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The lovely Nicsknots  is doing a great competition called " How much do you have in your project bag? ". I thought it was a fab idea for a blog post. Embarrassingly, I think my answer is "A shocking amount!". I don't think I've ever gotten everything out at once and I was stunned on just how much I had. Recently, I've been using a small Cath Kidston Tote that was a Christmas present. I like it because it has a firm base and sits where it's put. This is the bag I grab when I'm going out, whether it be to Knit and Natter, visiting family, road trip etc. Cath Kidston project bag Can you believe all this was in that small bag? There's my Nicsknots Miya bag (which contains a secret project, so I won't show you) and my Nicsknots notions case, which I blogged about here . Micro scales for weighing yarn. Some embroidery threads and snips. A teaspoon! No idea why. Bag of yarn ends. I save these for a friend who knots them together and makes bags f...

Last week, I ventured off to Baa Ram Ewe in Harrogate for a Scandinavian Knitting workshop with Mary Jane Mucklestone. After a scrummy lunch at Wagamama. I wandered down to the shop. I've been to the one at Leeds plenty of times but not yet had a chance to go to the Harrogate shop. The shop was gorgeous. It was very light and a riot of colour. Details for the shops here . The workshop was held downstairs in the basement and it really was fantastic. Mary Jane was lovely and very knowledgeable. She'd brought all the samples from the book, 150 Scandinavian Knitting Designs and it was really interesting to see and feel what they were like. The main parts of the workshop were learning No Purl Garter Stitch in the round and Norwegian Purl. I normally work stranded knitting with a yarn in each hand, but under Mary Jane's guidance had a go at trying both yarns in my left hand. I think it'll take some practice to get it right but it is always good to have another way of knittin...

I've been a bit quiet for the last couple of weeks because I've been on holiday in Yorkshire. We were really lucky with the weather and had a lovely time. Here is the view from our cabin -  I've never seen so many varieties of mushroom in one place We visited Whitby, York and Rievaulx Abbey. The abbey was amazing but I didn't take my camera that day, so sorry no pictures. I did take it when we went to Whitby and the abbey there though. Whitby Abbey Whitby Abbey Here's a couple of my favourites photos -  Morning Dew Whitby Beach I took lots and lots of photos so Mr occupied himself balancing stones on the beach. He'd seen Adrian Gray  on BBC's Coast programme doing this and it was absolutely incredible. Pop over and look because they really are incredible. Seemed to defy gravity, so he had a go in miniature.

Yarndale....wow! I had a fantastic day. A bus load of us from  A Good Yarn went on Sunday and it was amazing. First of all, I booked to do a workshop with Amy Singer , aka the editor of Knitty. The workshop was Making the Next Monkey and for anyone who is a designer or a fledgling like me, then it is fantastic. I learnt lots and lots, plus Amy was wonderful. My head was buzzing with ideas all the way home. Even though, most of my time there was taken up by the workshop, I did managed a bit of time to supplement my stash. I bought Ply magazine , which had some gorgeous patterns in. Haven't got around to reading it yet, but looking forward to it. There must be tons of photos of the bunting at Yarndale going around, but there were hundreds of them and the effect en masse was just incredible. Far more incredible in real life, compared to the photos. Mostly, I bought Garnstudio Drops , 4 balls of Alpaca (in 2 shades of green and 2 balls of cream) and 2 balls of Delight. The top skein i...

Last week we had great fun at A Good Yarn , Cleethorpes. It was the Wish Upon a Knit events all week. It was to raise money for When You Wish Upon a Star.  It was very busy with lots of knitting, laughter and cakes. The last being the most important.....we ate a lot of cake. All the cakes were homemade by several of our lovely knitters and were very, very good. Obviously, I found the cakes to be the standout feature of the week! Maybe, I should tell you about the rest and forget about the exceedingly good cakes. Hold on - how about a piccie of ..... cake. Every session had different cake too and of course, we had to test it all. Anyway.... Everyone who took part received a kit with materials for four different jewellery projects. They involved lots of different skills and hopefully, some new ones for people to have a go at. The room looked very pretty, with fresh flowers, white tablecloths and vintage china. The Saturday session was that busy that we had to expand into the shop. Ho...

I normally share something to do with what I've been doing, but for a change I'm going to show you some of Mr's work. His current crafty obsession (and has been for awhile now) is woodturning with the odd foray into carpentry. His latest piece is just stunning. He found a gorgeous plank of naturally edged oak. He has routed and shaped it into two racks and turned some identical oak pegs to make two amazing coat racks. With some polish and elbow grease, we now have two very useful coat racks. One has 4 pegs and the other 5. The 5 peg rack has the pegs put in at an angle for coats and the other we'll use for hats and scarves. Incidentally, I've found it makes a nice prop for photos. With my well worn colour affection.

At a quick glance, it's looks like I'm practising lepidoptery, but I'm not pinning out butterflies but lots of swatches.  I've had that many, that I've had to do them in batches and each time I've started to run out of blocking pins and have been relegated to using dressmaker's pins. I still have more to go. Wish me luck....