south west coast path

This week I walked the first two legs of the South West Coast Path with Derek and Yumi.

We stayed in a lovely youth hostel in the woods above Minehead, which we walked from to Porlock Ridge on the first day.

Then on the second day we took the mammoth journey up and down cliffs to Lynton. Very tiring. But from the looks of it even the experts find it to be a tricky route. We were lucky enough to stay in the best bed and breakfast I've even been to on that night though so we were well looked after once we arrived, soggy and windswept.

I now feel motivated to do the whole of the coast path so I'm going to try and do a bit each year. At this rate I'll have it finished by the time I'm 50...

blueberry and apple

Continuing with my domestic weekend, I decided to bake some puff pastry tarts for a barbecue I attended last night.

I based them on this recipe but added more blueberries and cinnamon to suit my taste buds.





They were especially tasty when eaten with some thick vanilla cream, and I even have a few left over to accompany a sunday evening Grand prix roast dinner. With custard tonight I think.

cornflower blue, tomato red

Hannah gave me some of her tomato plants a couple of weeks ago and today I spent my morning re-potting them and introducing them to the outside world.

I hope they flourish, not perish (like most of my other plants).

I've also recently decided that cornflowers are one of my favourite flowers. I bought a bunch 2 weeks ago and they are still going strong. Although I think the pollen is making me cough...

everyone likes a llama

I met these two on sunday at Hollycombe.

square

I managed to accumulate a small pile of crochet squares in my recent break from knitting.

I should probably have had a break from wool craft in general, but at least I am on the way to making a blanket now. I'm also learning some new stitches too.

Here are some that I have tried so far:

My favourites are the cluster pattern and the popcorn pattern. Nice and bobbly.

I'm back onto cardigans again now though...

a ticket to Rye

Yumi and I took a trip to Rye on Monday. There were flowers on the beach and some ostriches in a field.

We have been working our way through Yumi's book of walks in Sussex and this was walk number one so it is good to have it ticked off the list.

We saw some nice mosaics of flowers and birds in the Nature Reserve which has sparked up my interest in doing a course again. Although maybe in the autumn as I have stained glass to do in the summer.

flowers

Here is my latest print, which was semi-inspired by my collection of floral embroideries.

This one was carved from vinyl and printed in a couple of different colour ways - blue & pink. My intention is to list some of my prints in my etsy shop in the very near future. Watch this space.

For now, I have booked in another printing session, so I must get carving...

blackberry stitch

This cardigan took me a total of 12 days to complete. Aran wool & size 7 needles are the way forward.

The pattern can be found over here at Drops design - I changed it slightly and used moss stitch instead of garter stitch following a recommendation from Yumi. Much better. I also think blackberry stitch might be my new favourite technique.

In an effort to wean myself off the knitting (and to use up some of my enormous pile of wool) I am now sticking to crochet squares. The plan is to make a blanket using a different pattern on each square. Good skills training.

ps. Thanks to my mum for sending me the buttons for my cardigan!

further adventures in sock making

I made these lacy lilac socks on my travels to Ireland and back.

They were from a pattern found in this book and were knitted on two needles instead of four, so I didn't have any of the tension problems of my previous sock-making attempt.

Much better.

My favourite feature is the use of a different colour on the cast-on edge - I'll make sure to try and re-use this idea again soon.

jardin flambeau

This event blew me away. The best evening I've spent in a park for a long time.
Photos: Barney Livingston | Melita Dennett | Katariina Järvinen | Martin Thomas

wisteria

On Easter Monday I took a trip to Nymans on my way back to Brighton. There were many different flowers and trees in the gardens and white doves nesting in the dovecotes.

Inside the house, there were sprigs of holly on all the old seats to stop people sitting on them. I'm not sure whether this is better than having a sign though...

dusty rose

My Aran inspired cardigan is finally finished and what a treat it is. I followed the same basic pattern as I did for this blue cardigan but changed the pattern panels so that they incorporate some irish moss stitch and some cable stitch - very easy & a lovely finished result.

I also used a cotton-mix wool on this one (old rose) for a more summery feel. It's lovely and soft, but also quite warm, which has been handy over the windy bank holiday.

My intention was to have a break from knitting after finishing this project and I did try...but it turns out I have lost the ability to sit on a sofa without feeling the need to pick up some needles. Is this addiction?

Either way, it has led to a productive weekend of knitting and I have almost finished the back of my next summer cardigan:



This one uses blackberry stitch - which is ever so easy. At first I was worried it was going to be a tricky lace pattern which would need all my concentration, but it's the complete opposite, so hopefully I'll be wearing this one soon too. I've gone for short sleeves this time which will be a pleasure rather than a chore.

In other news, I bought 3 loaves of malt loaf today. This is an addiction I can not control.

museum drawing

Yesterday Yumi and I went to the Brighton museum for a drawing afternoon.
There are lots of interesting artefacts there:

1. Stirrup cup - hare's head.
2. Vietnamese water-puppet
3. Cup modelled on the head of a bulldog.

flowers everywhere

Especially in Rottingdean. Springtime in primary colours.

and the winner is....

...Helen at Jolly Good studio.

Congratulations Helen! Just send me a message with your address and I'll pop the place setting print in the post some time this week.

Thanks to everyone for entering - I'm thinking about trying to bring my etsy shop back to life so I can sell some prints online. Watch this space.

nest

This week I have been having a spring clean - I've donated a nice big bag of goods to the charity shop and have de-cluttered my room.

Last night I turned the living room into a cosy nest for us to knit in. I think I might keep it that way for a few days. Snug.

print giveaway

No more printmaking course for me - four weeks went by very quickly. Luckily I have a small selection of prints to show for myself and I've now become a member at the studio so can keep myself busy making more.

I thought I'd celebrate by holding a mini print giveaway! If you would like to enter please leave a comment on this post letting me know which of the above four prints you would like and I'll pick a winner out of a hat at the weekend.

Good luck!

charity shop challenge - round 2

Taking photographs of myself with the self-timer is probably the most dorky thing to do of a weekend.
This month for the charity shop challenge I found a summer dress in a Portslade charity shop for £3.50.

Cherry blossom pink.

watercolour challenge

We sat by the seal colony and played watercolour challenge on Inis Mór.

Aran islands

Last week Yumi and I went on a mini holiday to the west coast of Ireland. We had a lovely long train journey across the north coast of Wales and eventually made our way to Galway.

When we were there we took a day trip to Inis Mór, one of the Aran islands, where we hired bikes and cycled around the island - it felt like summertime. We also met a friendly lady who knits for a living. She had a whole hut filled with Aran jumpers made by her and her family.

There was also a mini museum exhibit about Aran jumpers which had some interesting information about some of the patterns used on the jumpers. Apparently Irish Moss stitch is used to represent the Carrageen moss which is gathered by the islanders, and the Diamond stitch represents the stone wall enclosed fields which cover the islands. Other stitched like Cable and Trellis are said to represent fishermans nets and most of the stitches have something to do with the sea, which is a huge part of island life.

This has inspired me to use Irish moss stitch and Diamond stitch on my next cardigan, which will be a variation of this favourite.

I also read that most Aran Sweaters on the island are knitted almost entirely from memory following no set pattern. Crazy.