Science Fest : the big reveal

so today was the day for the Newcastle Science Fest guerilla knitting big reveal and what a beautiful spring day it was too.

it was a full family outing with partner in crime my MIL, and DD, DS, OH and FIL for much needed step ladder back up. we met up at the Centre for Life as planned at 11am with lots of other knitters then headed up to the Discovery Museum to complete our masterpiece.

we pretty much had the carpark to ourselves apart from the odd bemused passer by who stopped to appeciate our "art work" and we set about covering the our trees with metres of knitting
and fruit; bananas, lemons, limes, apples, oranges and even grapes!






we added labels to some of the pieces to thank all our contributers and to encourage people to leave the knitting in palce for everyone to appreciate. ds designed lots of these, check out the message
we knitted metres and metres of widths for the tree trunks and immediately spotted that my original measurements were slightly out ! but at least that meant we had some spare to decorate well pretty much everything so the lamposts got a make over too!
finished at last! pleased and happy with the overall effect and the lovely bright colours against the stark bare winter trees.



and time for football for some!


thank you thank you thank you to everyone that helped or contributed to our not so little project.

Newcastle Science Festival

soooo, i know people have mixed views about the point of community knitting projects like Coat For a Boat & the Gingerbread house. i.e "What's the point?".

personally whilst its not something i would do all the time i enjoy these projects as a bit of a diversion, a chance to meet more like minded people (and I admit, for my 5 minutes of fame!)

when i saw the post on the Ravelry North East Yarn fiends group from the Science Festival organiser i knew i wanted to be involved.

we have chosen 2 (in hindsight a bit big) trees outside the Discovery Museum, Newcastle to "yarn bomb" - so far we have knit.....

18 1m x 30cm lengths to cover the trunk
10 pieces of fruit for the branches
5m of finger knitting for the branches
10 pom poms for the branches
1 newcastle science fest sign 1m x 70cm (nearly finished!!!)

much child labour has been involved and help from non crafty friends to outsource more pom poms

(don't worry, i won't be hanging the cat in the tree. he's enormous - would probably break a branch!)

there has been a huge amount of effort and i can't wait to put our knitting in place on Sunday evening. more pictures will be posted but here are a few......

Not Knitting

not knitting 1

every now and again i venture into other crafty worlds

big in my world at the moment is making my own big knitting needles.

i got introduced to big knitting after helping on a Coat for a Boat last year and again at the Harrogate Knitting show.

since i now have a pair of big needles, i set about making my own bespoke ones and happily chisel and sand away for hours. i now have about 12 pairs - 6mm, 18mm and 30mm, and sawdust in my hair! right now i'm happy just to look at them - makes a change to the usual vase of lilys. but i may yet venture into the world of ETSY








not knitting 2 - Sewing!!!


I like my sewing machine but i am limited to squares or rectangles - nothing complicated.
So other projects have been dog bed covers and cushions.
I saw this Hungry Caterpillar material at a lovely fabric shop in Whitby , the whole piece (double sided) was only £5.50. I made a nice rectangular (of course) cushion for my MIL's play group. It was a Sunday morning, still in pyjamas, 30min project.

Half Term Projects

Half term for mean a few days off and a stay in Whitby for a short break. It was walks by day and knitting, telly & wine by night

I have been getting behind in my crafty projects , and as I am a Project Manager in real life used these skills for my knitting UFO's - this meant knitting 7-8pm Malabrigio Whisper then 8-9pm twilleys freedom cardigan etc I was very focussed and not to be distracted. And what a result!

I finally finished Whisper. ok it is only small cardigan - but remember it is lace weight merino, beautifully soft to knit with and only needs 2 skeins. I made some mod's which meant it took me longer to unpick and change as it felts (argh!) but it is sooo soft.








We did lots of muddy walks, onefrom Littlebeck through to
the Falling Foss - past the Hermitage - of course we took
a wrong turn but it was nice to be out in the fresh air seeing little signs of spring like these snowdrops in Little beck forest.












Then look at the snow on the way back on the
North Yorkshire Moors. As my sister said.....
"Frozen Lamb Chops"!!!!!