A Getaway

This week we went AWOL. It was spur of the moment, book it and go kind of a break. We were supposed to be making a day trip to visit my father-in-law but looked at the weather and thought we'd make a mini-holiday of it.

The five star accommodation...

The bar...

 And most importantly the kids club...

 and plenty of time just being a family.

A great getaway. We all feel relaxed and renewed.

Goodbye to our trusty tent for this year.

Now back to the yarn, hooks and needles and lots of pattern writing and pattern checking.

Talaitha

You may remember back in March I was working with some lovely bright colours

These rainbow colours which will be appearing in Inside Crochet later this month (you may spot the one ball of Flirt DK in there which made the Jess skirt in last month's Inside Crochet too)

And these lovely bright balls of Debbie Bliss Rialto. Lots of people on twitter were keen to know the project but I can only just reveal it. They were for a designer challenge in Knit Now Issue 12 (arriving with subscribers about now and in the shops on Thursday 23rd) 

The challenge was to design with just 100g of the yarn and I realised I could just about squeeze a baby top in with those quantities. Here is the finished result:

Photo: Tim Bradley for Practical Publishing

Its a lovely little make with pretty slipped stitch colour work. At around £11 for the yarn its a great gift idea for a new baby girl. The top is worked seamlessly from the top down on one size of needle, no dpns to worry about as the sleeves are capped. Its written in three sizes ranging from birth to two.

There are lots of other great patterns in this issue so I highly recommend you go out and get it. Knit Now is available in yarn shops, newsagents and the supermarkets.

It is very special that my first magazine published knitting pattern will be in the shops on what would have been my Nanny's birthday as she was the one who taught me to knit and inspired me with her amazing skill.

Joanne

Summer Holidays

Aaaah! The Summer Holidays. No more rushing around on the school run and plenty of quality time with your children.
This is the 30 seconds of quality time before I remembered why I don't do painting with my children.

Still, I am rather proud of my potato printing...

Bright

Today was a day for bright things.

I found a pack of bright bold play mat tiles in the local charity shop (spotted from across the road - killer instinct) Now do you think I will be using them to educate the children or to block my knitting? Really? You know me too well!

And I have been sent some beautiful pea green super chunky yarn for a magazine project - yes folks, this week I am now knitting winter!