Living the Dream

A lazy relaxed morning...
An afternoon walk through woodland..
or through picturesque valleys...
Followed by an evening of knitting and reading..
or maybe spent with a pint or two of good beer in an atmospheric old pub -

This is my idea of a perfect day.  Lucky me, I've been able to spend seven such days on holiday with my husband in one of my favourite counties, Shropshire.

We had our annual holiday to Church Stretton.  Usually we go Spring / early Summer time but this year we were able to enjoy the delightful Autumn colours.

This dog does not belong to us!

It was lovely to have a mix of slow paced relaxation with some vigorous mountain climbing.  It's just a pity it was all over so quickly.  Never mind, there's the return next year to look forward to.

I took a variety of knitting projects on holiday with me, but ended up just concentrating on my Fair Isle cardigan.

It's looking lovely and colourful and it's such good fun to knit. Hopefully it will be finished sometime this week.

Before we went away, I managed to complete a pinafore  dress.

It's sewn using my favourite dress pattern, Simplicity 2444 and the fabric is a fine needlework.  I just love the raspberry colour.

Because I'm working monogamously on my Fair Isle cardigan, I haven't managed to finish any other projects.  I did complete a shawl a few weeks ago but as it was a gift for my Mum, I haven't been able to show it to you until now.

My Mum's favourite colour is yellow, and as it is also my favourite colour, it was a delight to knit this.  You can see details of this project over on Ravelry, here.

So now I'm back home, and we may not have scenic mountains and dramatic valleys, but I'm lucky that my days are relaxed and filled with pleasant moments... and plenty of knitting!

So Proud

Yesterday, my husband and I had a trip down to London.  We only had three hours there, but it was well worth the visit.

We met up with Eve and walked to the Brick Lane Gallery on ... Brick Lane.  The reason for our trip was to see the exhibition entitled East End, the place we call home.

The exhibition is only at the Brick Lane Gallery this weekend.  After that it goes on tour around Tower Hamlets.

We were very impressed with the colourful pictures and captions that told the story of the East End over the past ninety years.  The story was told thematically around the idea of building and providing homes for East Enders.

There was also a very interesting film in which residents talked about what the East End meant to them.

The exhibition had been formally opened on Wednesday by the Duke of Kent and I understand he was very impressed with the display and enjoyed meeting many of the people who were included in the film and who contributed to the exhibition.

And one of the main people who has worked on this exhibition for nearly a year is my lovely daughter, Eve.  I feel so proud of all her hard work and what she has achieved.

It was just a shame that we weren't able to spend more time with Eve, but hopefully I'll be able to get down to London and see her again soon.

We might have only had three hours in London, but we certainly had many hours on the trains!  On a positive note, this did give me some extra knitting time.  I have started knitting up a Fair Isle cardigan using leftovers of Jamieson and Smith 2 ply jumper weight yarn.  This is as far as I've got on the sleeves.

I'm using 14 different colours so it will be a riot of colours and patterns!

The Fair Isle was too fiddly to take on the train, so I cast on a shawl with some of the yarn I bought at Yarndale.

I love the way it's knitting up and I'm tempted to carry on knitting this now but I want to concentrate on the Fair Isle so the shawl will be put to one side for now.

October is going to be a colourful Fair Isle month.  I've already made some mittens this month, using up tiny bits and pieces of Rowan Fine Tweed.

I ran out of yarn on the tip of the last thumb!

This yarn has been a favourite of mine since it first appeared five years ago.  Sadly it is now discontinued, no idea why Rowan have done this.  It's so annoying when they constantly change their yarns.

Anyway, I'm getting back to my colourful cardigan.  Have a good weekend and if you're in London see if you can get down to Brick Lane!