Something fishy going on ......

If I've been a little quiet here lately it's because there are quite a few deadlines looming and I have been beavering away to get some things finished. As well as enjoying all things knitterly, I am an active member of Stitches Coven, a local creative textiles group, and we are holding our first public exhibition from 20th August at Swansea Grand Theatre. As this is only 7 weeks away the pressure is now on to get pieces finished and prepared for display. As well as a range of our own individual pieces we have all been tasked with contributing a fish for a group display and here's a peek at my effort - I can't wait to see him displayed with all his other fishy friends.

Poland Jaunt

Had a lovely jaunt to catch up with family near Wroclaw, Poland. We hadn't actually been to this city before as most of the folks live about and hour and a half away - it's been awarded the European Capital of Culture for 2016 and for good reason. It's a vibrant university city with some beautiful traditional architecture, as well as boasting more contemporary flagship buildings such as Sky Tower which is currently the highest building in Poland.

It's also known as the City of Gnomes - you can find numerous characterful wee gnome statues dotted around the city - and it's apparently lucky to touch them if you find them :)

Unfortunately we took some Welsh weather with us, so the photos are a little on the dark side but I do hope you can still see how charming Wroclaw is.

Featured in June's edition of Making Magazine!

I'm very excited to have been featured in Making Magazine's Craft courses section :)

Knitterly Pleasures

After a hectic week it's great to let you mind enjoy a bit of 'free-range' wandering, dreaming of new projects and ideas. And even better, last weekend I had the pleasure of a good friend's company  in the craft 'roost'.

I didn't really 'produce' anything as such - but it's not always about that is it? I'm definitely more about process than product - that's my excuse anyway! I mostly had a long overdo tidy up of my workspace, and sorting through my materials and bits & pieces I'd been playing around with for ideas  (my unfinished sentences, as I call them) often sparks off a load more ideas.My friend Jane was a little more focused than me though and made this set of  beautiful beaded stitch markers.

Later on I had an exciting delivery from Janet at Smalls Crafts - a bundle of Manos Serena loveliness in these beautiful watery colours. This yarn is a fine dk in baby alpaca with cotton, giving it a lovely soft feel and great drape. I've been fancying knitting the Dahlia cardigan by Heather Zoppetti for a while now, but I will have to finish off at least 1 of my  current projects before I am 'allowed' to start knitting it...........

............but swatching doesn't count as starting knitting though does it?? And I needed to test drive Jane's lovely stitch markers afterall, didn't I?

These stitch markers were lovely to use, and as they are made with a loop of tiger tail wire rather than a jump ring they are great to use with finer yarns which can get caught in the join of a split ring.

And it you are liking the look of these, they should be available to buy soon in from the fyberknitics shop. And if you are attending the Magical Moebius workshop on Saturday with the lovely Alison Crowther-Smith you will be treated to one of Jane's lovely stitch markers for you to use on the day.