Ahhhh Bakewell.

I hinted last time that I'd been to Bakewell. Well, when I say hinted, I actually just told you that I went. And went I did! I was taken there as it happens by a fella but I'm keeping my cards close to my chest lest he turns out to be a wanker like the rest of them (aye me... ). I can't make this a massive blog but I wanted to do something because I've had quite a day today (lost in two separate parts of Nottinghamshire) and I want to tell you all about that but I didn't know whether I wanted to talk about this but I definitely wanted to blog in order (like littletinbird < 3) but it's now 18.02 and I'm knicky-knacked and I want to get home and finish the thing that I started in the yarn that I bought in one of the places that I got lost to find. Clear, yeah? :)

So, he drove in his car. And he's quiet so I rambled on and crocheted this:

 

Beauts, yeah? It's some sort of top down crochet jumper that I made up when I was drunk on the birthday in the BEAUTIFUL new King Cole Country Tweed DK - be still my beat beat beat beat beating heart. Oooof, it's good to work with. :)

 

I tried not to go too mad with 'photos.for.the.blog' but I think he thought I was a mental anyway. You know how I like photos of sky though.

 

 

And that was just the back of the carpark!

 

First thing we did was find the wool shop. Obvs. It's not a wool shop, it's a craft shop and it's packed to the rafters with cross stitch and general tapestry:

 

 

Brill!!!! Seriously stunning work but I can't help but think... why??? More than a little bit is a sad waste of knitting/crochet time, no?

 

This was their yarn and pattern selection. It's acrylic dk. Which has it's place but I can't say I was thrilled. Ain't no way I'm buying acrylic dk as a souvenir. Then I found this:

 

 

Brill photo! It's hanks of pure wool in a sort of thick dk/worsted/thin aranish weight but it had no price tag on it. When I asked the lady how much it was, she was like 'uhhhh, it's wool, yeah?', 'right, how much?', 'are you going to knit with it?', 'well, yes, how much?', ' but it's for tapestry', 'I'll survive, how much?'. I forget now how much it was to be honest, a fair-ish price, somewhere around £5.00 for 50g which just on the high side of okay for high quality wool I think. I bought emerald green, navy and cream thinking fairisle but I never seem to carry around circular needles any more so I started a hat in crochet instead. Here:

 

 

Another brill photo... It's finished now but I'm not happy with the decreases so I may take it out to there and start again. But I'm getting ahead of myself!

 

We went for tea. Very civilised but I was too drunk/hungover to pour my own tea without smashing the place up so he had to do it for me:

 

 

Despite my pathetic feminist whinging 'but I don't need a man to pour my tea'. Turns out I did...

 

I balled the yarn.

 

 

Swooooooooon.

 

And then we decided to go to the museum which is my favourite thing to do on days out. He did warn me it was up a hill and I didn't believe him and I honestly thought my head was going to explode before we got up there. But we saw a tractor:

 

 

And lots of little hatch-type doors in stone walls:

 

THE MUSEUM WAS AMAZING! AMAZING! Not too big and not too small. A bit local and a bit national. A bit very old and a bit Victorian old and a bit WW2. I didn't take enough photos because I was just trying to take it all in. I really liked the bit about an elephant in Bakewell. I suppose liked is the wrong word but was fascinated by...

 

There was an exhibition on knitting in the war and that's where all my photos came from:

 

 

I taught the fella to knit. He wasn't very good. But he does understand the Einstein's Theory of Relativity so we'll let him off?

PATONS!

 

What a dresser!!!

 

Blurry photo of a brill looking book. Nothing inside. A metaphor for life?

 

And a nice little display. :)

 

Then we walked down to the pub because my belly was making some weird noises. On the way down we saw this:

 

 

No words.

 

This! Cute!

 

And this! Which is where I bought my tart and he his pudding in the end.

 

 

Lunch was to die for:

 

 

Such good hangover food.

 

And then we headed back to Nottingham. I talked at him all the way home and crocheted. Natch. then we went to the pub where I found a cat that fell in love with me and we discussed the state of the world.

 

 

Awwwww.

 

And that's that. Not as short as I'd imagined but you can't shut me up can you? Oh well. Tomorrow, or maybe the next day, I'll tell you about what I've been up to today. Sleep before then though.

 

Love Eleanor. xxxx