Forest of Dean mini break.

Whilst son is away on a school trip me and OH took a mini break not far from us to Forest of Dean.

I hope you enjoy my photo gallery I took over the space of two days.

We were based in the Ruardean Valley and our accommodation was literally 20 minutes walk to the look out point at Symonds Yat Rock. So a very beautiful part of the world.

The last image is of knitting project I took with me. This has to be the most scenic view I have had for a long time.

Mid October already!

I decided to make more effort with my blog after a lovely post from Anita saying "she loved dropping in and visiting my blog"

I start my images with the three wise monkey's! My son had an art project and asked me to pose for him.  I kind of like how the images turned out.

Next I wanted to share my lovely new purchase care of Ebay which will help me so much in terms of time saving.  Meet my new yarn swift it is just perfect for helping me wind the large amount of yarn I purchased from Yarndale this year!

Last weekend in readiness of the impending autumn/winter ahead I decided to add some autumn colour and loved the outcome of my winter Pansies' and Cyclamen, especially in my lovely Singer sewing stand.





















For people new to my blog will be unaware of the lovely four legged friends we have in our house.  I do love taking them for walks and although I usual just walk around the streets near our home, as I do love garden watching, I also like to go into the local fields from time to time.  The clouds in the sky on this particular day were very impressive.






























































On the knitting front I almost on the final straight of sock making which has dragged on for quite some time.  Once these have been completed I shall be on to a very exciting new project for my son.























For now have a lovely weekend, until next time.

Meet Mr Donald Mill Mouse

This year as per last year my beautiful wife paid for my accommodation at the lovely Woolly Sheep Inn and my mum pays for my train journey.  So I was able to go to the first ever Yarndale and the return journey this year.

I had the pleasure of meeting Lucy aka Attic 24 who is a worldwide phenomenon in the crotchet world with her incredibly written blog.

Lucy shares a studio above the delicious café Cooper's where you can get the loveliest food.

The other skilled lady to work in the Studio is Tracey owner of Handmade Over Yonder.  She creates truly beautiful handmade keepsakes.

On 9th August this year a kind, caring, quiet, athletec man my Dad went to heaven to watch over my Mum, me and my Sister.

As soon as I saw Mr Mill House Mouse I knew I had to have it as a keepsake to remember my beautiful dad and have it forever to remind me of the many times we spent walking and cycling together as he just loved the outdoors.

Cumulus Love with an exciting competition!

Back in April of this year I had the extreme pleasure to work with Jeni from Fyberspates.

My brief was to produce a scarf using the most delectable yarn called Cumulus.

The properties of this yarn are 72% Baby Alpaca and 26% Mulberry Silk.

It comes in 25g balls and the most glorious colour choices 

The yarn knits as a Lace weight yet due to it's "bounce" and fibre content it feels thicker.

The two yarns colours I worked with were Silver Green and Sea Green.

My inspiration for my Cable Scarf Ellora Scarf came from the name sake of the yarn Cumulus.  I spent days just looking up and photographing the Cumulus clouds and decided I wanted to produce a textured 3D scarf.  The yarn keeps the three dimensional quality perfectly.  

My scarf can be worn in many ways, but one thing for sure, it will keep you warm but be super light weight at the same time.

The second design Tarpooley Scarf  derived it's inspiration from the beautiful Foxglove plant with the glourious "bell" shapes of the flower.

I love layering things and having the detail at each base of this scarf but then the delicate reverse Stocking Stitch for the body enables you to enjoy the lightness of the fibre.

COMPETITION ALERT!!!!!

 

As part of the exciting new journey that is Cumulus, Fyberspates are giving away one free pattern and yarn (colour of your choice)  view colours HERE  to one lucky reader. 

For your chance to win simply leave a comment on my blog along with a contact email address and a winner will be picked at random on 18th September at 5.00pm GMT.

Lavender Shawl

In July I drove past the most beautiful Lavender fields.

Inspired by this I decided to cast on some yarn I had purchased from a company called Mo & Co based in Yorkshire. They were new to yarn shows and they exhibited for the first time at Yarndale.

The yarn is 90% British Mohair from Angora goats kept in Yorkshire and 10% British Blue Faced Leicester.

The colours were completely perfect purple and lime green I was looking for.

Here is the journey of the shawl from beginning to end which was photographed at Slimbridge Wetlands Trust.

I look forward to many hours of wearing this and showing it to the yarn suppliers at this year's Yarndale.