My House In Africa ....

Lots on the needles at the moment but just thought I'd show you some pics of my garden that I took recently. We inherited a new (and rather posh) camera a few months ago and I've been playing ....

Wood Cabin

Wood Cabin 2

Leaves

Tools

Wood store

Winter sky

View of the valley

I hope you enjoyed them.

Til soon.

xxx

Loving Linney

As part of my 12 in 12 endeavour I decided to make a jersey for my bestest friend who lives in the UK. We've known each other since high school and because we live so far away from each other I've missed out on buying her lots of birthday and Christmas pressies. Hence the jersey. I sent her a few patterns and she chose this ....

It's called the Linney Cardigan and it's by Amy Christoffers who is a favourite designer of mine. She wanted dark blue but the closest I could find in an Aran weight was a smokey blue/grey. Not much choice in Aran with a climate like ours!

I started the cardi back in April and knitted the whole thing before I realised it was going to be waaaay too long for my friend who is very small and petite. The sleeves were fine but I had to frog the back and front and redo them. Hey ho ... my fault for not checking halfway through....

Eventually though I finished it again, sewed it together and found suitable buttons. Here it is ...

You can find it here on my Ravelry page.

I'm really hoping she'll like it ....

Til soon.

xxx

Miss Potter's Shawl

Do you remember recently I was whittering on about shawls and Miss Potter? Well, I put hook to yarn and made this ....

I've called her Miss Potter and I have to say that I'm rather proud of her as she was completely random with very little planning and just flew off the hook! The colours are all favourites of mine and altho I think the blue is a tad bright, in general I think they all work pretty well together.

The edging is just a shell cluster which keeps to the simplicity of the shawl. I didn't want to go with anything too fancy after all, this is a shawl designed for tramping across the Lake District.... or at least around my garden looking for kindling!

I used Vinnis Serina which is a locally produced 100% bamboo yarn. The drape is fantastic and the colour range second to none. You can see it here. I've worked with this yarn for quite a few projects now and it really is stunning. I have a feeling there'll be a few more of these shawls coming off the hook pretty soon. Here's a last look at Miss Potter draped across the back of a chair just waiting to be worn. My beauty.....

I've put up her details on my Ravelry page so please pop over and have a look. She was really easy and a joy to make!

Til soon.

xxx

Just found this ....

I'm meant to be working but I'm not ... am trawling Pinterest instead. It's a dangerous thing to do. I thought - "I'll just have a look for 5 mins whilst drinking my coffee" but that was an hour ago....

I found this.

Is it not perfect? For a colourholic like me, that much colour in one space could ONLY make me smile every time I saw it! No matter the weather, wouldn't you just have to smile?

If you're as keen as I am to make it, here's the link: Flower Valance Pattern

It made my day.
Til soon.
x

Dreaming of shawls....

More and more I find myself thinking about shawls. There is a lovely moment in "Miss Potter" when she is leaving her cottage and deftly swings a shawl around her shoulders. It's such a natural movement, as though the shawl becomes a part of her the minute it touches her shoulders.

But do shawls fit in with modern life?  I must admit I would love to think that I could wear one whilst sitting on our verandah on chilly evenings drinking a glass of red wine or a cup of steaming coffee whilst listening to the sounds of an African night ....but I never do that. Like most people, once the kids are in bed I flop down in my favourite armchair in front of the tv and veg out until bed time. Would a shawl be needed then? I think not.

I also have visions of myself walking along a windy beach with a wonderful lacy creation draped around my shoulders but again, we only see the beach once a year and being in South Africa, even the wind is warm! I suppose I could make one just for our annual beach holiday, but it seems a little extreme.

So why do I hanker after a shawl? I have no real purpose for one and really don't know when I'd wear one. It would probably end up being shoved in the top of my wardrobe and would never see the light of day, but still I yearn .....

I guess I just want to be Miss Potter if only for one imaginative moment, so I will make a shawl one day. Perhaps I'll keep it for solitary moments when I can drape it around my shoulders and pretend I'm her, striding across the fells in sensible shoes with the wind in my hair.

Perhaps I'll just hold it in my hands and think back to a time when cell phones didn't exist and children played outside. When life was physically hard but oh so simple.

Perhaps then it's not the shawl I'm after but the world in which Miss Potter lived.

Never say never ....

Our Mini-Break....

Last week DH and I had a little one night mini-break at a local Spa hotel. It will be my 50th birthday at the end of April but we decided to go away now as it's school hols and easier for my Mum to look after the kids when she doesn't have to worry about the school run.

We went to Fordoun Hotel & Spa and it was lovely. We've stayed here before (it's only 10 minutes drive from our house) so we knew what to expect but it's one of those places that never disappoints. Expensive, but well worth the money.

Our room

Our verandah

The view from the verandah

A walk through woodland

More Hadedas (I told you they were common)

Our room (far left on the end)

Another walkway leading to.....

....individual and very private bungalows

A water feature

Love birds......

Til soon.

x

12 in 12 Challenge

Hello!

Having a good week? I finally finished another of my 12 in 12 Challenge knits and here it is!!!

What do you think? I used this yarn 

which was one of those weird purchases that I loved when I bought it but grew to hate rather quickly. I'm not sure why tho because green is my most favourite of colours and this has ever conceivable shade of green in it! The texture is a bit dodgy - a little too close to those dreadful boucle yarns of the 60s - but it was very soft and I'm sure will feel wonderful to wear. I just hated it more and more so by the time the last stitch was stitched I had already decided to give it away to a friend that had admired it a lot during its creation. She loves it and wore it home the day I gave it to her so I know it's gone to someone who will wear it, love it and cherish it which is more than I would have done. I think it would have been one of my FOs that got shoved in the back of the cupboard and never again saw the light of day (and there's been a few of those in my life).....

Just quickly before I go I thought I'd show you this

which is a Hadeda (pronounced haa-dee-daa) otherwise known as the Ibis. They are enormous birds (about 76cm long) and very common in South African gardens. It was extremely misty this morning and when I opened the curtains this one was sitting on our pergola! It looked decidedly Jurassic so if I see any dinosaurs wandering about, I'll let you know.....

Til soon.

x