Needles and Pins

Does anyone else get the urge to 'make' when the weather improves? I don't know what it is but as the seasons change I want to do different things. In the winter I like nothing more that curling up in front of a roaring fire, knitting with some lovely chunky wool. In the autumn, I'm love making preserves and getting things ready for Christmas. In the summer I like to be decorating, weather that be outside painting fences and sheds or if it's raining, inside either a complete re-paint or just freshening up walls and doors, and of course baking when the Hens go into egg laying over drive. Which brings me onto Spring.....a bit of a mixture, knitting with some finer wools or cottons, sewing or out in the garden getting things ready for the summer.

This year I've decided to completely change the decor in the Kitchen, I'm lucky as OH just lets me get on with whatever I want to change it to. At the moment it is terracotta, but hopefully by the summer it will be Laura Ashley pale eau de nil and cream. I've been busy collecting and making accessories to go with it and have gone a bit over the top.....making dish cloths to match.


The camera hasn't really done these colours justice.....or is that the photographer?! I've knitted these in Patons DK cotton in cream and Kiwi.

I don't know if I should actually have knitted in 4 ply, but as we don't have any actual wool shops around here anymore, I had to take what I could get in Hobby Craft.

Up until about 4 years ago there were 3 wool shops in town, but they all closed down within months of each other. It now means a 50 mile round trip to the nearest wool shop in a little market town, which is fine if you are buying wool for a jumper and want to see the colours in 'real life' but is rather excessive if you only want a couple of balls of cotton as I did. It means now buying off the internet and hoping that the colours and feel are what you want.....and it doesn't help with someone like me who decides to make something and wants to start now, not wait for Mr Postie.

Again the colours haven't come out well, but these hearts are in Laura Ashley Polka Dot cotton in Eau de Nil and Linen. They don't look much flat and unstuffed, but I hope they will look much better when they are filled with dried lavender. Yep I'm going to have to wait for Mr Postie again to finish them.

I thought I'd make them into a hanging to either go on the wall or hang from the door.

I know this is meant to be a cake stand....the one that No 1 bought me for mother's day, but I have so many eggs at the moment that I thought it would make a brilliant egg stand. I'd better get baking I think!

Isn't he clever, or rather his girlfriend! for choosing it in the cream and eau de nil to match the kitchen.