Laal Bear has a new logo.

I meant to post about this before Woolfest but time got the better of me and anyway I decided to do a special post all to itself .Back in December I met a lovely lady called Teresa Boast at the Grassington Dickensian festival and she had the most amazing paintings of sheep . All different colours and with wacky names . We had a long chat about her work and I bought some cards from her which had prints of her paintings on.

Fast forward to two months ago . I was looking for a new and eyecatching logo for my new wool labels and remembered Teresa's work . The one I particularly liked was Streweth who had a multi coloured coat . He seemed perfect for my multi coloured had dyed wools . I emailed Tersesa to ask permission to use it on my wool labels . To my emence delight she said "yes" and even sent me a jpeg to take to the printer. The picture above is the result . I would now like to publicly thank Teresa very much for allowing me to use her art work . The labels had their first outing at Woolfest and everybody commented about them . It seems to have brought me luck as sales were awesome . Hope you like it .

What I did at Woolfest

Well you can't have a Woolfest without these guys as they put the "wool" into Woolfest . Take a look at those horns .last year I posted about Woolfest and said it had got better . Well this year it exceeded all expectations by about 3,000.000.000 miles . It was tremendous . I've never seen it as busy in all the three years I've been doing it. We almost doubled our takings from last year .

Everything was good about it the weather was kind , the people were so friendly . We had loads of Ravellers come to see us and we made loads of new friends .There was such a buzzz .

Woolfest was the first wool festival to happen in this country and up to now I think it's the best . The organisers get it just right .

This is what we started with . A freshly washed cattle pen ,at Mitchells Cattle Auction Mart in Cockermouth , and a pile of boxes .
It's starting to come together.
A bit more yarn.

Add some sock blockers and fibre.

And we're all ready for business.

This stall had lots of lovely baskets . I didn't succumb , though I could have done .

These believe it or not are rugs . They're stunning enough to put on the wall I think.

Lovely weaving looms on the Ashford stall .

Met some great people . Mr Yarnyard was there again in his kilt .

Woollybutterfly ( Sarah ) test drives an Ashford Joy spinning wheel .

Nicnots and Krafty Koala on their stall .

John and Juliet from Coldharbour Mill . They are organizing Fibrefest in Devon in August and we are going down for that .

Ambermoggie winding wool on the Kindred Knitters stall . They raised quite a bit of money for charity over the weekend , winding wool for people and having raffles .

This gentleman was making ....

Oak swills . A traditionally made basket using strips of oak . Again I resisted temptation . In fact I didn't buy much this year apart from a book and a couple of hanks of yarn . Nothing jumped out and grabbed me for some reason . I think I'm going to get a spinning chair with the money I didn't spend

Friday night we went to the Tattie Pot supper and Spin-in . A good time was had by all .

The highlight of my weekend was meeting this guy. He's Richard Ashford of Ashford Spinning Wheels . My wheels are Ashfords .He'd come over from New Zealand to attend the Fest . It was a pleasure to meet him.

Well that's Woolfest for another year . We start the agricultural shows on Saturday right through till September . We will fit Fibrefest in , in the middle of August . So if there are any people from the South West intending to go there please stop by the stall and say hello .

What I did on my holidays .

Hi Folks sorry about the lack of blogging this month but I've been so busy getting ready for Woolfest ( more on that tomorrow ). As the title says this blog is about the hols.

Again we went to Woodbury Salterton in Devon . We enjoyed it so much last year we went back for another look and as the weather wasn't as hot as last year we got out and about a bit more . I took my wheel and got a lot of spinning done . It was lovely spinning in the sunshine.

We met up with two knitting groups we had been in touch with on Ravelry but stupidly forgot to takes any pics or was it because we were nattering to much .Sorry ladies. Anyway we had a fab time , so much so we are going down again to Devon in August to do Fibrefest . It will take a lot of planning but we'll manage .
We went to a REAL craft fair in Bovey Tracey and had to actually queue for about half an hour to get in . It was great seeing so many crafters in one place . We stayed for about three hours .

Papa Bear talking to a wood carver.

Having a go at some stone carving.

This was fantastic . The dragonfly just balanced on the piece of wood .

A day out to Sidmouth. Though it was sunny and the sky was blue it was a cold wind.

Lyme Regis . We love this place and the weather is always good on the days we go . We made several visits.

The Harbour at Lyme Regis.

We found this lovely walk around the old part of the town .

And a little tiny mill tucked away behind the Main Street .

A visit to Chesil Beach . It was awesome . It just went on for miles and miles .

On one of our days out we followed a path by the River Otter to Otterton Mill . It's still a working flour mill and bakery . They have some great crafts there as well . This owl is made from chicken wire .

And these glass dragonflies looked fab with the sun on them .

This is the mill stream that turns the wheel .

This is where they ground the wheat to make flour. I've brought some home to make bread.

We couldn't go down to Devon and not go to Coldharbour Mill again . If you look back on my blog for last June you will see loads of pics and links from then . These are pics of the bits we missed last year.

Pap Bear looking at the steam engines that some times run the mill . It is a woollen mill and is mostly water driven . We had to go to pick up some yarn I'd ordered to dye for Woolfest.

As usual on my holiday blogs I leave you with a magnificent sunset this time over the river Exe.

Tomorrow you will read all about What I did at Woolfest .

Normal Service Will Be Resumed .

This quick post is just to say we are back from Devon . Normal service will be resumed in ten days time as I have a massive load of dyeing to do before Woolfest next week . If any of you readers are going please come and see me and make yourselves known .

A View from a Brew

Another beautiful morning. I was up early again today 6-30a.m. I don't close the curtains at night ,when Summer comes along . I like to be wakened by the light and get up early and enjoy the day . For the third day running I've breakfasted in the garden ,by the pond with the sun on my back . What could be nicer .This is what I see as I'm sat there .
A View from a Brew ( for international readers to me a brew is a cup of tea )

Buddah enjoying the sunshine from behind the Geraniums .

Look at these . Thousands of baby spiders they had just emerged . They were running up and down one of the canes in my Sweet Pea tubs .

Another Poppy has opened . This time it's the pale one . I love the deep burgundy centre

A bit of knitting. I've finished my third Elsewhere jacket . This time it has three quarter sleeves and is a nice addition to my Summer wardrobe.

I've started the wind down to the holidays . We go away on Wednesday and all the jobs are done apart from sorting a projects bag out to take with me I can relax. The weather seems to be hotting up now so it looks like we are going to have plenty of sunshine . I spoke to the man from the site we are staying on in Devon and he said the forecast was good.

We've finally come back down to earth after our windfall of Thursday . We've decided to put the money in our fund for a new caravan , with what I've saved already we can now get a much newer one .
This is the last post for May . I may get one more post in before we go away . We are off to the Midland Hotel knitting group again tomorrow so there may be some photos of Morecambe Bay to post .

Still Here.

Yes I'm still here, after the trauma of last week . Thank you to those who got in touch .I posted a thread on a couple of Groups on Ravelry and the response was amazing, so much support from people I've never even met. Anyway I'm not going to dwell on it , it's gone now . I'll just have to be a bit more vigilant in future. We've been away this weekend to do the Border City Steam Fair. What a disappointment . I didn't even take any pics. I'm can't even be bothered to go into detail about what I thought of it . The only good thing was I managed to make these lovely little socks for my hols . Three pairs in three days that shows how not busy we were . I made them with just one 100grm ball of my Summer Sundae range of yarn and three 25grm balls of contrasts .
A simple basket weave for the turquoise ones .
A sort of cockle shell design for the lemon.

And a cabley one for the lilac.

They'll be ideal for wearing with sandals or crocs if it's chilly .

The yarn and the patterns for the socks will be available at Woolfest next month . As will the yarn and patterns for the socks I posted a few weeks ago .

Only six more days to go then we'll be in sunny Devon .Can't wait . We are meeting up with several people from Ravelry and going to their knitting groups. Plus a visit to John Arbon again at Coldharbour Mill . I've got 9 kilos of yarn to pick up from him . The caravan is all packed and ready on the drive . Can I go now please ??????

I saved something nice for my last pics . I love poppies and these pretty ladies showed their faces last week . I have a very pale pink variety as well but they aren't out yet .

I nice close up . Aren't the colours stunning.

Ah! well back to work . I may get another post in before I go away .

P.S. We got some great news tonight . We've beeen paying in to our local football team's sweepstake for about eighteen months now and tonight when the man came round for our monthly payment he brought with him a cheque for £1000. We'd won the first prize in this months draw. Yipee !!!!!!! Certainly makes up for last week .

A Big Dissapointment

No pictures with this post as what I have to tell you doesn't have any .

I am getting ready to attend a steam rally over the coming weekend and have to get all my stuff ready . As I will be taking all the other crafts I can only manage to take part of my hand dyes so this afternoon i decided to sort out what I was going to take with me.

I haven't touched the boxes of wool since I got back from Wonderwool Wales , a bit lax of me i know but I've had loads of other crafty things to do , so I thought I'd do a mini stock take as well . This is where the disappointment comes in .When I checked all the yarns I've discovered that I have had six skeins of wool stolen from my stall during Wonderwool weekend worth £54 . How am I so positive ?

A. All sales are recorded . None were missed .

B. I knew exactly what amounts of each colour there was as it had all been dyed especially for Wonderwool .

C . Most importantly, I know definitely that I did not sell any of this particular yarn over the weekend .

I am very upset and bitterly disappointed that a fellow knitter or knitters ,as the case may be , or anyone could do such a thing . I work hard at my little business and £54 is a lot of money to me . Perhaps somebody out there is reading this blog and knows what they've done and I hope their consciences are pricking them hard . The yarn won't do them any good as it was ill gotten.

I have been doing fairs for over 16 years and this is the first time anything has been stolen from me and it grieves me to think that now I've got to be extra vigilant ,even at wool fairs .

Sorry it's a bit of a miserable post but that's how I feel .