The highlight of the year for many folk from these parts is the ancient tradition of the Haxey Hood.
This takes place on 6th January each year, unless it falls on a Sunday, then it's held on the Saturday.
It dates back to the 14th Century (making it one of the oldest traditions in England) when the Lady de Mowbray, wife of a local landowner, was out horse riding between the villages of Westwoodside and Haxey and her silk riding hood was blown by the wind into a field. The farmworkers in the field chased it around until one of them caught the hood. He was too shy to hand it back to the lady so he gave it to one of the other's to do so. Lady de Mowbray said that the worker who handed the hood back acted like a lord, and the one who was too shy, acted like a fool.
She was rather amused by it all and donated 13 acres of land in order that the chase for the hood could be re-enacted every year.
For anyone taking part it's pretty much a day of drinking and getting muddy, (and probably bruised).
The officials are The Fool, The Lord of the Hood, and The Boggins and they start early in the day touring the four local pubs singing and drinking, along with anyone else who cares to join them - and many do, the pubs are packed.
At about 2.30 they make their way up to Haxey church where the Fool makes a speech and a fire is lit behind him which is known as Smoking the Fool
He then leads the crowd up to the Hood field, which is on the hill between Haxey and Westwoodside.
Before the main event starts, 12 hessian sack hoods are thrown, which the children can chase and if any can get a hood to the edge of the field without being stopped by a Boggin, will get a reward of £2.
The main hood is represented by a leather tube and when this is thrown in the air, the idea is to get it to one of the four pubs of the two villages by 'swaying' it. This is just like a massive rugby scrum (anyone can join in) and usually takes hours.
Westwoodside has only one pub (The Carpenter's Arms) and Haxey has three, so you'd think the Carpenter's wouldn't stand a chance, especially as it's up hill to Westwoodside, but it's managed to get there a few times over the years.
The sway doesn't move very fast, with the opposite sides pushing in different directions, and when it collapses it has to be stopped and the bodies pulled out! It's all very friendly but there can be broken bones and bruises.
Today, despite the valiant efforts of the Carpenter's supporters, the Hood ended up going towards Haxey. Once it was past the point of no return there was no need to push as everyone's going in the same direction with all three pubs on the same street. For it to be claimed by the pub the landlord or landlady has to reach out and touch the hood, which is no mean feat with hundreds of people about and the landlord often having to be lifted up. Neither the landlord of the Duke William or The Loco managed to get it and it went all the way to the bottom of the village to the King's, where it will stay until next year.
Here's the Fool being interviewed for TV
I don't do New Year's resolutions, but because I don't like housework, I have this thing where I like to start every new year with a clean kitchen and bathroom and no ironing pile, in the hope that it'll be like that for the rest of the year. It doesn't always work of course but it's nice while it lasts. The kitchen and bathroom's clean, I'm just off to start on the ironing!
I'd like to wish you all, good health and happiness for 2013, and may all your leaden skies be lit by sunshine and rainbows
(although I investigated the end of that rainbow, and there was no pot of gold!)
This last week we've had a whole variety of weather, from fog, sunshine, rain and frost.
The frost on the long grass in this field makes it look like the horses are standing in ostrich feathers
Here's a few other things with a frosty coating
My walk was slowed down though, because whenever I see a puddle frozen like this
I've just got to break the ice
Of course sometimes I stamp on one that looks like it's going to be hollow but turns out to have muddy water underneath!
The choir that I'm in gave a concert last night and the dress code was black and glitzy. As I was on the back row I needed something that would show up on my top half. Originally I was going to wear black trousers and a top, but when I tried it on I realised the glittery part was at the bottom and wouldn't be seen.
Rather than go out and buy something especially, I adapted this black dress that I already had
I had a bit of black sheer fabric (I think it's organdy) with silver spots on that I made some gathered sleeves with, and added a brooch with a couple of layers of the spotty fabric behind.
I only tacked the sleeves in so that I can easily take them off again - in fact I already have because we're singing at another event this week and the dress code for that is black and red!
I've been taking Modern Jive dance classes for nearly a year now and thought it was about time I ditched the jeans that I usually wear for it, and started looking a bit more feminine.
With this in mind I've been rifling through my wardrobe and found this maxi dress
It's quite shapeless so I took it in at the sides and shortened it.
With the leftover fabric I cut a couple of eye-shaped pieces, and sewed them into the armholes to make floaty sleeves, and now it looks like this
Now, dear reader, I'm in need of a bit of help.
Do you remember this vintage Central Park fabric I got from the charity shop?
Well, I've been looking for a suitable dress pattern and I haven't had any luck.
Vintage Vixen suggested I make a maxi skirt from it, and that really would be ideal - and simple to make. The thing is, I've got my heart set on a knee length dress!
The first thing to spring to mind is a 50s style, but in order not lose any of the pattern it would end up far too long.
My next option is a shift style. When I hold the fabric up in front of me it just reaches from my knees to nearly my shoulders, so I would probably have to add a bit more of the plain bit as a yolk. That would not be a problem even if the pattern didn't have a yolk.
I've got a few shift style patterns but they have curved hemlines, and I need it straight so as not to spoil the pattern.
Has anyone seen a pattern that would work?
There's a tree that stands in the middle of a farmer's field that I like to photograph, so last year I decided to take a photo of it each month to show how it changes.
I don't know how to do a montage of them all together so here they are month by month starting from last December
December 2011
January 2012
February 2012
March 2012
April 2012
May 2012
June 2012
July 2012
August 2012
September 2012
October 2012
November 2012
When I was growing up my Mum went to upholstery evening classes and made various things, from loose covers for the three piece suite, recovering lampshades and also some velvet cushions that had a basket weave effect on the fronts.
I've been thinking about those cushions because I fancied having a go at the technique for the basket weave. She used a bought pattern, and I thought I had it somewhere but I can't find it, so I've been trawling the internet for information.
I eventually found out that it was called Canadian smocking. The basket weave design is actually called lattice (which is why it took me so long to find because I was looking for the wrong thing), and I discovered that there were other designs too.
For my project I decided to use the 'arrow' design. To do the smocking you draw a grid on the back of the fabric and basically just catch a corner of a square with a small stitch and pull it across to another corner in whatever direction the pattern says. I did a practice piece first with 2cm squares but thought it was a bit big for what I wanted, so I used 1.5cm squares for the actual piece.
There was quite a difference in size as you can see here
This is what it looks like on the reverse
I used some old curtains of mine for the smocking and put it together with some Laura Ashley fabric I got from the charity shop and made this bag (I thought the apples and pears fabric looked quite Autumnal so I've photographed it on a pile of leaves)
I think the smocking looks nice against the patterned fabric but they're not really my colours, so I've put it in my Folksy shop and I'm going to make another one for myself when I come across something suitable in blues, greens or purples.
Canadian smocking is usually done with a plain fabric for the design to stand out, but when I was looking for the lattice design on the internet I came across a cushion which had been made with a subtle check fabric and it is absolutely gorgeous. Take a look at this on Passion et Couture blog. I just love the colours, and the extra details round the edge make it really different.
