Been a bit busy lately

First there was Southwold


followed by the This Adventure

and a cruise.


Next came Festiwool

Gosmore Ladies' Christmas Fair

with a sequel in Gosmore.

Heading back to the Marina

Yesterday, it was back to the boat for  a 40 minute walk

Nature Reserve

on the Stanwick Lakes Nature Reserve trail.

lunch, and a spot of work,

Work was interrupted at times by the demands of the resident swans

View from the front deck

and other water fowl.

I took Ron for a walk around the lake to the river entrance to the Marina.

It's densely wooded with just one break in the trees with a view across the lake to the boats.









It really is a lovely location, close to home - an ideal alternative to our previous mooring.

Next up is an away-weekend with Hitchin Stitchin'. We're returning to Belstead Brook Hotel for a weekend of knitting and nattering.

Festiwool 2014

The New Atrium under construction

MWNN drove me to the venue - a wonderful re-build of the college building that had been damaged by fire some years ago.

There were lots of go'fers on hand to help exhibitors unload the contents of their stalls.

Festiwool. began early for Posh Knits, but not as early as the organising team who had spent most of Saturday setting up the event and were in place before the doors opened.

At 7.30am Exhibitors began to arrive. There were lots of support people on hand to help.

Sue Hayler and I have had lots of practice setting up, having 'done' the huge Hatfield Craft Fair for the past two years. In no time at all, our stall was ready.

We shared our table with another Hitchin Stitchin member.

April had knitted lots of pretty booties that atracted much atention and praise. By the end of the day, she had some commissions for booties for soon-to-be-new-arrivals.

At 10.30am, the Atrium doors opened and visitors started to arrive.

There were several members of Hitchin

Stitchin' selling
their wares.

For me, the highlight of the event was the fashion show. This was in two parts. Students and Super Model Daphne Selfe modelled vintage clothing from designers such as Jasper Conran and Jaeger. One student wore a woolen jacket designed for Steve McQueen.

Daphne Selfe looked graceful and stylish in all the outfits she modelled.

Then there was a display of re-constructed garments from the art and design department's students.

The stall next to Posh Knits was Turned on the Cut. A fellow-narrowboater, a marine engineer who lost his job when he lost his eye to cancer. He and his wife live aboard a narrowboat. During the winter months, he makes drop-spindles and other items in his 'shed'.

They'd travelled down from Nantwich (not in the boat) the previous evening. Noel and I swapped stories of life aboard and discussed the difficulties of cruising in France.

It  became clear to us that Posh Knits was not going to do much business. Most of the customers were fellow-knitters, so there was very little demand for ready-made goods.

We did sell a few items and Sue swapped a couple of shawls for goods from other stallholders.








Posh Knits will be at Gosmore Ladies' Christmas Fair, the Bull, on Tuesday evening with the remainder of our items for sale.

Everyone worked extremely hard to produce a successful event. Positive feeback from visitors started to pour in even before the event was over. Congratulations to the organisers and the support team