Monthly catch up - May 2026

The beginning of May was a lovely treat as it involved a trip to a great yarn shop!

 

Alterknit Universe has been trading for eleven years.  Based in a lovely part of Somerset, between Bristol and Weston-Super-Mare, it combines hand dyed yarns from producers all very local to the shop.

 

They also stock the generic wool and have a great area for a weekly knit and knatter within the shop that takes place on a Sunday afternoon. 

 

 

Pixie Yarn  Sophie dyes small batches of the most stunning yarns from her studio.  Her background having studied textiles; printmaking, knitting, weaving, before focusing on embroidery.  Launching her business in 2017, Sophie has gone from strength to strength and now attends several shows a year.

 

 

 

Whilst I was there I purchased this recycled plastic hank and not only is it incredibly soft, but it is so easy to spin with.  I am looking forward to seeing my idea come to life. 

 

Along with the trip to the yarn shop also stopped off at this lovely cafe for lunch, was very restrained and didn't have a cake at Heathers Coffee Shop  although they looked very tempting!

Living in the Cheltenham we are lucky enough to have several festivals each year.

Although the town is synonymous with the racecourse and in particular the Gold Cup in March when thousands of people descend on the town, including a lot of Irish.   

Then in April the Jazz Festival comes to town.  I have never been before, but I did have a wander up this year to have a look around.  It was nice to hear the music coming from the tents and there were lots of places to sit and people watch.

It is interesting seeing a town I have now lived in for thirty-seven years as a visitor with the street art, the impressive buildings and the lovely yarn bombing done by The Kiwi Fruit Is Cute haberdashery shop, which runs a big variety of course and stocks almost everything you could think of when it comes to haberdashery.

The second weekend in May the weather was just glorious sunshine, not too hot and just nice to sit out in.

I spotted a lovely Lilly that had flowered whilst sat eating my breakfast and reading my current Agatha Raisin book, of which there are now 37.  I am only on book 7 so a way to go yet!

They are all based around the Cotswolds it a gentle murder mystery series and I enjoy as within the writing they do not change the names of places so you know where they are talking about.

On Sunday I headed over to the Forest of Dean, only thirty miles from home.  

Having looked at Google maps I spotted there was a footpath that ran parrell to the road.  It turned out to be a lovely walk and I came across river that runs down and meets the River Severn estuary.

Once again I used my Merlin app and recorded a variety of birds in a short time. 

Another fun thing I like to do is stand at a place and take a picture of where I am and then see in relation on the map what is opposite me.

I have almost always been on the other side, as this is where Slimbridge is, but it is great fun being on the Lydney side as you have a really wide view down the river to the two bridges and beyond on a clear day. 

Obviously I took knitting with me as I was working on my third project.  It was so nice to watch the birds and see the people walking along.  

I also do love my photography and really like how the black and white pictures have turned out. 

We then move in to a weekend I have been looking forward too for a long time.

I took a days holiday and joined for the first time in an event which incredibly, has been going on since 2009 and I was completely unaware until recently.

So I joined the a five mile walk that went on part of the Cotswold Way and then down into Winchcombe Potter.

We were given a guided tour by one of the three members of staff who work on the site.

The site is situated on private land which has had pottery on it since the 1800's.  Winchcombe pottery was established in 1926 on the site.

They have an on site shop aswell as online that sells a lovely range of pottery.

The ethos behind their prices stems back to the original Arts and Crafts where they believed beautiful items should be accessible to all, so the price you pay in the shop, would be the same price that a wholesale customer would pay to stock there items.

On the Saturday I then headed to a yarn show that is now in it's second year The Big Flock.

Held at UWE Frenchay campus it was a nice easy drive down the motorway.

Over the years I have been to many yarn shows, but I have to say I really enjoyed this one.  There were two halls with vendors, with a lovely mix of yarn dyers, stands with lovely knits on, along with many different accessories and buttons to buy and fleece for spinning.

I really liked how there were many places you could take yourself off and just sit quietly and people watch and relax too as especially on Saturday it was very busy. 

There were some beautiful knits, too many to photography, but I did get these.  I do love short row knitting and cables and the colour contrast was just great.

I have been following Pixie Yarn for a number of years, and she has only in the last couple of years started doing shows.

To me, I love that she brings along her sketchbook, which shows her inspiration and colour process, something you rarely see, and her eye for colours and creating variegated ones is exceptional.

 

 

Jeanette Sloan  is an icon in the knitting world, with over 30 years of experience, having taught at Knit Stars Season 6, where she taught bead knitting and now has a book dedicated to this.

I have recently on my last sample knitting used beads and they do add a lovely additional dimension to knitting. 

Sunday morning I attended a workshop run by Rachel of Cat and Sparrow.  I attended a workshop a couple of years back to learn drop spindle spinning, but this Turkish drop spindle was different to how I had learnt.

Amazingly Rachel produces her own spindles on a 3d printer and you can pick from a wide range of colours and sizes that she has available in her shop. Mine was the medium size called Persian that we used in the class.

For me what was a game changer was being able to ply the yarn and I am so looking forward to taking some fibre and my spindle when I go away and just sitting quietly spinning away!. 

My afternoon photography class was run by one of the organisers Jon.  It was a great class learning all about how important light, direction of leading the eye into a picture and many other elements in taking a good picture.

This was my image I took on the day, which I really like of my latest sample I have knitted. 

May is a great month as we get two bank holidays!  The weather has also turned from being extremely wet, to the forecast of temperatures in the high 20's reaching low 30's over the weekend.

So a perfect treat in the morning to take some time, which I have failed terribly in the past to just sit in the garden to have breakfast.

I do so love my garden, seeing what pops up and I really need to invest in some more big blousy Rose's from David Austin My only problem is I have no spare soil that is not planted, so they will have to thrive in a pot.

I then cycled into town, a journey that would take 45 minutes to walk, but only 15 to cycle, and in the heat a much better option!

While they are deciding what to do with the icon Cavendish House, a once incredible department store for 201 years, I still remember the amazing fall hall in the basement and the haberdashary upstairs, along with lots of lovely indepentent stores inside.  It then became a "pop up" stall, which I never really enjoyed, it seemed so out of place, with vast areas just left empty.  To now an empty building.  However thankfully the council commissioned for it to have a beautiful mural to be painted while they decide what to do with the building.
 

 

At the end of the Promenade is Neptune's fountain  unveiled in 1893 it has gone for a long time with the fountain not working.  So it was so lovely to see it back to it's former splendour.

I then headed to my local LGTB monthly cuppa to meet up with friends for a few hours and made some great progress on my second Stripes Are Us sock pattern that I designed.

Rejoicing in the fact that I would still have two days before returning to the "day job", and of course never failing to enjoy a trip to Slimbridge.  I stopped off at my favourite Caffe Nero and had the great surprise to see my lovely friend who had gifted me the best sticker for my mug, who made me, as always a delicious drink for my drive.

It is incredible how much the garden has changed and the new planting has just bloomed, if I have space, I really feel I should try and fit some Alliums in my garden, although I do remember planting a bulb, but not sure if it flowered!

I took my DSLR Nikon and normally use my 75-300mm lens, but this time I decided to just use the standard 50mm lens and work on getting good quality images using just this lens.  I am so pleased how they have turned out and some will be printed so I can view them again.  I find we rarely print images anymore, but this is something I have started to do as it is so lovely to get away from everything being digital.

 

There were so many baby Goslings it was so sweet to see them so close and watch them develop with there adult feathers coming through.

I would so love to work at Slimbridge, seeing the changes day in day out as the seasons change, but I am also happy that the site is only a 20 minute drive to home that I can pop to whenever I want.

For the last weekend of May I had no plans at all.

The weather was still due to be sunny, but so much cooler, thankfully as I am really not a fan of heat over low 20's temperature.

The morning was spent tidying the garden, sitting in it and reading and then as I always like to get out, my first stop was Castle farm shop on the outskirts of Evesham.

The garden section is an absolute gem, with a huge variety of plants and pots along with a great farm shop selling lovely fruit and veg.

 I treated the garden to two lovely grasses and three lots of Carnation flowers for my containers.

It was then just a scenic 12 minute drive to Snowshill Manor and garden.  I have been a few times over the years, and been into the house.

So this time I wanted to just enjoy the gardens.  I was amazed in the time I was sat knitting away in the shade enjoying the lovely view, how many people either in couples or family groups were here on holiday from a real mix of countries.  So I had no idea what they were saying.
 

There are so many places you can now purchase second-hand books, and the National Trust sites are one of these places.  

I have in the past added some great finds to my collection. 

I could not pass up the opportunity to take pictures of the about different pictures, which were all taken in the toilet block at Snowshill!  Never before have I been in a loo where they had such unusual displays on view!

Sunday was a much more overcast day.  But one I really enjoyed.

I am working on a new knitting design that I can take away in my van, as you always need a lovely knit to have when your away on your holidays.

Then in the afternoon, I took the short drive out to Tewkesbury.  The Roses were looking incredible and I was really lucky to hear the choir practising in the Abbey.  The atmosphere and acoustics in such a building always makes me appreciate how lucky I am to live near such an incredible building.

I can not believe we are now halfway through the year already!

So on with whatever fun June has installed for me, I shall report back.