All things bright and beautiful....go well with coffee!

Being somewhat disenchanted with one of my other hobbies/blogs (writing....don't get me started!) I thought I'd invest more time in this blog instead! I've a few updates with the on-going projects - more on that later - but first, a bit of indulgence! Well, it is Saturday! ;-)

This morning, daughter and I took a wee ride across the county border (all of about a mile from home!) and visited The Garden Barn for coffee, cake and inspiration.

I've driven past this on many occasions but today was my first visit - and what a treat it was!

So many lovely things to look at - both inside and out!

I think this part was a former milking parlour!

And who wouldn't want to enjoy their morning coffee sitting here.....

.....looking out on this!

Project update:

The red blanket is nearing completion:

 - although I won't get it done before we go on holiday next week, which is a bit of a bummer because I wanted to use the remaindered wool from that and the green blanket to do some crochet granny-squares and that would have been small and easily transported!

Instead, I've picked up something I started a while ago that really needs some attention:

The blue wave wrap is at the half-way stage, and as it's a simple 6-row repeat (4 of which are just plain garter stitch!) it'll be easy enough to take about with me!

The cream lace shawl is still in it's infancy -

 - not even halfway along the border yet! Far too intense and fiddly to cope with distractions, this will have to wait for times of uninterrupted calm and quietness, as I count the rows!

In the meantime, I've also been experimenting:

These coasters were crafted from some soft string! I'm thinking of trying them out in dishcloth-cotton - they'd be easy to wash!

So - plenty to keep me going, as you can see! ;-)

Distractions.....

I'm ploughing my way through the pink charity blanket - mindless knitting for in front of the TV but I needed another challenge. I spotted the crocheted 'ripple' on Roo Knits blog - and she kindly pointed me in the direction of Lucy at Attic24 - wherein she descibes( in very easy instructions!) how to achieve this ripple effect!

Needless to say, I couldn't wait to have a go - here my test 'sampler :

This was using the leftovers from the green charity blanket - I might use up the remnants from the pink one when that's finished......!


........and onto further distractions! I happened to rest my gaze upon one of my stash boxes this morning and noticed some cream 3ply I bought ages ago with a vague idea of knitting something fine.

On Ravelry I found this - called 'My Heaven', by Patusha.

So, I've started the outer lace edge.......followed the instructions to the letter and after pinning it out to see, I think it matches the original (although that was in blue and seems a much finer yarn, even though the pattern says 3ply......!)

No doubt there will be many more 'distractions' along the way.......!