WOYWW 903

 SISTERS, SISTERS,

THERE WERE NEVER SUCH DEVOTED SISTERS...

Hi everyone, I'm back after a really lovely week away in beautiful Mid Wales! Our two boys came with us and we had a lot of laughs, good walks, nice food and a special visit!

I've been playing catch up since I got back as my next fair is on 3rd October and it gets busier after that! It's all been about knitting and crochet, though the JanCave did see a bit of action yesterday (but I forgot to take pics, doh!)

I picked up some yarn in Shrewsbury in order to crochet some pumpkins:

I went into Abakhan, it's a treasure trove of lovely things:

and was quite restrained in only picking up a couple of balls of autumn coloured yarn, as seen in the pumpkin pic!

The rest of the pics are all about the trip so dip out now if you want...

Our boys are such good company, we really did have fun:

On top of Montgomery Castle, it was a very steep walk up but worth it for the views - we could see the rain approaching up the valley and got down just in time.

We stayed in one of the best holiday homes ever, in our own walled garden where the pheasants, owls, kestrels, house martins, squirrels and bats kept us entertained.

We visited Chirk Castle where there was a medieval re-enactment event going on:

Very atmospheric! There were lots of artisans in the tents but the one that fascinated me was the yarn braiding:

Unfortunately the person wasn't there, I would have liked to ask about the technique. Colourful though!

We visited the British Ironworks Centre near Oswestry and it was bonkers but brilliant! A 70 acre site with so many statues and figures all made out of recycled materials from aircraft parts to motorbike chains, it was amazing.

A massive millipede - its legs were old golf clubs!

The artistry was truly amazing, how they got the right part in the right place was impressive....

This dragon was my favourite, it stood over 20ft tall and the construction was astonishing. You could buy it, I fancied putting it in our back garden looking over the wall, that would scare the local kids lol! At £25k though it had to stay there *grin*

The highlight of the week happened on the penultimate day when a couple of visitors came over:

Oh but it was wonderful to see these two naughty sisters lol! Both Jo and Annie were looking so well, it was fab to catch up after nearly 20 months since we last met. As you can see, within five minutes of being there, the table was covered in crafting stuff!! Thanks Annie for bringing it over xx

I was given some lovely presents:

Thank you!!  It was just lovely to have some hugs and chat for a few hours, there weren't many long awkward silences lol!

Me and my gorgeous Big Sisters xxxxx

Thanks for staying to the end, I'll be round to yours as soon as I can today. Hope you're keeping well and enjoying your crafting xx

WOYWW 901

 BACK TO LIFE....

Wasn't last week's anniversary meet up wonderful? And how lovely to see some returning Deskers as well, that was a real treat! I thoroughly enjoyed reading about everyone's old desks and memories, what a gorgeous community we are xx

As the title says, Back to Life, Back to Normality....

Quite a lot has gone on in the past two weeks! I had a fair:

It was a lovely event, I saw lots of friends and made a few quid for the RNLI so all was good!

I made some bunting for the new granddaughter of an old friend, the first for quite a while and it was fun to do.

I've cracked on and made an army of gnomes! They're just needing pompoms sewing on the hats and their noses attached.

I laid out all the yarn I'd been given and the lovely gals from the RNLI who help me out with the Christmas knitting came for afternoon tea and helped themselves, it nearly all went yay! They'll use it for baby hats and blankets for the local hospital as well as knitting for the upcoming fairs. And I don't have to find room for it anymore, woohoo! Win win!

The husband of my deceased friend passed on some more stash, amongst which were these knitted baubles and a partly made Christmas stocking:

My good friend Kim (aka Chief Titivator) sewed up the stocking and some beads onto the baubles - we both decided they need something else:

The bows just finish them off nicely without overwhelming the exquisite knitting (obviously done on four double pointed needles, something I will never do!)  They'll look lovely on the stall and add a bit of variety to what we're offering. Thanks Kim, you're a star!

That's it for now, we're away next week so there may /may not be a post, see how it goes. Hope you have a good week and may your yarn remain untangled and your papers uncreased xxxx

WOYWW - THE BIG 9.0.0!!

 CONGRATULATIONS AND CELEBRATIONS!

Happy 900th everyone! I had a trawl around the posts ending with '00' and there were some nice makes to show but it hit me that it's not the crafting that brings me back every week, it's you lot..my friends.. and so without any apology whatsoever, I'm repeating my 800th post (edited), a look back over many Crops and the wonderful folk who've been part of this Desky madness for so long xx  All updating is in this red text, I also deleted the former comments so that new ones could take their place 🥰

And so, without any further ado, here we go   .....

Well, who'd have thunk it eh? An idea from our lovely Julia to see what other folks were doing every Wednesday and here it is, 900 episodes later. Surely a candidate for the longest running blog, crafty or not! There are many reasons for its success but surely the foundation stone of it all is friendship. Virtual friends became real ones and it's been wonderful (and occasionally very sad) to be part of your lives.

Sarah thought it would be nice to share memories for the 900th Bloggyversary so I've had a trawl through the archives and this is the journey through my eyes. Buckle up, it's a long one! You may need a large coffee, tea or gin to see you through.......

LLJ STATS:    770 posts -162 followers - 24,506 comments

                       1.2 million views

I couldn't even begin to tell you how many things I've made but it's a lot and there's so much that I'd forgotten about too.

I officially joined the Deskers in July 2011, having resisted Julia's blandishments for a while! The one thing I'm proud of is persuading Julia to meet up with WOYWWers in real life, what could possibly go wrong, lol!

The first  crop was in October 2012:

When we discovered that meeting strangers off the Internet wasn't that scary! It was lovely to put faces to names and we had fun:

Helen still has the sign I believe, lol!

Other meet ups followed, another Crop happened in 2013 by popular demand.

Some faces who are still around and others who aren't - the flip side of the joy of having all these friends is the sadness when they pass away. We’ve had to say goodbye to quite a few Deskers...

That's how I remember Shaz Silverwolf - what a wonderful woman.

And Janet Fairythoughts was the first desker Julia and I ever met - we ambushed her in the haberdashery shop she worked in!

Of course if it wasn't for this gal we'd never have met each other:

And I even offered bed and board to folks who'd travelled a fair old way:

Here's Sam (Hettie) with her beautiful lace - we met up a couple of years ago in Abergavenny for a coffee and catch up, she's not changed one bit!

Another year 2014 and another Crop, more people started attending from far and wide:

There's some familiar faces there! Mary Anne always stood at the back as she's so tall and Debbie Rock attended for the first time. Such a shy person, it was a big achievement for her to attend in person - another gal who passed away too soon.

Pear shaped Chris (her blog name!) Debbie and Helen.

A nice pic of Cindy in action!

Our Lisa-Jane (still as bonkers!) and Fiona, who is now Mayor of Gillingham, Dorset (I think.)

Enough said!!

Another year passes and Crop 2015 brought a few more folk along:

A slightly smaller gathering but just as loud!

Lovely to see Dolores (Cardarian).

This pic of Kyla makes me laugh!!

And Mary Anne was knitting mightily even then!

A great photo of some fab friends - Doug and Shaz Silverwolf and Morti and David Bromilow.

In 2016 Julia had her big op so I stepped in and ran WOYWW for a few months whilst she recovered. It was good fun and I enjoyed it very much. 

I also went up to Shrewsbury to meet with those naughty sisters Twiglet and Wipso aka Jo and Annie. We get on like a house on fire and I'm proud to be their Honorary Little Sister!

We've had some fun over the years and these gals have been so generous in sharing their expertise, fabrics, yarns, patterns and love xx

Crop 2016:

Margaret Glitter and Glue joined us for the first time...

...and had a ball meeting everyone in person. (edit: I've lost contact with Margaret since she moved away from North Wales, is anyone else in touch? I'd love to know how she is)

Christine (Bishopsmate) passed away a couple of years ago but this is how I think of her, always smiling and of course the pink hair!

And here's a pic of when LynneCrafts came to stay in May 2017 - we've been friends since 1982 and Lynne has crafted all her life so I was very happy when she joined in WOYWW a couple of years ago:

The Crop was organised by Margaret that year and we all went up to Llandudno:

Where I met Neet for the first time and what a rock chick she was, it was fab to say Hi in person. (It broke my heart when Neet passed away earlier this year, she had been such a strong supporter of my blog, we messaged often and exchanged stash and ideas. Goodness I miss her.)

And the first time of meeting Sarah too who was accompanied by Eva.

I think this was Elizabeth's first Crop too.

It was lovely to meet Anne Copperbeech and Chris (Mrs D) as well. 

This next pic is one of my favourites - I'd love to know what they were gossiping about.

Another year moved on and the Crop moved to Shrewsbury, organised by Jo and Annie:

I love this pic, lol!

We saw some old faces:

Lolol!! And also some new folks, having 'known' Caro for years, it was wonderful to meet in person:

And Catriona, who posts her crafts on Facebook:

Another fab day that went past too quickly.

Lol, twits!  I couldn't have done all this without my wonderful Gordon, who is very good at taking pics for my blog, almost as good as me ;-D

I haven't shared much of my crafting even though that's the raison d'etre of WOYWW. What has become most important has been the many many wonderful people I've met, I'd never have crossed their paths otherwise and my life would have been poorer for it - may it continue for many more years under the guidance of Sarah. I love being part of the whole Desky Shenanigans from all over the Globe. 

Sending my love to all current deskers and remembering those wonderful people who brought joy into our lives before they were taken too soon.

I've tried to feature as many friends as possible but if I've missed anyone out then I sincerely apologise. Hope you've enjoyed sharing a few of my memories of a wonderful, mad, loving, joyous and craft-filled 900 WOYWWs xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx