The Scent of Horses

I adore horses, in fact I have been passionate about them as long as I can remember.

I love their smell...umm I like it almost as much as new born babies which is surely the best smell in the world.

Today Sarah (youngest daughter) and I went on a horse trek not far from where we live.Sarah is home from university in Wellington and especially wanted to do this before she returned to city life. The weather was perfect, the terrain interesting and tricky in places with two river crossings and the horses were cute and not too predictable.

This was definitely something I want to experience many more times in the next few months.When I came home I felt so relaxed and loose, much more so than when I've returned from the physio.

While Sarah has been home she has chosen the wool for a woven blanket that I shall make. I think that this time I am going to try double weave which could be exciting or troubling as I have no idea how to do it. This is the wool choice....

Casting Off

Last week we arrived home from a fantastic holiday in the UK. We spent six weeks there with a few days in Luxembourg as well.

As soon as we arrived in London the first place I wanted to check out was Liberty's of London.

I was not disappointed, the wool that I bought there is Rowan Damask......I knitted this top during the car trips

from the Rowan pattern book No.41...I loved all the patterns here...just wish I had time to knit them all.

Then Ian and I got back on the tube and went to visit Knit1London in Bonnington Square, Vauxhall Gardens. We spent most of the afternoon here...a wonderful shop, and what made it more memorable for me was the fact that my father was born just two doors down in the same street. In an old Georgian house his family of twelve occupied only the top floor (the third floor, and they had the roof for their washing to dry...amongst London's soot and coal dust ).

It is an upmarket part of London now.

From Knit1London I bought hand dyed wool to make these:

First Entry

This is a blog that will tell you how I spend my days...knitting, crochet, weaving and spinning, patchwork quilts and sewing, needlepoint and embroidery .

Playing the violin, poetry reading and favorite books and any other arty things that I discover along the way.

Probably other parts of my life will creep in too....family, grandchildren, food and recipes and gardening. Of course the former things are only what I fit in when I'm not directly involved in the latter.... ( yeh, right....I can hear my children all saying) .

I plan to enjoy it all and I hope you will too.

This is my very first quilt...Grandmother's Flower Garden.

I started it in the early nineties and now have now resurrected it to finish for a very special relative in England. I am handquilting and am halfway through...a lovely way to spend these spring evenings.