Hookery in the Bookery: Hookery on tour

Hookery went on tour this year. Our ladies travelled far and wide and some have sent through interesting photos.

Mags was on holiday in France and locally in Fermanagh. In France she went to the Vendee but to quote they were ‘in the middle of glorious nowhere’. just into the Vendee region. Knowing that it would be too hot to crochet and preferring to spend her time in the pool, her French project was very small. Mags crocheted some flowers from Lesley Stanfield’s book 100 flowers to Knit and Crochet and plans to sew then onto a dressing gown. Mags assures us as readers of the blog that photographic evidence will not be forthcoming of her modelling the finished article.

Camping at The share Centre in County Fermanagh provided the family with a few days of glorious sunshine between two weeks of torrential rain, a typical Northern Ireland summer! The pic is of her ‘Argory blanket’ and was taken inside the tent because, unusually for Northern Ireland, the sun was in full blaze and too strong! We are never weather-happy in Northern Ireland.

Elaine went to Scotland. Her first visit was to a woollen mill in Hawick, the Scottish home of cashmere, ‘seriously the real job’ as she described it. It would have been a shame not to buy ….. Elaine’s husband was encouraged to pose wearing the WIP, which is a new winter chunky James C Brett scarf, wonderfully matched to his jacket. Although I understand that for the purposes of creativity, craft and continued matrimonial harmony he smiled throughout but has neglected to allow his photo to be included here.

Then they went on to Balmoral Castle on Royal Deeside where the scarf made another appearance.

Helen’s holiday hookery photos have come all the way from New Zealand. The first was taken at the Franz Josef glacier and the second, as you can tell, on a much warmer and sunnier day in Queenstown. The much-looked-forward-to holiday was over in a blink of an eye.

Catherine travelled to Moraira in Spain for a whopping 3 weeks as a special family birthday treat. Whilst there she crocheted herself a beach cover-up which she got to wear before she came home.

I was in Germany, staying in Boppard on the banks of the Rhine. I got some work done en route.

Within 30 mins of accessing the local shops on day one I had found a shop which sold wool. It was a strange shop selling both wool and outdoor/trekking clothing and equipment. It was also a very wet day!

Now which one to choose? 400g or 25g?

I also found a wool shop in Cochem a few days later which was more traditional selling textiles, material, wool and accessories.

Evelyn and I were on the North Coast and couldn’t resist the temptation when a photo opportunity arose. Not so much a rose between two thorns as a pick-up truck between two roses? Seriously, we should all remember water safety and thank these folks in the RNLI for the sterling work they do to patrol our beaches during the summer months and rescue folks from the sea all year round.

A few of us managed to have a wee day out, a girlie day, in August with lots of shopping and tea/coffee/lunch. Individually we had all come across this wee wool shop and independently thought that it might be worth a visit. It’s a wool shop in Bessbrook and although it has been there for about 40-50 years it is now under new management by Lorna. Isn’t it great to see this happen and not see another independent yarn shop close it’s doors? Lorna was on hand to help Elaine choose a yarn to match a current project, I was looking for some cream DK and we also got to chat to another customer and ‘help’ her to choose yarn for a new projet. It turned out that Elaine and Lorna had mutual, local connections and histories were discussed. I think that you could call this Hookery in the Bookery went to Bessbrook-ery. We wish Lorna all the best in her new adventure and we will certainly be back.