Haven't done a vast amount of knitting this weekend as I've been down at Ro's house. I've done a bit of work on my secret project but it's a slow business, involving as it does a large amount of stocking stitch.

I HAVE however been Spinning!!!! (goodness what fun). I don't know if anyone recalls that I bought a drop spindle and some roving in a kit at Woolfest and had a go at spinning with it which was a total disaster. I don't know about anyone else but I just don't feel that two hands are adequate for using a drop spindle. Every time I got the damned thing going round enough and started to draft the roving it would spin back the other way and the wool would unravel. When Ro came up she showed me how to do it properly but I still couldn't get the hang of it. The other problem that we both had was that the yarn kept breaking. Ro suggested I may find it easier to spin raw wool as it sticks together better.

So this Saturday we got out some of the raw fleece that she has living in her garage, two pairs of carders and her spinning wheel and carded up some rollags of fleece and she taught me to spin on her wheel. Now it may sound daft but it was so much easier than that bloody spindle. I will not claim that what I spun was particularly brilliant, but at least it happened and Ro thought that it wasn't half bad for a beginner! (or so she said). So now I'm a bit keen on getting a wheel (watch this space).

The rest of the weekend was spent watching rugby, almost getting struck by lightening and haring off across the county on a wild goose chase. Ro is interested in getting a Timbertops wheel. These are made in Leicestershire so we looked up the place they're from and decided to take drive over. Of course when we got to our destination it was just somebody's house not a shop , so we just drove on. On the way however we'd taken the scenic route and going along a gated road between two villages we came across this sign next to the road.

Dunno if you can read the sign but it says "Match in progress. Please wait for signal at end of over."

The road went straight through the middle of the cricket pitch.

Only in England eh?

After failing to find any spinning wheels we went into Melton Mowbray and had a late lunch at the Cafe Italia in Church Street which was delicious. Unfortunately we didn't make it to Dickinson & Morris' Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe before it shut (best pork pies in the world) so we will have to go back.