True tranquility

Last week I took time out from the crazy world of knitting to visit hitchin lavender fields. It was like stepping back in time. If you are in the area I would thoroughly recommend visiting, it was a complete bargain as the entrance fee also included picking a bag of lavender and 5 sunflowers! All in all a perfect day in the English countryside.

 

The new autumn/winter season has now been launched by Rowan so I thought I would show you a couple of my favourite pieces from a brochure I worked on for them. The yarn is called Frost and whilst I am not usually a huge fan of fancy yarns this one really appeals, its a chainette construction with a metallic effect and is really lofty.

The boy is out of hospital and so normal-ish life is slowly returning.

During my visit to Woolfest I managed to meet one of my knitting heroes, the talented kate davies. So imagine how much it made my day when this little parcel arrived!

Its a kit for the lovely Betty Mouat Cowl! If you haven't seen the finished item already I would highly recommend hot footing it over to her website to have a look.

I also received another lovely gift from knit you next tuesday. I have been really lucky with all the support I have had from my knitting friends so thank you all so so much.

And the last piece of loveliness for today was that the poppies in my garden. My good friend emma orchis told me that if you cut them whilst they are in bud you can use them as cut flowers without them just falling apart and its true! So now I don't have to trudge through the mud and rain to appreciate them!

An unexpected change of plan

I am afraid I won't be posting about Woolfest right now as things didn't turn out as expected. My boyfriend and I made in through the floods to get to Wool fest - the Lake District was truly living up to it name! and managed a few hours before I had to take him to hospital :(. Consequently I had been spending most of my time at the hospital which is a truly unispiring place so I won't be posting pictures of that and instead I thought I would share a couple of things I am really liking at the moment.

1 - quince and co are introducing a new shawl a day all this week and they are all stunning!

2 - brooklyn tweed has just launched wool people 3 so yet more lovely designs to drool over

3 - spoonforkbacon great food ideas

Woolfest - the build up

I have set myself the challenge that all my work must be up to date by the end of this week. This is no small task I have the last touches to do on two books to come out this autumn/winter, design specs to complete for a project for Rowan for next summer and two brochures worth of first patterns for SMC next summer! But there is a light at the end of the tunnel as I have promised myself a trip to woolfest this weekend. I have just cleared out a lot of my stash and garments so it might be rather dangerous being surrounded by all that beautiful yarn!

I hope to have some pictures to post about it early next week but in the meantime I am afraid its just more loveliness from my recent hols

I have had some beautiful fyberspates scrumptious aran sat in my office starting at me for a long time. I hope I am not the only one who has this issue but when I have a really lovely yarn I get terrified of casting on as I have to find THE perfect project to make. I end up casting on and pulling back twenty times just because each time I am sure there is an even more perfect project out there!

This time though I have stuck with it and I thought I would give you a sneak peak of the cardigan I designed, which will hopefully be on my website before long.

and I almost forgot this little guy from outside The Hepworth Wakefield, the gallery has some great art in but it was this that made me smile!

The life Aquatic

Having finally finished my next 2 books for autumn/winter and made my way through the piles of emails on my return from holiday I thought it was time to share a few holiday piccies.

Monterey is a beautiful place to visit and stroll about but if I had only had time to do one thing there it would have to be the aquarium. It was STUNNING! and I could easily had spent days there. There is something beautifully serene about the aquatic so I thought I would share a few pictures with you.