Coach trip

I came across a day trip by coach to the Potteries online, offered by a ceramics studio, so I swapped my days this week and booked it for a day out.  Although feeling little urge to make pots myself, I do quite like some ceramics and have various small collections, plus it's always interesting to see how things are made.  It was quite an enjoyable day.  We went first to the Gladstone Pottery Museum in Stoke on Trent, which is a preserved manufactory with bottle ovens and demonstrations. I had been before many years ago, but quite enjoyed a second visit.  We had a tour guide but you don't need one as all the rooms are well explained. It sounds like it was a horrendous life for the workers in all these factories, and life expectancy was very low in the industry. But the skill levels were amazing.

(below: inside a bottle oven showing the saggars stacked up the way they would be for a firing)

Also on site is a gallery of historical tiles with some gorgeous things, and a museum of sanitary ware.  Why don't we have gorgeous sinks like these Victorian examples any longer?

After lunch we were supposed to have a tour of the Moorcroft factory and visit their pop up Christmas shop. However when we got there, the factory was closed, the pop up shop not running yet, and the staff denied all knowledge of having booked our tour.  So boo to Moorcroft customer service!  Luckily our organiser knew that the Middleport factory museum was nearby and open so we headed over there.  I hadn't heard of Middleport but it turns out they are the home of Burleigh which I have always lusted after.  And there was a large seconds shop with everything 30% off.  So merry christmas to me, hee hee!  This is a pic off their website, I got four of these calico pattern mugs in various colours, and a few other things which I am not going to disclose for fear of looking like I have a problem.


Although there is a working factory, it wasn't open to tours when we were there, but you can self-guide around some of the historic parts of the complex and also they've let some units to other potters and artisans who have open studios there.  So it was quite a nice visit and recommended if you are in the area (and the Gladstone museum as well).  I've often thought it would make quite a nice holiday to stay in the Stoke on Trent area and visit all the remaining factory shops and museums. Unfortunately DH does not share my enthusiasm.

I haven't had any time to work on the Japanese dollhouse this week but I did manage to sew another block for my 30s sampler quilt.  This was a bit involved to construct as you had to do a partial assembly, then the hand applique, then finish the assembly. It looks a bit puckered because I sprayed it with starch afterwards to protect it while it waits for the other blocks to get made. There are 42 blocks and so far I'm getting about one done a week so it is going to take a while.

I also finished my Itineris Shawl this week.  It's turned out to be a good size and the corner that's knit in the sock yarn doesn't obviously stand out as being too different from the main body knit from the Batik Swirl cake. I like it, it's cosy to wear and feels nice.

I needed a new commuter knitting project to take on the coach trip, so I've started knitting a sock in the DK Christmas yarn I bought last year, which some would say looks like Christmas barf but I'm enjoying it.  It's acrylic with a sparkle strand in it and turns out to be knitting up as a candy cane spiral on a red background which is kind of cool. I'm just doing a plain vanilla sock to let the yarn be the centre of attention.

The broken window is all repaired now and we painted around the moulding on the outside yesterday to seal the small gaps against the weather. We also moved some plants and dug the border along the front wall, ready for 15 hedging plants that should be arriving this week.  I realised that if we can grow something up and over our low wall, it will discourage or hopefully even prevent people from sitting on it.  The plants won't be tall enough to do that yet but hopefully will establish and grow next spring.  I went with a Cherry Laurel plant which is supposed to cope with dry shade and grow reasonably quickly. I would rather have had something viciously prickly but none of those plants were assured of coping with the difficult conditions under our big trees next to a wall that casts a rain shadow.  And so life goes on...