Trip to Tewkesbury

This morning I woke to this poignant message having being sent to me by a good friend. I was unsure what to do with my day as I had no plans and the weather was set to be nice. 

So I decided to heed the advice and set off to Tewkesbury. 

On Friday I had treated myself to a nice new pair of walking shoes so this would be a great first outing for them.

Not even five minutes into my walk I spotted this beautiful Bluebells.

My first stop was a place called Lower Lode, Tewkesbury  you come down to the River Severn and the viewing point looks over to the 13th Century B&B/pup/campsite which was very popular today.

I decided to sit and people watch and listen to the bird's singing for 5 minutes whilst knitting a little of my new sock.

I then headed back the same way and walked across the park with the majestic Tewkesbury Abbey as the backdrop .

Here I sat for a little longer and listened to the bell ringing and watched as a coach load of visitors from Nottingham came to look around the Abbey.

In the grounds of the Abbey is the most amazing tree. 

It is always fun to stand under such spectacular branches.

I then headed into town for a short walk and take in the architecture of this mix of old and new buildings. 

There is a great rabbit warren of alleyways which are always great to explore. 

I then started to head back and took the route across Severn Ham Nature Reserve

At the end of my walk I came across this beautiful cottages.

Back in 1995 on the second year of my Degree in Knitwear Design this cottage was the inspiration for my jumper.

Plant life

Another passion of mine aswell as knitting is my garden. 

I have lived in my home for over 14 year's  so over the year's I have established and continuing to add to my garden. 

I love bulbs as every year it is a surprise to me what will come up.  Equally I love to add hardy plants that will slowly grow and give a base to work around in the garden.

For people that know me you will agree I have a terrible memory for names, be it a person or a plant, I just know I love to watch my plants grow.

So here I have taken some images of what is currently flourishing in the borders and containers around my garden.

Another hugh pleasure I have is seeing plants emerging from the soil.  I decided to plant some small bulbs and keep on the windowsill in the kitchen, so I can see them up close .

I also have great joy from taking cuttings from a plant and producing many many more.

I hope you have enjoyed my garden here in the Cotswolds in spring. 

Road to happiness photo session.

I live in the cotswold town of Cheltenham.  It is a very multi cultural town with some great area's for photography.

Today I decided to cycle along a route called the Honeybourne line which is an old disused railway line.

In 2017 #cheltenhampaintfestival create an amazing event that meant many area's were painted by incredible street artists.

One of who was done by Vanesa Long Champ an incredible artist based in London who has travelled widely.

Inspired hughly by Laine magazine I took photographs of my newly completed garment which I have called Road to Happiness.  One is a short sleeve top and the other is a love sleeve jumper. 

The garment is a boxy style comprising of lace, cables and moss stitch. I love the garment so much I will be making another and am going to design socks, cowl and wrap to complete the design idea's. 

Please do enjoy the picture's .

New logo

Over the past few weeks Joan Marley an incredibly talented artist from Pennsylvania has been working on my very own logo for me.

I so so love what she has designed, encompassing my love of sheep in her stylised way.

The font was picked called "little lord fauntleroy" which is such a great name for a font!

I had alot of help from people on social media with a survey I carried out and am so grateful to the many many people that helped with deciding.

My OH suggested the needle ends and a friend said to add a number and number 8 has a great meaning to me as I got married on 8.8.08!  Number 8 is also the "old" number for needles (now know as 4mm) so it is relevant to when I started knitting.

So please welcome my very own and unique branding that I just adhore!!

To view Joan's work please visit her Etsy shop.

Designing a cowl.

For me my journey into designing is a magical one.

I studied knitwear design degree many years ago.  I have made many many patterns produced by the incredible talent that is available now thanks to social media and websites such as Ravelry.com.

Slowly over the months I have been practicing and working on design idea's and enjoying the journey.

After socks my next project was a cowl design that was inspired by Fairies.  

For me the yarn is often my starting point for the inspiration to a design.  

For my full length cowl I used West Green Loft Yarn. 

The colours that Vykky dyes are just beautiful and worked perfectly with my idea for the design.

I also produced a medium sized cowl which I gifted to my mum using West Yorkshire Spinners and King Cole yarn.

My final size was the small which I added beading too and gifted to my dear friend Karen.

For this I used mini skeins dyed by Vicki Brown another very talented yarn dyer.

My next design journey is taking me into the realms of garment making which is something that is just so rewarding. 

So until next time have a great weekend and hears hoping that it warms up soon!