A new Rainbow bear

This is Pastel

She is a one of a kind hand dyed "rainbow bear"

Made from Japanese alpaca.

She is filled with super polyester fibre,

steel shot and pellets to give him extra weight.

Pastel has pink wool felt foot and paw pads and a multi-coloured embroidered nose.

she is fully jointed and is looking for a new home.

Please let me introduce you to “Opal”

Please let me introduce you to "Opal"

He is a 12"(31cm) one-of-a-kind bear made from soft cream alpaca, this alpaca feels like lamb's wool.

Opla is filled with super polyester fibre, pellets and steel shot to give him extra weight.

He has matching cream foot and paw pads, black glass eyes and has a brown embroidered nose.

He is fully jointed and is looking for a new home.

I am now getting ready to hand dye some new Rainbow bears, these bears will be available in the next few months.

An afternoon in Knaresborough

We enjoyed a Sunday afternoon in Knaresborough.
Now a peaceful Market Town.
This must be one of the most photographed places in Yorkshire.
The famous bridge over the River Nidd
The name of Knaresborough has undergone many changes over the centuries. Its origins are traced from the time of the Domesday Book. In the Domesday Book of 1086 the town is written as Chenaresburg. Though the exact origin of the town's name is lost, its development through various different spellings can be traced through documents going back to the eleventh century.

I stood for ages waiting for the train to move away so I could photograph the station.
I got bored so this is the photo I took!

The castle was first built by a Norman baron on a cliff above the River Nidd.
The castle now pretty much lays in ruins, not much remains.
This is a small part of the castle. I love arches and architecture.

Walking by the river.

During the summer we had a lovely holiday in Wales,

We visited my favourite place Portmeirion village, we spent the day walking round and looking at all the lovely vibrantly coloured buildings.
With its beautiful gardens full of vibrant plants and trees.

Portmeirion village is famous for the 1960’s cult series The Prisoner, staring Patrick McGoohan he was also the creator and driving force behind the 17 episode series.
Even The Beatles were fans. Its cult status was confirmed with the establishment in the 1970s of the official Prisoner Appreciation Society

Portmeirion is an Italianate resort village in Gwynedd, on the coast of Snowdonia in Wales.

Williams-Ellis designed and constructed the village between 1925 and 1975.

He incorporated fragments of demolished buildings, including works by a number of other architects. He wanted to pay tribute to the atmosphere of the Mediterranean.

Portmeirion's architectural brightly coloured buildings and deliberately fanciful nostalgia have been noted as an influence on the development of postmodernism in architecture in the late twentieth century.

holiday in Wales

This is the lovely Caravan club site we stayed at in Wales

Betws-y-Coed is North Wales' most popular inland resort. It is where the River Conwy meets its three tributaries flowing from the west, the Llugwy, the Lledr and the Machno. Much of it was built in Victorian times and it is the principal village of the Snowdonia National-Park. Set in a beautiful valley in the Snowdonia Forest Park, it is ideal for outdoor activity holidays. Numerous Craft and outdoor activity shops are in the village with the popular Swallow Falls nearby.

It’s has a wonderful setting surrounded by dense woodland and magnificent mountains. The beauty of the area is enhanced by cascading waterfalls, hill-top lakes, river pools and ancient bridges.
The main street, Holyhead Road, has numerous inns and bed-and-breakfasts. Shops specialise in outdoor clothes.
Of exceptional interest are the many bridges in the area. Pont-y-Pair (the bridge of the cauldron), built in 1468, is buffeted by foaming water after heavy rain. A number of sign-posted walks in the surrounding countryside start near this bridge.

we visited Caernarfon. Caernarfon is possibly the most famous of Wales's castles. Its sheer scale and commanding presence easily set it apart from the rest.

Hugglets Teddies 2009

Two rainbow bears ready for Hugglets TEDDIES 2009 stand 141A

Lake Windermere

This was our 2009 holiday to the Lake District
Lake Windermere

Lake Windermere

Bowness on Windermere

The family came up for a visit on Wednesday, we visited the Betrix Potter museum.
They really enjoyed it.
We went to feed the swans

Lake Windermere

The Lake District

We spent a week in the Lake District in July.

We had mixed weather, with quite a lot of rain at night.

This is the Bridge house at Ambleside .

Rainbow Bear

The finished rainbow bear!

He is approximately 15" tall,

he has black glass eyes and needle felted dreadlocks.
He is a one of a kind bear and is crafted from hand dyed curly mohair in rainbow colours.
He has ultra suede foot and paw pads,
and is filled with super polyester fibre.

I like to add pellets and steel shot to give my bears extra weight.

He is available for adoption.

Rainbow Dying bears

How to hand dye a bear.

There are many ways to hand dye. One way is to immerse the whole piece of fabric in to a deep pan of dye making the mohair all the same colour. Another way is dip dye each piece making it have different levels of the same colour.

I prefer to "Rainbow dye" my bears using rainbow colours.

These come in a small packet in powder form and you add water to them. I use the plain white or natural mohair or "Loom State"
The mohair I have chosen is a wavy natural colour German mohair.

I draw my pattern pieces on the back of the fabric and then carefully cut them out making doubly sure I have two body pieces one left one right, two head pieces one left one right, two arms one left one right, one head gusset, four ears and two legs.





I use newspaper to paint the mohair on. I then lay the cut out mohair pieces on newspaper right side up.
I have a brush for each colour dye and each dye is in a small container with an airtight lid, this avoids spillage and you can keep what is leftover for another time.
I then carefully paint each colour on the mohair starting at bottom, dividing in to sections as I go equally painting each piece the same colour.
Normally I paint the mohair in stripes, the bear being painted in the photographs is spot painted by spotting the dye on the mohair.

I start with one colour, doing all the pieces with that one colour at a time. Then I move on to the next colour.
Carefully covering all the hairs as I go, right to the top with each colour.
When all pieces are all covered I place them on clean newspaper and make sure the pieces don’t touch each other and leave them to dry.






When they are completely dry I put them all in to little net washing machine bags with zips and place them in the washing machine, on a rinse and spin cycle with a little fabric softener.
Once they have rinsed and spun I take them out of the bags and brush all the pieces.


I again leave them to dry, and then I take sharp scissors and trim all the fur away from the sewing seams.
The bear is now ready to make up. I normally sew all my bears by hand, occasionally I will use the sewing machine.


I think hand sewing is neater, but that is my personal opinion.
Kerren.

My next post will have the finished bear!

Hugglets guide 2009

Hugglets Teddy Bear guides available now

Sherry trifle

I really enjoy cooking and baking.

This is my take on sherry trifle. I hate to see trifle in a large bowl it is fine until half of it has been eaten and the rest looks so messy.
I make mine in individual bowls, dishes or glasses.

I used with chocolate chip muffins for the base, crumbled in to the glass, and then I add the sherry, strawberries and raspberries.
For the custard I use half a bar of dark chocolate and one tub of low fat double cream, heated up in a pan until bubbling.

I let it cool and pour it on to the fruit and put it in the frige to set.
For the creamy topping I use low fat well known powdered topping, mixed with skimmed milk and spooned on the top, and to finish it off I place a raspberry on the top.

Delicious!

The Worth Valley Railway

Howarth is the home of the Brontës,
and also the home of the Worth Valley Railway

This beautiful picturesque part of Yorkshire brings thousands of visitors to this Keithly village every year. The steam trains are one of the main attractions here.

It is just a beautiful day out.



Haworth station on the Keithly and Worth Valley Railway line.
Last may bank holiday we started an eight-mile walk from Oxenhope station to Haworth Station and on to Oakworth station.

Oakworth is a Pennine village overlooking the Worth Valley lying between Haworth and the larger town of Keithly in the heart of West Yorkshire's Bronte country.

Oakworth's main claim to fame is probably

for being used in location filming of the classic 1970 film version of The Railway children.

The story is centred around a family who move to a house near the railway after the father is imprisoned as a result of being falsely accused of selling state secrets to the Russians.

The three children, Roberta, Peter and Phyllis, watch the trains on the nearby railway line and wave to the passengers. They become friendly with Perks,
(Bernard Cribbins) the station porter, and with the Old Gentleman who regularly takes the 9:15 train.

He is eventually able to help prove their father's innocence, and the family is reunited.
Most of the filming is done at Oakworth station.

Howarth the home of the Brontës

The Brontës were the world's most famous literary family and Haworth Parsonage was their home.

The main street in Hawarth, and the famous "Black Bull" public house.


This is now the Brontë Parsonage Museum. The parsonage was their home from 1820 to 1861.
Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë were the authors of some of the best-loved books in the English language. Charlotte's novel Jane Eyre,
Emily's Wuthering Heights,
Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall were written in this house over a hundred and fifty years ago.
Charlotte and Emily are ranked among the world's greatest novelists.

My favourite has to be Wuthering Heights.
I can see why it was so bleak and cold on the Yorkshire moors where Cathy and Heathcliff lived. The weather was so cold today I ended up wearing my winter woollies!


Here is the church on Main Street. It is estimated that 40,000 people are buried in the churchyard, the burial registers go back to 1645.



This beautiful picturesque part of Yorkshire, brings thousands of visitors to this Keithly village every year.

Lots of quaint little shops displaying goods from yesteryear, antiques, jewellery, jam, bread, and plants.

We visited York on bank holiday Monday.

We had a lovely day out in York on bank holiday Monday.
This is another of my favourite places; my daughter wanted to go to Scarborough for the day. Last year we went to Whitby and got stuck in the traffic for hours, both there and back. So we decided against going to the coast.
This is the entrance way to the York City wall.

I have walked round the walls when I was a child, but not recently.

This lilac painted man was attracting attention in the shambles.

There were lots of tourists visiting the Minster.
This is a different view of York Minster.

York racecourse, taken from the car. I wasn’t driving!
We went to Harrogate on the previous Friday but it rained most of the time so I didn’t take any photos.