Keep Knitting





When I received this card for my birthday it brought a smile to my face because that is exactly what I do, especially now I have grandchildren to knit for. Anyone who has been following my blog will have seen  earlier posts dating back to April this year when I posted a smocked jacket for Martha. Then there were a few last year, one in August and one in December, and these were a cerise cardigan and another jacket style cardigan for which I wrote the pattern.  Since then I have been so busy knitting I have neglected to share any of them with you so here is the last six months worth in one go!



Kimono style jacket











Sorry this is the only snap I have
of her modelling it right now

 













Lynsey and I saw this pattern in a shop in Northallerton and decided we "needed it" even though it was the wrong season but now there has been a change in the weather it's great with jeans.

Chunky short sleeved jacket




  

Great with jeans

Rear view

Clever pocket detail

When I went to my favourite wool shop, Bobby Davisons in Hartlepool, to get the wool for the kimono I spotted this chunky knit jacket in the window so got the pattern and wool for this as well!

Chunky Knit cardi for the winter

Close up to show embroidery
and ribbon detail

Autumn stroll to the duckpond

At toddler group









 








This is another great pattern from Bobby Davisons and I loved knitting it but when it came to the embroidery I had my "Maths head" on and got a bit frustrated by the fact that the no of loops were not a multiple of the second type of embroidery stitch so i just left it out rather than end a row with half a chevron

The beginning of the next assignment

The completed cardi

Close up of embroidery detail
and cute buttons

Martha sporting her new cardi at ABC

This simple little yoked cardigan was dead easy to knit, a bit tricky getting a neat finish when picking up the loops for the yoke and definitely challenging for me to do random lazy daisy embroidery with no right or wrong placement.

For a change I knit a dress from the neck down

 

My stitch markers came in very useful
as keeping the pattern correct whilst
increasing was a bit tricky

Completed dress



 

Martha is always good at
coordinating her accessories

Perhaps not the most appropriate
dress for a soft play area

My daughter Lynsey spotted this dress pattern on the internet and we went off to buy the cotton yarn in our local branch of Boyes, where you are always granted good value for money. I loved the pattern so much I wanted to knit it but so did Lynsey and since she had spotted the pattern it seemed only right that she should. However we reached a compromise and decided we would both knit it but in different colours!

As I speak hers is not yet finished, as she does have a much busier lifestyle than me with 2 kids under 4 years, teaching part time and running Handmade by Martha a bespoke service making hair slides. I will just remind her though of the lovely cardigan she did that took so long it didn't fit!!!!!

Lynsey's creation now destined for someone other than Martha

I spotted this pattern and sequined wool
and thought it would be ideal for
Martha for her dance class

 


 

Project complete



Mini dancer

As Martha at just 2years has joined S&N dance school she did of course need to look good so to coordinate with her leotard she needed a little bolero to keep warm.

Aran "hoody"

hood detail

 


Cable detail

Looking a little uncomfortable



Lucas loved it at first.....







... but soon realised that it itched

 I decided that after all these knits for Martha it was about time Lucas got his turn. I had started this navy aran jacked about 17 years ago, and the models on the pattern were definitely from another era, but basically it was a very classic knit. My son Matthew advised knitting the hooded version but I didn't have sufficient wool so on his advice I went for a contrast colour which I also introduced into the ribs and button bands. I was really pleased with the outcome but we did hit a snag when Lucas declared it was "itchy" round the neck but I'm sure this can be resolved with a shirt with a collar. Fingers crossed.

 I've decided to stick with girly projects for now until we solve the scratchy problem

Selection of cotton DK from
earlier projects

Random stripes

After rummaging through my stash of yarns I discovered that I had sufficient of one type to knit another dress but this time in "random" stripes (well actually carefully planned to take into account how much of each colour I have) .





Gibside Estate

The Ruins of Gibside Hall

In my last blog post about the community garden at Whickham I mentioned that the former coal mines there had once been owned by the wealthy Bowes family who had their family home at Gibside Hall. Well last Sunday Paul and I decided to take advantage of the lovely autumn sunshine and join our son Matthew in a country walk and what better place to do this than Gibside in the Derwent Valley. The estate is now owned by the National Trust and although the Hall itself is now in ruins there are still some lovely buildings including the chapel which was built as a mausoleum by the architect James Paine.

Gibside's Palladian style Chapel

Interior of the chapel showing the dome

The lady inside was lovely and gave us a potted history of the Bowes family which was just as exciting as plot from a soap opera today. In the 18th century a wealthy landowner called George Bowes owned the Gibside estate and in 1760, when he died, his daughter Mary Eleanor inherited it making her one of the richest women in Europe at that time. She later married John Lyon, 9th Earl of Strathmore & Kinghorne, from Glamis Castle in Scotland and they became known as the Bowes-Lyon family (from whom the late Queen Mother was a descendant).

Part of the Bowes-Lyon family tree

After the death of John, Mary Eleanor married Andrew Robinson Stoney and this was a disastrous union. Stoney, a fortune hunter, virtually imprisoned her and squandered their money but she did eventually divorce him and he spent the rest of his life in prison for debt.
The 10th Earl, her son John Bowes, fell in love with his housekeeper and together they had a son, also called John,. In order for him to inherit his father married the boy's mother the day before he died. This was not well received by the rest of the family who fought to have the title removed from him but they were unable to prevent him inheriting his father's fortune.

Bowes Museum

The son later did the Grand Tour and, while in Paris, fell in love with Josephine, an actress,and married her. On returning to England they built a home in the French style at Barnard Castle which is now Bowes Museum.
So as you see the family was not without drama and intrigue!

The "Long Walk" looking towards The Column of Liberty



 

After a leisurely stroll down the "Long Walk" taking in the views across to the orangery, ruined hall and the stable block we climbed up the hill to the base of the Column of Liberty and had a well earned rest in the autumn sunshine.

There are miles of tranquil walks and the estate is a haven for wildlife with red kites often circling in the skies above. It also has a wildlife hide to view and photograph visitors such as cold tits, great tits and nuthatches so Matthew got in a bit of practise here before visiting the Potting Shed cafe.

It was a lovely experience and well worth a visit if you are in the area.

A Secret Garden

Last weekend, along with my husband Paul and grandson Lucas, I headed off north to Whickham (near Newcastle) to see for myself the wonders of Whickham Community Garden that I had heard lots of good things about from our son Matthew and daughter in law Lynsey.

Before I tell you about this garden I want to tell you about Whickham itself. It is a lovely village on the outskirts of Gateshead, quite high up on a ridge above the Tyne, with amazing views across to Newcastle. Both Bronze Age and Iron Age remains have been found and aerial photographs of the area taken in 1970, revealed crop markings in the shape of a playing card showing that there was a Roman Fort there in the fields of Washingwells Farm. I find this particularly interesting because in the 70's Paul and I used to dig at another Roman fort, Vinovium, in Co Durham at Piercebridge, where Dere Street crossed the River Tees, and no doubt some of the same soldiers who passed through that fort went on to Whickham. The fort at Whickham is thought to have been part of the Stangate Frontier (cA.D.105) built when Roman soldiers were withdrawing from Scotland and is a possible explanation to why the forts of this period stretched from Carlisle to Corbridge but not eastwards to the coast. [Hadrian's Wall wasn't built until c 130 A.D.]
Amazingly this site is on the same farm that a very close friend of ours, Joan (1911 - 2011), spent many happy years. Her father farmed this land in the first half of the 20th century. The discovery of the fort was only made after the family had moved on to another farm at Wolviston and so they were totally unaware of its' importance as a Roman site.
Whickham was a rich agricultural area even in Anglo-Saxon times and still has the remnants of a village green, around the church of St Mary the Virgin, which would have been much more extensive then to accommodate the villagers' livestock. It was however coal that became the chief commodity and records as far back as 1356 show the Bishop of Durham granting a lease to mine the coal. There was a massive expansion in mining here in the 16th century with coal being carted down to the River Tyne. These coal wains were horse drawn on wooden railways and the oldest railway bridge in the world, built in 1727, can be found 3 miles from Whickham at Causey Arch. One wealthy mine owning family from that time were the Bowes whose family mansion was at nearby Gibside.

Causey Arch

Gibside Hall

A wealthy Tyne keel owner, and owner of brewery at Swalwell, built his home, the Hermitage, in 1790 in Whickham. By the early 19th century it had a lavishly laid out garden including a watchtower that overlooked the Tyne Valley, a lake with a boathouse and bridge of a "willow pattern design", a pagoda and tennis courts adjacent to the lake. It is part of this that now forms the Whickham Community Garden.

 

Part of the garden was acquired by Gateshead Council but became neglected. In 2002 Dave Peacock formed a committee to try to gain planning permission to restore the gardens to their former glory.He was successful and work started in 2004, retaining many original features but the lake was reduced in size and is now a wildlife pond and bog garden. It also has an accessible vegetable garden with raised beds so that local children can gain hands on experience of gardening.
I hope this selection of photographs speak for themselves and give credit to Dave, Gateshead Probation and Payback scheme and all the other volunteers who have made this project such a success.

Lucas had a lovely time as children were very well catered for and we enjoyed a nice cuppa in the newly opened Orangery Cafe where we were served by my lovely daughter in law Lynsey and son Matthew who acted as a guide.

The Orangery Cafe and Lucas

Inside the cafe

Lynsey behind the counter

Next time you are up at the Metro Centre why not take a look for yourself. It is open daily between 10am and 4pm and well worth a visit.