Rockfleet & Achill Island, Ireland

Next time I need to take my tripod.

stained glass

I'm currently taking an evening glass in stained glass which is nice and hands on (although almost too hands on as I manage to come home every week with my fingers covered in plasters from the glass splinters).

My first project was this circular window hanging of some peas in a pod. Surprisingly it came out quite close to my initial drawings, even though my glass cutting was far less than accurate.



I'm pleased with it!

one photo

...from a lovely weekend trip away.

new

I'm all moved in and mostly unpacked. Hello to Hove!

I'm trying to get used to sleeping on a platform up high - is it bad feng shui to have my whole room under my bed? We'll see...

all change

I'm moving house and office AND going on holiday this week.
I'm looking forward to not having 1001 things to do - I think I've forgotten how to relax.

family of four

A gaggle of geese. 50p. Sunday market.

growing

My tomato plants are growing rapidly, well, apart from the little one in the middle, but this one has just been re-housed to a bigger pot so it should catch up soon.

I am also re-housing myself this month so soon these plants will have a balcony with a sea view. That should help them grow!

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.