Hotting up

It’s another Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK – we get two of them in May – and it’s forecast to be a scorcher, by all accounts!  The weather on national holidays is a bit of a standing joke as it’s usually terrible, but it looks set to be different this weekend with temperatures forecast to rise to 30°C (86°F) and possibly even hotter than that.  We’re not always good with hot weather in this country (we’re not great with freezing weather either!) so we’re being reminded to use sunscreen, keep hydrated and even keep curtains closed during the day to keep the heat out – and just when we’ve got used to doing that, no doubt we’ll be back to the rain again!

I promised in my last blog post about the Northern Yarn 10th birthday that I’d show you some of photos of my quick walk round Lancaster.  It had started raining quite heavily by the time I left Northern Yarn so it really was a quick walk – I pootled in and out of some shops, up a couple of the side streets and then found myself at The Storey and Lancaster Castle.

The Storey is a large building, originally built in 1887 by local philanthropist and tradesman, Philip Storey, for the purpose of offering educational opportunities to the people of Lancaster.  The building is now under the care of Lancaster Council but still offers space for the community – office spaces, a garden, a cafe and bar, a wedding venue and rooms for hire for all kinds of events.  Kate had told me about an art exhibition that was on featuring local artists so I decided to go and take a look.

I didn’t take photos in the art exhibition but I did take this one of the stairwell.  Isn’t it grand?

Behind The Storey is Lancaster Castle.

Lancaster Castle has a long history.  The Romans were in Lancaster as early as 70 CE and the castle is built on the site of three successive Roman forts.  It’s also known as John O’Gaunt’s Castle; he was an English prince who, by virtue of marriage, became Duke of Lancaster and the castle has seen many royal visitors from King John in 1206 (he’s the one you hear about from the stories of Robin Hood) to our current King Charles III.  If you’re interested to know about who’s stayed at the castle over the years, you can read more on the castle website page here: Royal Visitors

In addition to being a royal residence, Lancaster Castle has served as a prison since the 12th Century where children would often be imprisoned alongside adults in the days before young offenders were kept separately.  The Castle’s website is fascinating reading and it does make you glad that our judicial system, although it still has faults, is not the same as it was in years gone by.  I learnt that the Pendle Witches trial took place at Lancaster, and a good number of people were tried and executed for their religious beliefs, and many people – including children – were transported to the “colonies” (Australia and the Americas) for their crimes.

A guided tour of the Castle includes visits to the cells – not something that I had time to do but I did learn that the Castle only stopped being a prison in 2011, which isn’t that long ago!  Lancaster was a Category C prison which, according to the Government website means: “These prisons are training and resettlement prisons; most prisoners are located in a category C. They provide prisoners with the opportunity to develop their own skills so they can find work and resettle back into the community on release.”  According to the Prison Reform Trust, “This is where prison staff think you will not escape, but that you cannot be trusted in an open prison.”

Well!  I’d thought I was going to a yarn shop birthday party but I ended up learning a lot more about the history of Lancaster and the prison system as well!  I think I’m going to plan a trip back to Lancaster over the summer so that I can spend a bit more time at the Castle and perhaps do the tour, have a better look around when it’s not raining – and it’ll be a good excuse to go and say hello to  Kate at Northern Yarn again too!

 

Back home, I’ve done a bit more on my Easy Cable Socks knitted in Lune*, the brand new Northern Yarn sock yarn …

but I’ve been spending my knitting time re-knitting the polo t-shirt that was miles too big for me.  It’s coming on pretty well – I’m up to the armholes on the back now and I just keep doing a few rows when I can.  It’s certainly not growing as fast as a sock!

This is the t-shirt when it was first finished …

and someone suggested in the comments that I take it in at the sides rather than re-knit it.  Oh, I’ll be very honest with you, that was my first thought but it was massively too wide for me and the neck didn’t sit right as it was too big, so even if I had taken it then the neck would still have been too big.

You can see how much too wide it was here …

That’s a massive amount of knitting I didn’t need to have done!  I’ve actually gone down one pattern size and a whole needle size to get this to be the right fit for me now, and I know that being 100% cotton, it’s probably going to grow with wear as well, but it shouldn’t grow to the size it was so it’s all good.

Anyway, it’s been a reminder as to why I don’t knit much else other than socks … although I must confess that I have splurged a hefty chunk of my yearly wardrobe budget on some yarn for a Kate Davies cardigan so that’s sitting waiting for me.  It’s not cotton yarn so I’m hoping that I’m going have less tension issues – and I must finish this (again) before I start that, so I’m getting on with it!  I joined in with the Knitting Wester Ross club which ran at the end of last year and into the start of this year, and I fell in love with the Isle Maree cardigan.  It’s got a colourwork band at the bottom which is steeked and this will be my first attempt at steeking – another reason why I decided to buy the recommended yarn as it’s 100% wool and therefore more “sticky” for when you cut the yarn.  Steeking has always looked far more scary to me than I think it is so I need to take some of the advice that I give to people who worry about sock heels before start knitting them and just get on with it because it’ll be fine when I do it 🙂

I’m also getting on with my husband’s “Dark Side of the Moon” socks (named for a Pink Floyd album).  I’m up to the toes on the first sock now – it’s something else that’s dropped down the priority list so I can try to get my t-shirt finished to wear this summer – but I will get a move on with them as I know he’s keen to wear them.

The black yarn is Laughing Hens Cozy Sock 4ply* and rainbow band is an All Wool That Ends Wool micro stripe (you get two in a pack so I have another one for the other sock).  The cat hairs were not an optional extra, they just attach themselves to absolutely everything in this house!

 

Right, it’s lunch time here and I need to go and make myself something eat – I’m planning to head out into the garden this afternoon and if I don’t have lunch before I go out, I’ll get engrossed and completely forget!  I’ve got lots more flower photos to show you but they’ll keep for another day.  Before I go, I’ve got a couple of blog updates to tell you about in case you’d noticed that I’ve been working on it so let me tell you about those.

💜  Firstly, the main “post” that you see now when you come to the blog is a static “Learn to Knit Socks” post.  I’ve put that there to make it easier for people who come to the blog to look for the sock tutorials to find them, especially if they’re using a phone as previously you could only see the last blog post unless you went into the menu.

Don’t worry that you’ve missed a “general” blog post if you see the “Learn to Knit Socks” header every time you land here, you just need to scroll down to see the latest one.

 

💜  I’ve done a bit more work on the ad network disconnection and I think I’m nearly there now.  You shouldn’t see any ads at all now but if you do, please let me know because I’ll need to work out why that is!

 

💜  Finally, I’ve added some sock labels to the blog shop if you’d like to take a look.  These are the first of more styles and sizes that I’ve got planned and are suitable for children’s and adult socks.  I’ve got some baby sock labels to upload but haven’t taken the photos yet.

They’re called All Occasion Sock Labels (ignore the “birthday” heading on the second photo – I changed the name but didn’t re-take the photo) and they’re wraparound labels so you can adjust them to fit the size of sock you’re gifting.  The download comprises two files: A4 and US letter so they should fit any paper size.

You can find them here:

All Occasion Sock Labels Set 1 (purple/green)

All Occasion Sock Labels Set 2 (blue/green)

They’re also available on Payhip and you can find them here: https://www.payhip.com/winwickmum

 

OK, I think that’s everything for today!  I hope you have a wonderful Bank Holiday weekend if you’re in the UK (don’t forget your sunscreen and to keep hydrated!), and I’ll see you again soon xx

 

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