Warm for Winter

 Today's theme is a woolly one....a few years ago when i fell in love with knitting  all over again, i stitched a little cross stitch sampler to celebrate my re discovered  knitting joy, inspired by the pleasure of both making something with lovely wool and having a warm and cosy garment to wear at the end of the process.....

 ....the little sampler found its way to Cross Stitch Collection, where it was made into a knitting needle roll by the clever creative design team there, and it was then featured as a project in the magazine.......

.....the Knit and Stitch design has recently become available again to download at the making spot here.....

 .....and i am still happily knitting, this time a fair isle scarf inspired by a pattern  by Martin Storey, using some of my most favourite wool in soft warm colours.....as i'm only doing the fair isle pattern at the ends of the scarf there is a big relaxing stretch of simple stripy knitting in the middle.....

 ....i began this project a few weeks ago and i am taking my time over this scarf as i have so many other things going on too, but there is a little bit of calm each time i pick it up and knit a few rows......

             ........i really think there is nothing so cosy as something hand knitted for winter.......

....these are my weekend flowers , they looked so fresh and pretty i just had to put this picture in too....
I hope you are having a lovely weekend...thanks for popping in here it's lovely to see you....wishing you cosy, cheerful and crafty times  this week.... i'll be back soon xxxxx

Red and White

One of my all time favourite colour combinations - red and white appear together all around my house - often by chance - and in my work. Here are a few:

Pages from the August 2010 Issue of Cross Stitch Collection featuring an extract from my Home Sweet Home book - this is La Maison Rouge, a vintage French-inspired red and white home sampler, stitched on pure white linen.

A pile of cosy cushions - the top one was a project for Crafts Beautiful magazine earlier this year - it has the words Home Sweet Home stamped onto a little label and sewn on.

Of course the retro 50's look has a lot to do with the appearance of red and white spotted items everywhere, especially thanks to the delights produced by Cath Kidston - I'm nowhere near tired of them yet, are you?? I love my cheery tea towels, mugs and my spotty tablecloth in the studio.

I could go on - there are still more r&w things here... but I'll stop now as I want to do some knitting tonight - which is not red and white but a soft grey! x