I've been neglecting....

Just realised that it is over a month since I last posted! My excuse - I have been busy, spinning, weaving, knitting and generally being crafty...

Firstly I have cracked warping my loom. After completing messing up trying the Ashford back to front methods (wasting some really lovely yarn in the process) I tried the front to back method using 'Warping all by yourself' by Cay Garrett and the Interweave DVD by Madalyn van der Hoogts 'Warping your Loom'.  The front to back method is so much easier on the back as a lot of the work can be done away from the loom...

It also required some wood work by Mr S in the shape of a heddle stand and an ingenious little device to hold the cross sticks.

These two little gadgets make the process so much easier....

So here is my first piece of proper weaving

Block Twill

The next thing is to make some tea towels, why?  Well everyone seems to make tea towels and I have a large quantity of cotton yarn just waiting to be woven.  This was an absolute bargain 4 kilos for £30. But, of course, to do this needed extra heddles and a new reed, so what could be relatively cheap tea towels are turning out to be rather expensive!

That was the beginning of the month, for the last two weeks we have been away in our caravan staying at Chertsey, firstly so I could go to the Muse Connection Volume II and secondly for our annual visit to Wimbledon. 

The first was fantastic, but the second was a damp squib, in all the years we have been allocated tickets through the Wheelchair Tennis Foundation we have never been disappointed with our seats.  

Now the allocation is organised by the LTA and we found ourselves at the very top of Centre Court. 

The whole thing had been a fiasco, the tickets had miss-addressed and despite checking with every 

sorting office in Bristol were deemed lost. We had to go to the ticket office to collect replacements - that was easier said than done! As we had left home 10 days before, we didn't have  the necessary letter, to gain entry so we had to be escorted, then there was the wait as the queue was very long, and of course sans letter meant finding the tickets proved to be less than simple...

Then we found out where our seats were! The view was terrible, the roof feels as if it is only inches from your head. Fortunately there was a really good match on Court 18 - Liam Broady who had been given a wild card and played a brilliant game.  He lost the first two sets, we thought it was curtains, but he fought back and won the last three sets impressively. We did go back to our seats for the last match, but Stan's game was lack lustre, so left early and beat the traffic... Obviously we need to rethink our strategy - definitely go for the second week or a lesser court (cheaper) in the first week and seek out the more competitive matches.  Watching the top seeds walk over qualifying players is not entertainment...

I know I shouldn't moan, some people never get to Wimbledon let alone sit right next to the court, but  honestly you get a better view on TV!