Exciting Times

September has proved to be a very eventful month so far.  At the beginning of the month my husband retired.  It was something we've been planning for quite some time, but even so, it's a big change in our lives which we are going to have to get used to.  The plan is for lots of holidays and days out, but I'm sure we'll settle into a slower routine over time.

As a celebration of his retirement, we had a holiday away with our daughters for a week. It's been a while since we've all been away together.  As a reminder of holidays gone by, we booked a holiday cottage in North Wales, in Pwllheli to be exact.

It was a wonderful week, I enjoyed every minute of it.  We had some lovely walks around the coastal paths on the Llyn Peninsula.  The landscape is amazingly beautiful and rugged.

Hell's Mouth

Mynydd Cilan

We had a paddle in the sea at Abersoch.

So cold!

And I was quite emotional at finding the gravestone of one of my ancestors in the church yard in the village of Llanengan.

Llanengan Church

Lovely old pub in the village of Llanengan

It was all over far too quickly, but now that work is a thing of the past, I'm looking forward to lots of time away.

Our holiday cottage

The cottage we stayed in was lovely, but the internet reception was poor so I'm trying, this week, to catch up.

Before I went away, I finished my Fair Isle cardigan.

I love the colours, but I'm a bit annoyed with myself that I didn't check my gauge properly.  The cardigan is a lovely slim fit, but maybe a bit too snug on the sleeves.  Never mind, it's still wearable but would be just that little bit better if there was a little bit of ease around the arms. Details of this project can be found on Ravelry, here.

I also completed the button-through skirt I had been wanting to sew.

I used leftover fabric from a dress I had made last year and buttons recycled from an old dress.

I was so pleased with how easy the button holes were to make.  I'll definitely have to make more of these skirts.

It's less than two weeks to go until Yarndale and I'm so looking forward to it.  My knitting mojo has deserted me lately and I suspect that the stash busting has had an impact on this.  It will be lovely to have an injection of new yarn.  I'm sure that will get the creative juices flowing again.  In the meantime, I'm knitting up a cardigan in some frogged yarn - not very inspiring but I've only got one more sleeve to do.  I'm now busy dreaming of the new yarn that'll be coming home with me shortly.

Have a good week everyone.

Family Reunion

One of the amazing things about tracing your family tree is finding long lost relatives.  I spent last Sunday in the company of three wonderful ladies who I was meeting for the first time but who are all related to me.  Two second cousins and a third cousin (all once removed).  We are all related through William Parry who was born in North Wales in 1816.  He was a slate quarrier.  He took his family to America in 1851, to work in the slate quarries in Pennsylvania but he returned to North Wales with some of the family about 25 years later.

We were perplexed to understand why anyone would give up Pennsylvania for the slate quarries of North Wales, but I wouldn't be here if he hadn't!  My third cousin is from the branch of the family that wisely stayed in America.  She now lives in Texas and she brought me a slab of pecan praline in the shape of Texas!

Texan Pecan Praline

We had a wonderful day swapping family stories and exploring cemeteries, looking for Parry graves.  The weather was not at its best, high winds and rain, and it seemed to enhance the bleakness of the Welsh mountains.  Not ideal for fighting your way round overgrown graveyards.

LLanllechid

We were finally rewarded with finding the grave of my great-great grandfather.

All in Welsh

 Thankfully one of my cousins is a Welsh speaker and was able to translate for us.

Glad I took my woollies!

We then went to the village where the family had lived and some of our grandfathers had been born.

Yr Fron

Aerial view of Yr Fron

It was a wonderful experience.   We all came home with a slab of Welsh slate as a souvenir!  But most important of all, we have new friends who share a passion for family research.

So Where Was I?

Revision and exam out of the way, I need to get organised and remember all the plans I had made during the revision period.  I must say, revising is a great way to be inspired... for everything other than revision.  I had some great ideas for things to make and do and now I have a fairly substantial list of things I want to tackle.

First of all there's all the work-in-progress that needs to be assessed.

I'm making a granny blanket for Eve for when she goes away to university.  I'm about a quarter of the way through that.

I'm knitting a sweater for Grace for her birthday.

The colouring of the yarn for the sweater is beautiful.

I'm also working on adapting a pattern from the 1950s for a short sleeved top with a cabled peplum.

And finally I'm knitting a cardigan  from my Olivia pattern.

This cardigan is now almost complete, so I'll be able to share the photos with you shortly.

Well that's just the big projects, lots of quick projects are on the list - I just need to find time to fit them in.

At the moment we have football on the the television - Euro 2012 and the US Open golf tournament started yesterday.  This all means plenty of sitting-and-watching-sport time which equates to knitting-and-crocheting time - so no excuse not to make good progress.

Having said that, I'm also back working on my family tree.  This is far too addictive to be true.  A whole day can pass tracing relatives and nothing else gets done!  But it is so much fun and I've made contact with numerous long lost relatives, discovered family members in far flung places and generally learnt so much.  Yesterday I spent working on my American relatives.  So if you're a member of the Parry family and you're reading this in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, hi, we may be related.

Eveline

I've mentioned in the past that I am researching my family tree.  It's an ongoing project that just seems to grow and grow.  It's wonderful to find out little snippets of information about relatives from long ago.

It does make me sad though that when I was young I never took the time to ask my grandparents about their own childhoods - a missed opportunity.

I was told many many years ago that I looked like my Gran, the one who taught me to crochet, remember the motif?  I had never seem a photo of her when she was young and I thought I never would but my wonderful uncles have been chasing around for me and at last I have a photo of my Gran, Eveline, when she was in her twenties.

My Uncle Arthur sent me this yesterday and I felt so emotional seeing it.  It's my Gran but as I've never seen her before. I can't stop looking at it.

He also sent photos of other relatives with the promise of more to follow.  It's like time travelling - meeting these relatives - and I'm so grateful for this.

Sneaky Peek

It's 10 days since I last published a post - doesn't time fly when you are completely distracted!  I've been fiddling around and researching more of my family tree - it is so addictive. 

Obviously I'm still making - knitting and crocheting as usual.  Just so that you don't think I've fallen a sleep I thought I would let you have a little sneaky peek at what I'm working on at the moment -

Such a cute bear - and he's not finished yet.  The completed version and pattern will follow soon.

Formby Church

Yesterday we had a little trip out to Formby - it's only a short distance up the coast from where we live, but our visit was to see St Peters Church and in particular look at the grave stones. 

The church was built in 1736, the previous chapel having been overwhelmed by sand!  Additions were made to it in the 1800s. 

My grandfather's family originated from Formby - they were farmers, before they moved to Liverpool and the prospect of better jobs.


Numerous members of my family are buried in the grounds of the church and I was hoping to find the graves of my 4th great grandparents. 

Unfortunately we didn't find them but there were many more graves bearing the family name - the family had been quite extensive in the area in the 1700s and 1800s. 

I did manage to identify the grave of my 7th great grand uncle.

He was born in Formby in 1689 and died in 1759.  His grave was near the entrance to the church and he would have been one of the early burials at the church. 

It's wonderful to be able to piece together the past and imagine the lives our forefathers would have lived.  Tracing the family history is such an absorbing and enlightening pastime. 

Trip to Lancaster

What a dreadful day - weatherwise - Saturday was.  It poured with rain all day - very heavy at times.  That was the day we visited Lancaster University! 

Thankfully it's only a short car journey from where we live - the nearest of all the universities we have visited.  It's a campus university quite a few miles out from the city of Lancaster.  There are lots of facilities on the campus and a significant amount of building work and general improvement is going on.  Here are some photos (not taken by me - these were taken when the sun was shining!)

A very impressive university - we all liked it there and the course looked interesting.  We made a trip into Lancaster itself, which has character but lacks the quaintness of York (but then again it isn't full of tourists).  We saw the castle - which is still used as a prison and visited the Priory Church where we were treated to a rehearsal by the Priory orchestra for a concert they were giving that evening. 

On the way back home we made a detour and stopped off at Hoole a small township in Lancashire.  Eve and I wanted to visit the parish church there.  The church was built in the 1600s.  My fourth and fifth times great grandparents were buried there.  All of their children were baptised and married there. 

We were unable to locate any relevant grave stones but it was  lovely to stand there and image the family back in the late 1700s and early 1800s attending this church. 

Thankfully the rain had stopped by the time we got to Hoole.

So that's our unversity visits all complete now - it's been very interesting seeing them all - makes me wish it was me having to choose what to do and where to go.

Family Treasure

I am currently working on tracing my family tree - great fun and very addictive.  My Mum has just lent me a shoebox full of old family photos. 

Eve and I spent a wonderful evening studying them.

This one is our favourite. 

It is of my great grandparents, William Edward and Eliza Ann and their first-born son, Charlie, taken in about 1895. 

We also loved this one of my Nan (on the right) and her cousin Dorothy, taken in 1929 - a couple of thoroughly modern gals. 

Dorothy's Louise Brooks hairstyle is lovely.

The photos really bring the family tree to life - real family treasure.