Oh what fun we had!

<Due to being laid low with a tummy bug (the penalty of working with three year old's!) I haven't been inside my 'playroom'. On Thursday evening when I felt that I was on the mend, I decided that I needed to do something that didn't require me to use any brain cells- time to do a bit more on a bag I started knitting some time ago. In my lunch/tea breaks, I can not sit idle in the staff room and I need a bit of a 'chill out' from the classroom, so I try and have something that is easy to pick up and put down. Hence the knitted bag. I don't do much knitting as I hate stitching up, which is what was needed on Thursday. While babysitting Friday night, I finished the stitching up and have almost finished knitting the frill that goes around the edge. Tomorrow it will go through a cycle in the washing machine to 'felt' it and then I can attach the frill and embellish with knitted flowers and beads. Photo of the bag to follow when it is finished.

Today is the first Saturday for ages when Nickie and I have not dashed off to a workshop, so we decided that we would visit the 4 by 4 exhibition in London at the Menier Gallery and it was the final day too!

We stopped quickly at Pitsea Market to get some sheers for the postcard workshop that is taking place at Schoolhouse Arts next weekend, before getting on the C2Cto Fenchurch Street. (we needed help getting a ticket from the machine, as we are not seasoned train travellers).

The weather was glorious so we had to do a photo shoot at Trinity Square Gardens beside the Tower of London . We had decided to visit this exhibition because we know Yvonne Pedretti from our C&G course at Southend. There was some lovely work to view and far too many to mention. But to give you a taster of what we saw:- Yvonne knits and crochets mono filament thread and adds LEDS and fibre optics. Sandra Hurl's work was vibrant in colour with lots of texture- wonderful! I loved 2 panels made by Audrey Critchley- images of London onto sheer that have been distressed to enable you to view the panel behind. There was two floors of work to view- thirsty work, so we had to go to the Chocolate Factory to get some coffee to keep us going! Downstairs we saw the work from Margaret Talbot. She had used images from her travels with lots of stitch. Gilda Baron also had some of her distinctive work down there too. We were allowed to take photo's of the exhibition but they can not be put on the blog as they are for private use only.When we had finished at the gallery we went to Borough Market-WOW!!! what a market!. I have never seen a market like it - it was just for food- every type of food you could want (and vegetable) There was lots of free taste samples as well. It is London's oldest market and is mentioned in documents dating back to 1276, it was granted it's first royal charter in 1406. It is next door to Southwark Cathedral .The atmosphere, the sights, sounds and smells were truly wonderful! A place well worth a visit. It was then off to Oxford Street for some retail therapy. At Tower Bridge we met some people off to celebrate a 30th Birthday all dressed to go to a Medieval banquet at the Tower of London and allowed us to get their photo. We finally arrived back at Pitsea at 10.00pm( 12 hours from when we left home) , footsore, broke, tired and inspired . I felt that I had been on holiday.

P.S I'm sorry for some of the photo's being the wrong way round. On my computer I rotated them before uploading, but they have reverted back in the uploading process!!!!
p.p.s just had a lesson in how to rotate them.