A Sunny Weekend

I tink this is the third weekend in a row we've had gorgeous, sunny, HOT weather here, which is almost unheard of. The weather the last 2 weeks is similar to what it was the very first summer I spent in Cornwall. In July and August 1989 I spent two months working at a riding stables on the edge of Bodmin Moor. And we didn't have a single day of rain the whole time I was here. Glorious sunshine and hot weather for a full two months. In the 23 years I've lived here now, I can only remember one other summer that has been that good and that was summer of 1995 after Vanessa was born.

During my very first summer in Cornwall, we spent a lot of time walking across the moors from the riding stables to a quarry near Minions, Goldiggings. Simon spent a lot of time swimming there when he grew up and we've regularly taken the girls there over the years. Most of the time we go there, we're the only ones there swimming. Last time there was a family camping but yesterday afternoon when we turned up it was packed. There were lots of local teenagers and a few families sunbathing and swimming. Just like it was that very first summer I was here. 

The girls love swimming in Goldiggings. The water is cold though, very cold. I haven't swum in there for years. I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to cold water and in recent years I've only swam in the Med. I kind of wish I'd brought my swim suit yesterday though as it was hot sitting there watching Simon and Em swim while I was knitting on my current deadline project which is knitting in Debbie Bliss Rialto Lace.

I did spend some time sitting on a big rock with my feet in the water with Sam by my feet. Simon did manage to encourage Sam to swim a little bit but my phone was in my bag so i didn't manage to capture that.

On Saturday, I spent most of the morning sitting in the shade in the garden spinning. I had planned to get some work done but decided to allow myself 30 mins of garden spinning time. Those 30mins turned in to 2 hours. Oops. I enjoyed it though and made some great progress on my Polwarth Silk singles. I did some more spinning last night while watching Tour de France highlights. Wow, what a great stage yesterday was. Christ Froome, the yellow jersey leader, winning on top of Mount Ventoux and also leading the Polkadot Jersey competition while still being in the yellow jersey too.

Above is what's left of my fibre. I probably won't have time to spin this evening as we're dyeing the club yarn but maybe I'll get close to finishing it tomorrow evening (I'm teaching all day tomorrow so no day time spinning). Below is what my bobbin looks like. I could still do with some advice on re-joining singles when navajo plying, so if you know of some good tutorials or have any advice please share in the comments. 

It's the last week of the Tour de France and I've enjoyed making time for spinning nearly evedy day. Some days I've spun a lot more than the hour a day challenge I set myself. The challenge now will be to keep up the regular spinning habit when the tour finishes. One of the frustrations i have as a spinner is that I feel it takes me so long to finish a 100gr batt. I'd like to spin enough to knit myself a garment but the thought of that is just too daunting at the moment but the last 2 weeks have made me realise that if I spin a little bit every day it adds up very quickly.

Every time I sit down I pick up my knitting. It's usually deadline knitting of some sort or sometimes a selfpublished design. I've tried at various times to do non-deadline knitting on Sundays for example but it doesn't always work that well. These days most of my knitting time is in the evenings and weekends and that's when I made most of the progress on deadline projects. I know some designers don't do work knitting on weekends but that wouldn't work for me. I do enjoy spinning though and I need to make time for a non-work related hobby which is difficult as knitting is my job and my hobby. So I've decided that I definitely will make more regular time for spinning and try to keep the regular spinning habit going. There will be time when the pressure is on and I'll be knitting every spare moment I've got but as long as I make some time on a weekly basis to spin that's okay.

Saturday afternoon I went to the Liskeard Show. The Knit & Knatter group had a stall as usual and I spent most of the afternoon at the stall. I normally enter sometime in the knitting classes but I forgot to enter this year but I enjoyed taking a look at what other people had entered. And the highlight of the afternoon was when  a lady who came to one of my learn to crochet classes stopped by to tell me she's really enjoying crochet after attending my class and that a scarf she made won a prize in the show. A great scarf it was too. She also crocheted scarves for Christmas presents last year. I love getting feedback like that from students.

Looks like it's going to be another hot week here. I'm planning to send out a newsletter later today with a special discount. So if you haven't already signed up, do so now.