One hour outside

I can't believe that half term is almost over. Part of me is secretly a little relieved because it will be good to get back into my 'normal' routine. But part of me resents the fact that school holidays don't bring me the same enjoyment that they used to. I have tried to keep myself occupied, but was let down a couple of times; in the past I would have taken in my stride and possibly even relished the chance of an extra hour or two on my own for a bit of sewing or knitting, but instead it sent me into a slump which I found hard to dig myself out of at times. In an effort to make myself go out and get some fresh air and exercise every day, I've decided to take part in #onehouroutside. It was something I spotted on Twitter and all you have to do is post a photo of part of your hour outside. Here are my first 4 days of June...

June 1st - foxgloves in the woods at Blickling Hall

June 2nd - tree ferns in the gardens of East Ruston Old Vicarage

June 3rd - Bath Abbey

June 4th - a path on the Blickling estate

I expect that my photos will be a bit 'same-y' but I will continue to share them with you each week as it will make me go out and about.

I had a lovely day on Wednesday when I met up with my friend Juliet in London. We went to the Balenciaga exhibition at the V&A, and I can thoroughly recommend going if you get the chance. Some incredible 'engineered' clothes, and so interesting to see how his style has inspired so many other fashion designers.

You might have spotted in the photos above that one of them definitely wasn't in Norfolk! Yesterday I got up incredibly early to catch the 5am train to Bath to take part in a yarn dyeing workshop at A Yarn Story with Daisy from Devon Sun Yarns. It was a brilliant day and I'll share the yarns that I dyed with you another time as they're still drying. But here's a little taster of things to come ...

I had lots of knitting and crochet time on the train; I played yarn chicken and won with a secret crochet project...

and cast on the second of my Lovehearts handspun socks...

While I was at A Yarn Story (a fabulous shop, go take a look) I gathered a couple of goodies for June's Pay it Forward giveaway - a Yarn Story bag, a fun pencil which says 'yarn makes me happy' on it (a treat in my gift bag from the yarn dyeing day) and a pot of coloured stitch markers which will fit needles up to 4.5mm, so perfect for lace or sock knitting. To be in with a chance of winning, all you have to do is to leave me a comment recommending a blog that you enjoy reading - it doesn't need to be a knitting one. The giveaway will be open until midnight on June 30th and I'll use a random number generator to pick the winner after that date. Please make sure it's easy for me to contact you by leaving your Ravelry or Instagram name, or leave some other way for me to get in touch. If I haven't heard from the winner within a week, I'll pick another name. I'm happy to post world-wide, so please enter. And may the random number generator be with you! xxx

ETA A huge thank you to Carmen at A Yarn Story for very generously donating the stitch markers.