Winter Inspiration

We've been away on our hols over the last week or so, up to Gathurst on our boat which is a beautiful part of Lancashire.  We pressganged some of my daughters friends to help us through locks and bridges and pottered from pub to restaurant and back again.  It's a strange way to travel, with huge chunks of time doing nothing interspersed with moments of sheer terror going through strange bridges while holding up swathes of traffic.  But I feel that the weather has changed over the last week and we're not going to get many more summery days so...

Here's some inspiration from Kim Hargreaves




It's a beautiful collection of garments and well worth a look.  If only for the tights/shoes combo on the front cover. 



I loved this - could I knit it?  Possibly with lots of encouragement. Could I breathe in long enough to wear it?  I don't think so.
I've been contiuing with my knitting and completed two,(two I tell you ) hot water bottle covers. I'm pleased to have completed them at all as I'm very good at starting and not so good at finishing.

My next project I think is going to be a blanket and so I checked the colours due in for Autumn/Winter and dyed some fibres in midnight blues and lilacs. My wheel, which is lumped about with little regard for it's welfare has finally put its foot down and is complaining by not drafting in no matter what I fix or fasten.  So this wool is not the best I've ever spun but as I'm going to knit it myself I'm not overly concerned.  I'm happy with the shades though.

Here's the fibres, with the spun yarn and also a couple of felt balls just for good measure.  We visited Fibre & Clay in Knutsford which is a wonderful yarn/gallery and well worth a visit. These midnight blue buttons were crying out to be used with this yarn so we'll see what we can do.  I had planned to keep this yarn for myself but it seems to have already been nabbed!

There are new knitting boxes posted on my etsy shop in case your needles and notions are all over the place.  They are beautifully made by a local craftsman who supplies wooden items that we sell in the shop. We're really pleased with them and hope they go to a knitter who will take good care as they have been so well made they deserve a good home!

As well as all this, we've got niddy noddys and lazykates on offer, so have a good look.

The next spinning workshop at Knit-Wise is fully booked but October 15th is available if any of you would like to come along.  Our little guild is still going strong and we're celebrating Wool Week with a cake and a coffee on Tuesday night if you're around.  Bring your knitting, crochet, or whatever woolly thing you're into, we'd love to see you

Knit-Wise
42 Church Street
Ormskirk
Lancs
L39 3AW

01695 580590