Vertigo

Many apologies for my lack of posts I have been suffering from vertigo for a couple of weeks and the computer screen is not my friend at the moment :(

So I just thought I would show you a few pictures of the things I have been up to

Seasons greetings

S x

 Fun at the Clothes Show live

 My almost twin cats deciding whether to brave the cold!

 My retro Christmas decorations

and a little treat for all the hard work!

Joy of the jelly roll

I had plans to try quilting for quite awhile but hadn't anticipated how difficult it would be to start! I thought the hardest part was going to be the precision and my lack of sewing knowledge but hadn't accounted for how hard it would be to even pick the fabric. 

I had some fabric in mind but just couldn't make up my mind about which fabrics looked best together so imagine my joy when the lovely Hayley at Rowan came to my rescue with an Amy Butler jelly roll. It was wonderful to have so many fabrics that worked well together and as soon as I had this I was ready to get started in a matter of minutes. So I just thought I would show you the start of my project before I head back to the sewing machine.

Clothes Show

Just starting to get ready for the Clothes Show at the begining of December (by which I mean mostly picking outfits!) so thought I would share this with you.

Guest blog post

Just to let you all know I have just posted a guest item for the lovely jimmy beans wool.

A taste of autumn

My mum grows many vegetables but by far the most precious to her are the squashes. I am not sure what I did to deserve it but the other day she let me take one from the vaults just before she safely locked the others up!

This made me start looking for the perfect recipe to do it justice and I am thinking of this squash and cider soup from the lovely food 52

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I would definitely recommend a look at the site as just about everything looks utterly delicious

Happy days

The long grey days here are making it harder to have a cheerful day so I have taken to find small ways to lift my mood.

Firstly I just wanted to saw you the beautiful box of knitting needle bracelets I ordered from the lovely  Scrapiana on etsy

And The Langley School project  makes me smile everytime I hear it.

Winter warmer

As the seasons change and the evenings draw it seems like the perfect time for any type of crafting so when Mollie Makes dropped through my letterbox this morning the timing was perfect. Its been so hard not to forget about work and start a new project. 

There is a lovely article on red velvet which also points you to the a beautiful mess blog and I think these might be the perfect thing to make to accompany your evenings crafting.

After a tiring but lovely weekend at the Rowan mill workshopping I thought I would take the chance to show you a couple of things I am really liking at the moment.

This video for the new Westfield Stratford City shopping centre is really well put together and definitely worth a couple of watches.

There are also a few new patterns added to the Rowan free pattern database. The first two are from my recent Rowan Studio 24 publication and the beautiful slippers are definitely on my Christmas shopping list.

Hurricane shawl

I suspect like most knitters when I travel I often take two projects 'just in case'. On my recent trip to New York this proved a most sensible idea. I had socks as one of the projects but when my needles broke on the flight over the second project was much appreciated! At Knitnation I had bought a skein of the delicious the natural dye studio angel yarn. So whilst away I  decided to make the edith shawl from my latest book. I amended the pattern slightly so there were more rows of eyelets worked in the short row shaping section and add a couple more eyelets to the lace edging. By the end of the hurricane the shawl was almost completed. I thought I would show you a couple of images of the book version and the hurricane version. 

The yarn was lovely to work with and once I have finished the thousands of pairs of socks I seem to have to make before Christmas its a yarn I will definitely be coming to.

Vintage Inspired Projects book part 1

I just thought I would show you the first few designs from my new book. I will be adding more of the designs tomorrow but thought I would give you a brief taste of the book. They are all quite feminine pieces with 7 garments and 2 accessories in the book. It is available through my website and will also be in John Lewis and your local knitting store (hopefully) soon.

Knitting and stitching show.

I am just getting ready to head down to London for the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexander Palace. I will be on the Rowan stand all weekend. I will also have my new book hot off the press!

New book sneak peek

Just got the proofs of my next book back from the printer so I think I would share a sneaky peek with you. I hope you like it - I have been working so intensely on it it is hard to know quite how I feel!

Creative Cardiff

Yesterday I was lucky enough to spend the day workshopping with the lovely ladies of Cardiff. The train journey that started at 5.30am and was full of stag and hen dos as well as people off to the rugby who all started drinking at about 7.00 was slightly less enjoyable but the day definitely improved!

I just wanted to share a couple of pictures of the stunning in store displays that the John Lewis team deserve a medal, if these weren't going to persuade people how desirable handknits could be I don't know what would.

I am in the final phase of getting my next book to print and to be honest there just aren't enough hours in the day so today I am just adding a few more nice pictures of New York (all by M Armstrong again!)

I am off to Libertys tomorrow as part of Wool Week and will hopefully have some pictures for you after. I am also hoping to have some more pictures of my photo shoot by then to show you.

Spent the day working on a photo shoot for my next self published book. Its also so exciting to see the pieces on the models but also so nerve racking back for more again tomorrow!

Home sweet home

Finally made it home from New York. I was supposed to have a workshop at the Rowan mill this weekend and my apologies go out to anyway who was booked on the course I was really looking forward to it.

I thought I would start showing you a few pictures taken from my trip.

Firstly I want to thoroughly recommend the 'highlines' to anyone visiting New York. It was built in the 1930's as a freight railway and was last used in the 1980's. After this nature took her hold on the railroads above the streets of the city. The highlines were then going to be demolished but Friends of the Highlines' was formed and rescued the space to become a public park.

The first picture shows a beautiful sculptured designed for birds to live in and feed from.

Images courtesy of M Armstrong

rain rain go away

I was supposed to be flying back to the UK this evening but unfortuantely I am stuck in New York awaiting Hurriane Irene but hopefully normal service will resume shortly and I will share some happy holiday pictures with you then.

It's magic!

Having done my hour on Create and Craft TV on Saturday I thought it only right to treat myself to a drink or two.

I went with a few friends to a lovely traditional pub for a quiet night, however after a little while it became apparent that the table next to us were from the magic circle. So we were treated to an impromptu magic show! It ended up becoming quite a surreal night.

Right must go and pack off to New York tomorrow to help the lovely Josh Bennett on a photo shoot, will try and post a few piccies along the way.

If you haven't come across the online rue magazine I would thoroughly recommend a look.

For the love of ASOS

I should have known it was a mistake to order two dresses with the plan to send one back. I fell in love with both of them as soon as I tried them on and so they both stay. Whilst I LOVE fashion I quite often find trends don't really work with my body type but this seasons ladylike and jewel colour trends are perfect!

Cereal killer

I am very honoured and surprised in that I seem to have been nominated for dorset cereals little blog awards.

Its a really interesting list of blogs to look through, though I generally need no encouragement to spend time being inspired by the creativity of others.

Today was a chance to do the same thing in real life when I visisted nichols building sheffield. Its a real cute collection of antiques, art and crafts.

It is in a really interesting part of Sheffield. There are lots of derelict, old industrial buildings next to newly built flats as shown below.

Summer lovin'

This summer I have discovered a new unexpected drink of choice - Sherry?!?

It is a drink that I previously had only encountered at Christmas as my Grandmas drink of choice. As a special treat we were also allowed a small glass mixed with lemonade or a snowball (I truly am a child of the seventies!).

The Sherry I am enjoying at the moment is likely more grown up and does even seem related to that cloying, sickly sweet tipple hidalgo la gitana manzanilla sherry. Its perfect with spanish cured ham and roasted almonds. I have been eating tapas inspired by this new drink choice and thought I would just share a quick picture.

Apologies for plate being half eaten! Is anyone else having to eat homegrown courgettes with every meal to make a dent in their crop?

Crafting Sunday

Working in the craft industry it can be frustrating that I get very little time to craft myself (other than knitting obviously!). So on Sunday I got together with some friends with an evening of crafting. I was a little nervous about it but it was a huge success and we are already thinking about the next one.

One of the new crafts I got to try was jewellery making with pmc silver clay. I think it is a fairly new product and I think I am addicted! Never has jewellery making been so quick. here are some of the results of our first attempt. I will admit they look fairly rustic but I am hoping next time with a little more experience and a little less wine the results will look a little slicker!

The dressing up box

As a child I loved my dressing up box and today I was lucky enough to play dressing up again.

I had a day in the studio today doing some test shots for an upcoming project and couldn't help but have a go in some costumes we found in the studio so thought I would post my pirate bear and reindeer.

Normality will resume tomorrow I promise!