seriously.hooked.up weekend away May 2019

Set at the beautiful Tranquil Otter just on the outskirts of Carlisle the very first seriously.hooked.up weekend away was a great success!

On arrival each guest was shown around the stunning Lough House which we'd decorated with crochet, sewn bunting and our very own crochet blankets which adorned the sofas in the lounge area.

The beds were beautifully prepared by the staff from the Tranquil Otter with towels shaped into swans! Just gorgeous! On each guest's bed we placed gift bags which contained the latest two Scheepjes Bookazines Reef and Folk. King Cole, Scheepjes, Stylecraft and West Yorkshire Spinners provided samples of their beautiful yarns for our guests to try and also provided patterns and other little goodies!

Many of the group made the most of the early evening sun by sitting in the patio area next to the 8 seater hot tub. The view over the Lough was spectacular!

The gardens surrounding the Lough House are stunning and so well kept! Had the weather been a little kinder we'd have sat outside for much of the weekend I'm sure. Some of the guests (and crew) even tried out some of the garden facilities before our evening meal!

We served a choice of pasta meals for our evening meal on the first night, tomato and mascarpone, tomato and basil (with or without mozzarella) and mushroom & creme fraiche followed by a selection of mini desserts. They seemed to go down a treat and the first evening meal was a success! After our meal some of the guests retired to the lounge area to knit or crochet while others went for a walk around the Lough with little Floyd. Later, a few of us ventured out on to the Lough in the flat bottomed boat, whilst others took photos or took a relaxing dip in the hot tub. Angela managed to catch the setting sun before settling down for the night!

Each morning we made a lovely cooked breakfast and had cereals, fruit juice and unlimited tea, coffee and water available all weekend.

After breakfast on Saturday each guest randomly chose a ticket which corresponded to a bag of yarn samples sent from the companies mentioned above and some from our own seriously.hooked.up stash. It was very much pot luck and there were a number of "swapsies" that went on afterwards. We are SO grateful to King Cole, Stylecraft, Scheepjes and West Yorkshire Spinners for their very generous contributions to our guests' gift bags! - We won't be asking yarn companies to contribute to future gift bags, we don't want to appear cheeky or that we're taking advantage, so this really was a special one off!

On Saturday we had arranged for our guests to visit Superior Sewing Machines (a yarn shop in Carlisle town centre). We had arranged a discount with the owners of the store and provided each guest with a re paid voucher so that they could browse and purchase without "spending guilt". We then went our separate ways and browsed Carlisle City centre before meeting up for a meal later. Ristorante Adriano was lovely! The staff were attentive and professional. It was a lovely meal.

We returned to the Lough House where many of our guests enjoyed the conversation till the early hours. On Sunday we served a choice of vegetarian chilli or vegetarian curry followed by tiramisu (Angela's favourite - to celebrate her birthday which was the day before). Angela and Anthony were able to venture out onto the Lough on the flat bottomed boat, though help was required due to the previous days rain which had filled the boat with water. It took a bit of effort to empty it! They managed to get some lovely photos between them whilst on the boat (and some funny ones too!)

Two of our group had to leave on Sunday evening as they had to work Monday morning, we wanted to capture a moment of the weekend and so before anyone left Paul took some fantastic photos of the group.

Sunday evening was all about the singalong! There was some questionable singing, a few drinks and snacks before everyone headed to bed.

On the whole we had a fantastic weekend and our guests made it so special! The fact that the weekend coincided with Angela's birthday was a bonus! On the last morning of what was a fantastic, relaxing and fun weekend one of our guests took a few pictures of the seriously.hooked.up team (including little Floyd of course!)

We can’t wait to do this again! the next event was booked more or less straight away and will be taking place in October 18th - 21st 2019.

And so from Paul, Angela and Anthony, thank you from the bottom of our hearts to The Tranquil Otter, King Cole, Stylecraft, Scheepjes, West Yorkshire Spinners and last but certainly not least to our wonderful guests who made our unforgettable weekend so special!