Hyde Hall Photo Walk

Mr Writer and I recently had a week off and took advantage of the lovely Spring weather to get out and about exploring the local Essex countryside. The Spring flowers are in full bloom and there is blossom in the trees- everywhere is looking so pretty at the moment! We were given the very thoughtful gift of an RHS membership and our nearest RHS garden is Hyde Hall in Essex. It's interesting to visit the gardens throughout the seasons to see how they change. Here are some photos from our lovely Spring walk around the gardens...

Check out the Minion scarecrow!

Hope you're all enjoying some Spring sunshine where you are. I'll be back at the weekend sharing a Spring inspired How To- until then, have a great rest of the week!

On Instagram In March

Happy April to you all! I cannot believe how fast this year is flying by, it seems like only yesterday it was Christmas! Today I'm sharing a look back at March through my Instagram photos...

March started quite cold and bleak. This is down by the boatyard close to where I live in Essex- the cottages down by the water have such a lovely view!

I had a week off in March and enjoyed getting out for walks. Walking by the water is my favourite thing, I love the views and how they change through the seasons

Towards the end of March there was some beautiful sunny Spring weather- look at the colour of that sky! I love this time of year when everything is coming into bloom and there is sunshine to look forward to

The daffodils seem particularly prolific this year! Their appearance really signifies Spring to me

The gardens look beautifully colourful at this time of year

Working on developing new Fair Isle jewellery- I'm loving making square shaped Fair Isle brooches as I think this shows more of the pattern than the rectangular ones I was making before

Having a lot of fun playing with different colour combinations. I use Jamieson and Smith's Shetland wool as it's such a lovely yarn to work with and comes in an amazing array of colours

Making new Harris Tweed Button Brooches- I love choosing the upcycled fabrics to go with them

I went along to the brilliant Spring Knitting and Stitching Show at Olympia with a friend and we had such a great day- so many lovely things to see. The knitted feast competition was fab- the knitted sea food was my favourite! There were no names on any of the entries so I can't give credit, but this crab was brilliant!

As ever, Nelson has had a lovely chilled out month! He's enjoying mooching around in the garden now the weather is getting sunnier, and sunbathing by the windows when he's snoozing in the house!

Cake! I traditionally always make a cake on Easter Sunday and this year was no exception! I like to try new recipes and made this chocolate celebration cake from Jamie Oliver's Comfort Food book. It was huge, I think it was the biggest cake I've ever made! Needless to say I ate a lot of cake during my week off!

I hope you had a great March! What did you get up to?

New Work- Fair Isle Brooches

March has been a strange month as Mr Writer was away for most of it- he worked in Korea for 4.5 weeks and this was the longest we have been apart in the 13 years we have been together. It really was so strange to be so far apart! Whilst my family and friends were so great at keeping me busy and distracted (thank you to you all!) I lost a lot of motivation and positivity and sadly didn't achieve as much as I would have liked to. I was so surprised at myself, I thought I'd achieve so much with all of that time on my hands, but I really underestimated how much Mr Writer motivates and encourages me. Thankfully he's back now and is having a good rest and I'm once again making and loving my work. I've got a week off from the day job and I'm looking forward to making a start on some new things and planning new content for the blog. Watch this space!

Today I thought I'd share some things I've finished so far this week...

I'm really enjoying making these hand knitted Fair Isle brooches, designing the Fair Isle patterns and hand knitting them using Shetland wool. I'm learning more about Fair Isle with every one I make- I'm seeing this as an evolving project and a learning process

I'm hoping to take these particular brooches to show a potential new stockist of my work- fingers crossed!

When I first started making Fair Isle brooches I made them rectangular, but as I'm finding that these new square shaped brooches are getting a really good reaction, I'm going to go ahead now and always make them square, unless requested

Although I plan the patterns on knitter's graph paper, sometimes the design doesn't really pop until you knit it up. I had previously knitted this design in other colours and I thought I'd try it using different colours- it's one of my favourites. I don't intentionally try to make the patterns look like anything, re. flowers etc, as I like to design in a more spontaneous way, but I think this one looks like little houses!

Thank you for letting me share an insight into life lately- I'll be back later in the week to share my Instagram photos from March and also sharing a sneak peek at what I'm up to on my week off. I've also got a floral Spring themed How To in the planning!

Hope you've had a lovely March and wishing you a happy week!

Easter Bunny Sweetie Jar How To

Sharing a quick idea today- If you're looking for a last minute Easter gift idea there's still time to make this Easter Bunny sweetie jar! All you need is a clean empty glass jar with lid, a model rabbit (or lamb, chick or anything else with a spring theme), spray paint and a glue gun or other strong glue. Simply spray paint the jar lid and model rabbit, allow to dry and then glue the bunny to the lid. Fill with chocolate eggs or sweets of your choice and give as a gift or use as a quirky Easter decoration! 

You could even top the jar with those fluffy Easter Chick decorations, felt flowers or pom poms- lots of possibilities.

Happy making and have a lovely weekend, whatever you're up to!

Spring Knitting and Stitching Show London 2016

Last Friday my friend Karen and I spent the day at the Spring Knitting and Stitching Show at Olympia, London. With Mr Writer working away in Korea my friends have been fab at keeping me busy and taking my mind off it. It was such a lovely day of distraction, packed full of stalls of knitting and sewing supplies, plus exhibitions and workshops- pretty much craft heaven! 

The stand I was most looking forward to visiting was Toft- how cute are these crocheted birds from the Edwards Menagerie Birds book?! Fab stand and beautiful yarn. I bought a beautiful pom pom- I've got a project in mind for this so I will share this at a later date!

Yarn lollipops!

Such a lovely, quirky vintage stand from the lovely Daisy from Make Thrift London

The bright, contemporary tapestry kits from Hannah Bass have definitely made me want to try this craft and I have one of her London kits on my crafty wishlist!

The Sincerely Louise stand was really busy with people snapping up her faux taxidermy kits. Just love these!

This pic really doesn't do justice to the amazing designs on the Hobbywool stand- I treated myself to one of their beautiful Latvian gloves kits- I'll share this at a later date. They are knitted on 1.5mm needles!

There were crafts to suit most interests- these contemporary cross stitch kits from StitchKits  were lovely- I especially love the London inspired designs- another one for my crafty wish list!

The Knitted Feast Competition was a fun idea! My favourite pieces were the plates of knitted seafood

We also took part in rag rug workshop run by Jenni Stuart-Anderson, learning the techniques of hooking and progging within the one hour session, creating a rag rug flower on a hessian bag. It was great to have a taster of these techniques and I can see that rag rugging could become addictive- it was a very therapeutic hour!

The choice of workshops was extensive and varied across the four day show, making this the ideal event for learning new skills

I'll share my buys from the show in another post soon. Did you visit the show?