Some progress with my knitting project, but first a little more on the Hafod estate which is on the doorstep of Ty Cariad.
I found a painting on Wikipedia of the old Hafod Mansion in it's glory days, though the original Tudor mansion was rebuilt in the Gothic style by the romantic English man Thomas Johnes, who inherited the estate.
If you take away the house, the picture below is pretty much how the landscape looks today, though there are less broad leaf trees and more taller pine.
I found a painting on Wikipedia of the old Hafod Mansion in it's glory days, though the original Tudor mansion was rebuilt in the Gothic style by the romantic English man Thomas Johnes, who inherited the estate.
If you take away the house, the picture below is pretty much how the landscape looks today, though there are less broad leaf trees and more taller pine.
I
also found this article which is a brief summary of the history of the gardens, the wooded walks and grottos of which are said to have inspired Coleridge's lines 'In Xanadu did Kubla Khan, a stately pleasure dome decree, where Alph the sacred river ran through caverns measureless to man, down to a sunless sea.'
also found this article which is a brief summary of the history of the gardens, the wooded walks and grottos of which are said to have inspired Coleridge's lines 'In Xanadu did Kubla Khan, a stately pleasure dome decree, where Alph the sacred river ran through caverns measureless to man, down to a sunless sea.'
Today the only remaining part of the mansion is the stable block, which is now used as the estate office.
The rest is a pile of rubble that is slowly being reclaimed by nature, and a few glimpses of it's former grandeur.
There are few human visitors to the site, and here you are more likely to meet the sheep who commune with the Deity in the wall.
This one is seeking advice......possibly about stain removal.
So, onto my Orchid Thief shawl that I started at Ty Cariad a couple of weeks ago.
It was a bitch to knit and the instructions weren't at all clear. I stumbled at row 86, but asked for advice from the designer (Ysolda Teague) who gave fast and helpful responses and a link to Ravelry where others had stumbled and found good solutions.
The air turned blue at times, but it was worth the effort. I can feel some crystal beads coming on for the points around the border!
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