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!