Convent(ion)

This last weekend I had an adventure. Many months ago a chance remark on here, https://www.ravelry.com/account/login

led to a group of us gathering in a converted convent in York for a knitting/spinning/crafting weekend.

This is a picture of my bedroom. Not the largest imaginable and apart from having to virtually crawl on my knees to get there, it was very comfortable. It was up in the eaves of the building behind the bell tower and this is the view from the window.

The weather was bitterly cold, but dry and sunny and there was an opportunity to explore York. I walked the entire wall, both ways. The first time I was alone as I was competing against 'The Archers' and Andy Murray for company, but the second time, I had company in the form of my friend Natalie. This talented lady dyes yarn and below is an example of her yarn. It is now a sock for me to play cricket in on my tour to Trinidad later this month. This is how you can find her work. http://www.theyarnyard.co.uk/
The sock is plain knitting, toe up, but when I came to the leg, I purled all the coloured stitches that I came to. This really makes the colours 'pop' out and gives a lovely random texture.

Apart from exploring the wall walk, we went to a quilt exhibition, ate loads, knitted, chatted (lots), learned to tat, learned to crochet, spun on wheels and spindles, laughed and chatted some more. We were known as 'the knitters' but at one point we were mistaken for nuns.

As I don't know how to upload more photos half way through a post, more can be seen here http://www.flickr.com/photos/paraknit if you are interested.