Not as much hippie tat as we'd hoped

Yesterday afternoon we headed over to the Godiva Festival, in Coventry's War Memorial Park. We were hoping to spend a good while poking through tat in search of hidden gems, which incidentally is one of Dave's favourite pass times. Personally, I was hoping to find a length or two of red blousey fabric, such as an oversized scarf or maybe an old sari. I was also on the look out for small drawstring purses.

I've got to say that I was rather underwhelmed with this years festival, at least from a poking through tat viewpoint.

The festival organisers had moved the small traders inside the 'fenced' area, where they were selling booze and most of the available food and housing the stage for the live music. To get in, we had to be shepherded the long way around and searched as a condition of entry. I was patted down despite wearing a skirt and having no pockets, my handbag was searched and my bottle of water fondled. Meanwhile, Dave had his hat searched but his rucksack completely ignored...

Ahem - Am I glad my handbag contained nothing more offensive than a suspicious bottle of water, I may have been refused entry had I had something dodgy like knitting needles on me.

Having made it past security, we were surprised at how few private traders there were, each selling very similar stock. Slim pickings indeed. I did see a couple of small drawstring purses, but they were too flashy for my needs and no sign of a sari or suitable oversized blousey scarfs or throws. Dave did draw my attention to some sarongs, but as I pointed out, they looked far too much like sarongs and would have been difficult to remake into something else.

Having failed to find some drawstring pouches that I liked, I had no choice but to make my own. I persuaded Dave to move the wardrobe blocking in my sewing machine (we've been doing some decorating) and after an hour, I whipped up these.



My knitting mojo is still missing in action, so to try and locate it I decided to try my hand at some crochet. Other than dabbling in a spot of Tunisian, I've not really done any crochet in a while, so this has been proving a refreshing change.

A couple of months ago, I picked up Everyday Crochet by Doris Chan from the Knitting and Crochet Guild, mostly because it had several designs in there that I could imagine myself actually wearing. I decided to start with something simple and chose a tanktop or vest called Sweet Tea (Ravelry Link).



As you can see, it's coming along despite several false starts because it seems I cannot read simple instructions or count... Perhaps I can blame the heat?

Summer has arrived with a vengeance this past week and look we have strawberries!