THE SMALL Wool Gathering 11 - 14 October 2011 - First Sight

Yesterday Jenny and I went to look over the lovely Peddington Manor, the venue for our first Small Wool Gathering.  The house is super easy to find, only about 4 miles from junction 14 of the M5.  This is the view of the house as you drive down the lane, although you will have to imagine a hedge and a bend in the road between you and the house!

Drive just past the house and pull into the drive and you will find plenty of parking, enter by the kitchen door (you can just see it on the left in the picture)

We have some pretty amazing menus planned so were very pleased to see how well equipped the kitchen is - not just an Aga but a second oven in the scullery behind, two dishwashers and plenty of matching crockery, cutlery and wine glasses! 

It's my guess that either this house was once two or three houses or it is very ancient with rooms built on at random.  There are lots of interconnecting corridors -

upstairs

and down

winding stair cases

and an arrow slit window or two

But there are also comfy bedrooms

Several bathrooms (this one's the biggest)

Sitting rooms

and quiet corners

The formal dining room is huge.  Not just for meals but where we will sit around the table and learn from our knitting expert and editor of Knitty.com magazine, Amy Singer

When it comes to eating and sleeping our youngest guest (who attended her first knitting retreat when aged only 3 months!) is also provided for, with high chair, cot and through the garden gate...

a playing field!

The gardens surround the house (this is the gate to the front lawn)

Despite driving all the way there in the rain the weather was perfect when we arrived, I wonder if we shall be as lucky in October?  The evenings will be drawing in by then but if the sun shines we could have elevenses and tea in the garden

Beside the old well

or if chilly beside the Aga

Lastly we met the neighbours, although they found us rather disappointing.  Next time we will remember to bring polo mints!

We'll post more here as we get nearer the date, if you have already booked we hope you are as excited as we are!

Don't forget that after dinner on Friday we are planning to have a knitting 'Show-And-Tell' (triumphs and disasters) and at Saturday dinner the dress code is 'wear something woolly and glamorous'.  Alli and Kathleen (or was it Alli or Kathleen?) suggested we might have a yarn swap too.  If  you have stash yarn you would like to swap post details on Ravelry  (Forum - Gwlana - Small Wool Gathering Chat) of what yarn you have to swap and see what offers you get!

If you have not booked and are interested we are sorry that all the rooms in the manor are booked but about 2 miles down the road is a Best Great Western Hotel which charges £50  for bed and breakfast and we have six day tickets still for sale, you get to join in everything except the B&B!

If you are interested in a day ticket (this is for the whole weekend we cannot sell tickets for individual days) please e mail Catherine (chopkins2011 [at] gmail [dot] com ) and we will send you details.

Looking forward to seeing you all on October 11th

xx

Catherine (and Jenny)

PS If I don't get my needles out I shall be wearing this skein of fab Tilly Thomas symphony lace with beads unknitted around my neck to Saturday night's dinner!