Gifts from the heart

The last few days have been very exciting! One of my dearest Ravelry friends, Kim, got married on Thursday and unbeknown to her, a group of her closest knitting friends had been busy knitting away on a beautiful blanket as a wedding gift. Kim is great friends with Anne Hanson, and it was Anne who came up with the design for the blanket. It's based on 12 knitspot patterns and uses Stone Soup DK yarn, which is one of the knitspot range of BareNaked yarns. How we managed to keep it a secret, I will never know! But keep it we did. You can read more about it and see just how beautiful the blanket is here. I cannot wait for the pattern to be released so I can knit my own version. The block I knit was based on one of my favourite of Anne's patterns - the Roger sock.

 

 

 

As well as being part of the blanket giving group, I wanted to give Kim and her new husband Jeff something just from me. A quick search on Ravelry turned up the most perfect pattern - a cushion based on the classic entwined tree motif by Barbara Walker - called Two become One. I used a Rowan Purelife British Sheep Breeds yarn to try and complement the blanket. I found some beautiful pebble buttons from this shop on Etsy and they finish the cushion off perfectly.

 

(Of course Florence had to see what was going on!!)

Yesterday was beautiful, so Mr JK and I headed up to the coast for a beach walk. We usually go to Wells-next-the-Sea, as there is a nice walk along the sea wall to the beach. You can then walk along the beach admiring the beach huts and head back through the pinewoods. The sea mists started coming in a little towards the end of our walk, but it was warm enough to not need a jacket. Bliss! Here's a snapshot of our walk.

 

 

 

 

We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the world. A walk up on the coast never fails to restore a feeling of wellbeing. The garden is also continuing to delight, almost on a daily basis! New blooms are emerging and spring is well and truly here!

 

 

This afternoon Mr JK and I visited one of our favourite gardens - East Ruston Old Vicarage. Today was the first day of the new season, and the warm spring sunshine meant there were a lot of people with the same idea!! The garden is huge though, so there was plenty of space to wander about and explore.

 

 

I took the lady in the ticket shed by surprise by presenting her with a knitted gift - a cowl and a pair of fingerless mitts!! She sits in her hut whatever the weather and so I thought some woollen gifts might go down well!  The mitts use a tucked stitch which I'd not come across before - I do like the effect!

 

 

I am busy counting down the days until the Easter holidays now! Just 5 more gettings up!! I have lots of knitting, spinning and crochet planned. Pop back next time to see what I'm up to! xx

PS Of course there was cake this afternoon at the gardens!! Despite the number of visitors, we managed to secure our slices of cake. Later visitors may well not have been so lucky and I fear that a 'cake crisis' might have arisen!!