were getting ready for a festival this weekend and the girls in the wool shop had been making Christmas trees out of tinsel yarn:
There are patterns for these but they'd all sold. They remind me of Cousin It from The Addams Family :-D

Finally, this is the view from the front of my house - it's been weird weather recently and we saw a cracking rainbow. 
Do you think the owners of that white house would mind if we dug up their garden looking for the pot of gold?? Maybe not, lol!!

Have a cracking week xxx

WOYWW 440

MUSIC WAS MY FIRST LOVE....

Well, dear friends, there's very little to show you this week - life and decorating have simply got in the way of crafting....

But the JanCave has had two coats of Jasmine White, rollered on by yours truly:

...and it's looking a lot fresher. The newly plastered walls were worth every penny! Ron doesn't look that impressed however :-D

So this has been the downstairs crafting - but as usual, I never seem to have one project on the go!  The navy knitting at the back is going to be a snood for me to pull on when my cold ears need some TLC - no pattern, I just guessed! The Caron yarn is for a blanket, I've just started the foundation chain. I'm not that keen on the yarn, to be honest, but as I have quite a lot of it, it WILL be used up. The navy yarn is Debbie Bliss Merino, bought for me by our New York visitors and boy, that is gorgeous to work with - so soft. There might be enough left to make some wrist warmers for when I'm playing carols very soon. And the red is for a poppy I knitted for a band friend.

Talking of band, it's been all go - we're rehearsing hard for a contest:

We did a recording in Cardiff on Sunday as part of a televised competition. We're on the long list and have to wait and see if our performance is good enough to be included in the shortlist for the telly appearance next Spring.

And five of us did a community event, where a local Victorian arcade is slowly being done up. Three new shops were opened by the MP and Mayor and we were asked to play some tunes.
We were up on the balcony, hidden from view but the acoustics were stunning, we sounded really good!! 

I really hope the shops make a go of it, it's too lovely an arcade to lose. 

Now do you see why I've hardly crafted - it's all go!

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WOYWW 769

 WE'LL MEET AGAIN.... I'm going to take a break from blogging for a while - please don't worry, all is ok! - think I just need a...